Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Questioning Your Conviction
     … In other words, you take this mind, which is so quick to change, and you try to keep it focused on one thing continually. You take this body, which has its aches and pains, which, when you sit for long periods of time, usually can get very stiff, and you learn how to sit for a long period of time with a sense of … 
  3. Anapanasati Day
     … You may be focusing on the body or focusing on feelings but it’s hard to be exclusively focused on them. After all, there are connections among these things. An important part of seeing these things as dhammas is to see the connections. So it’s simply matter of which frame of reference is primary, the one that you hold to as your basic … 
  4. Things as They Function
     … Where are they coming from? Where are they going? How do we do it? We learn not by focusing directly on the mind to begin with. We give the mind something else to focus on and then we watch the mind as it’s focused. This is why we have the training in the precepts, training in concentration, training in discernment. The Buddha’s … 
  5. Things Don’t Have to Be This Way
     … When the power of the mind is focused, it has a lot of strength. Like the light of the sun: It shines down on a piece of paper and it doesn’t burn the paper. But if you take a magnifying glass and get the focal point just right, you can focus the light of the sun and burn the paper up. It’s … 
  6. Your Higher Power
    When we meditate on the breath, we’re focusing not only on the in-and-out breath, but also on the flow of breath energies in different parts of the body. You try to get the in-and-out breath comfortable. Ask yourself what kind of rhythm would feel good right now. And experiment for a while until you find something that does feel … 
  7. Ultimate Reality
     … That’s what we’re focusing on here as we meditate. We’re focusing on our karma, our intentions. As he said, “Karma is the intention.” For the moment, we’re trying to make our intentions one: Stay with the breath. You learn best about your intentions if you try to hold on to one intention. Then you see what other intentions come in … 
  8. To Comprehend Pain
     … So yes, we’re trying to get the mind past the pain, and we’re focusing on what we can do to help in that direction. In some cases, you work with the elements in the body: the breath, the warmth, the liquid, the solid parts of the body. Bring them into balance, especially using the breath. It’s going to be the main … 
  9. Equanimity in Action, Equanimity at Rest
     … You extend equanimity to everything that’s not related to what you’re trying to accomplish right now, but keep your desire for change focused on what you’re doing. When you understand this point, you avoid a lot of the misunderstandings that come up around equanimity. As the Buddha said, equanimity is not always appropriate. If you simply develop equanimity while you’re … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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