Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Life in the Buddha’s Hospital
     … Your whole mind becomes the world as well when you start focusing outside. “This person does that, this person does this”: That’s the world, even if you use the categories of the Dhamma to judge the person. You’ve taken the Dhamma and you’ve turned it into the world. So you’ve got to keep your gaze focused inside. In other words … 
  3. Tapping into the Breath
    Tapping into the Breath July 17, 2017 Time and again, I say—when you’re focusing on the breath—to remember that the breath is not so much the air coming in and out of the lungs, as it is a flow of energy in the body. One of those flows is the flow that allows the air to come in and out. The … 
  4. Attahi Attano Natho
     … Like right here, focusing on your breath: No one else can focus your mind on the breath. I can stay here and keep repeating over and over again, “Stay with the breath, stay with the breath,” but that doesn’t focus your mind on the breath. It gives you an idea of maybe what to do, but it’s up to you to exercise … 
  5. 1. The Entertaining Breath
     … He heard that Ajaan Lee was focusing on the breath as his main topic for teaching meditation, and this particular ajaan said, “What is there to see in the breath? It’s just in and out. How can you gain any insight there?” And Ajaan Lee replied, “If that’s all you see, then that’s all there is.” It depends on what you … 
  6. Hold on to Right View
    We’re here focusing on the present moment, watching the breath in the present moment, watching the mind in the present moment. What’s the theory behind that? Why are we doing this? After all, there’s not much here, while there are so many other issues out in the world right now. Why are we focusing here? It’s because the choices you … 
  7. Contentment
     … So be clear as to where your contentment should be focused and where your discontent should be focused. If you see that you’re still engaging in unskillful thoughts or you’re still causing stress in one way or another to your own mind, that’s an area where you should not be content. You want to figure out what you’re doing wrong … 
  8. The Desire for Freedom
     … You learn how to hone it in so that it’s focused on the potential causes as the Buddha has laid them out. This is where we have the advantage that he didn’t have: We’ve got the teachings laying these things out for us. We’ve got the reports of all the noble disciples that, Yes, what the Buddha taught is true … 
  9. Analysis of Qualities
     … Appropriate attention is basically learning how to ask the right questions, focused on the issue of what you’re doing and the results of what you’re doing. The Buddha himself said he got on the right path by noticing that he could divide his thoughts into two sorts: those imbued with sensuality, ill will, or cruelty on the one hand, and those imbued … 
  10. Mindfulness & Perception
     … Just focus your attention on the breath, and the mind’s old habits of focusing will do that. There will be an arrow and, for the least little while, the ability to remember. But then you forget. You drop the perception. It may take you a while before you come back. This is where you need to know exactly what the mechanics are, so … 
  11. Admirable Friendship
     … It means focusing on the right things, focusing on the right issues, asking yourself the right questions. And particularly, seeing things in terms of the four noble truths. That’s pretty radical. We hear the term four noble truths so often that we don’t stop to think about what a radical teaching they are. They’re a guideline for how to look at … 
  12. Rehab Work
     … You begin to notice how the feelings created by focusing on the breath have an impact on the mind. You also notice how the perceptions of what’s happening in the breathing process have an impact both on the mind and on the way you breathe. You try to calm all of that down. Then you look at the state of your mind. Is … 
  13. Throughout the Day
     … Over time, as you’re sitting here, you can get more and more continually focused on the breath. The same principle applies outside. As you’re walking around, as you’re taking on duties, the mind will slip off and forget itself. So as soon as you remember, just come right back to the breath. Here you may want to use a shorthand version … 
  14. Right Resolve & Right Speech
     … What’s the mind focused on? There will be times when it’ll be embarrassed to admit to itself what it really wants to think about. But if you’ve gotten into the habit of speaking truthfully outside, it’s going to be a lot easier to be truthful inside. Part of this relates to the Buddha’s instructions to Rahula at the very … 
  15. Study & Practice
     … The frames of reference are the body in and of itself, like we’re doing right now focusing on the breath; feelings in and of themselves, i.e., feelings of pleasure, pain, neither-pleasure-nor-pain; mind-states in and of themselves, noticing, say, whether the mind is overcome by passion or is free of passion, overcome by aversion or free of aversion or … 
  16. Mindful of Karma
     … But you can change where you’re focusing right now and what you’re doing with your focus. This is where attention and intention come in, and where they’re very important. As for whether things are going well or not, on the one hand that’s predictable and on the other hand it’s not: predictable in the sense that there are some … 
  17. Karma & the Sublime Attitudes
    Try to maintain the intention to stay focused on your breath. What this means is that as distractions come up, you have a choice. You can go with the distraction or you can stay with the breath. So keep reminding yourself that staying with the breath will accomplish a lot more. The distractions may be interesting, they may be entertaining, they may insist on … 
  18. How Completion is Found
     … So you’ve got to develop a good comfortable spot, your spot inside the body someplace, where it feels comfortable to stay focused. And you learn how much pressure is too much pressure and how much is not enough: to get to the point of “just right.” All of this means trying to be skillful. And that means trying to learn from your actions … 
  19. Control
    When the Buddha first talked about the concept of not-self, he focused on the issue of control, because basically that’s what our sense of self comes down to— the things we can control in life: the happiness we can create, and the things we use to create happiness, create pleasure, create a sense of well-being for ourselves and sometimes for the … 
  20. The Uses of Pleasure & Pain
     … But buried down in number four, the path, you find the most important factor of the path, right concentration, which involves getting the mind focused on the breath with a sense of ease and rapture. This rapture comes from seclusion: seclusion here meaning that you’re not thinking about past, not thinking about the future, you’re right here with the present moment. Things … 
  21. A Wilderness Mind at Home
     … So while you’re here, try to stay focused on this quality of seclusion, not only physical seclusion, getting away from other people, but also mental seclusion. You don’t have to pal around with your thoughts of past or future. Try to be right here. That’s why we focus on the breath. When you’re with the breath, you know you’re … 
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