Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 37
  2. Don’t Hang Around Your Corpse
     … In the forest tradition, the ajaans focus on the two contemplations in the Satipatthana Sutta having to do with the unattractiveness of the body. On the one hand, you can go through the body’s 32 parts. It’s 31 parts in the Canon; the Commentary adds the brain. On other hand, there’s the contemplation of the different stages of decomposition that the … 
  3. Rooted in Desire
     … the way you talk to yourself—what the Buddha calls directed thought and evaluation*—*as you focus your thoughts on a topic and then make comments about it, ask questions, answer the questions. Then there’s mental fabrication: perceptions and feelings. Perceptions are the labels you put on things, the images you use to identify what they are and what their meaning is. Then … 
  4. The Mind Undefined
     … In other words, focus your sense of what you are on the things that are really worth desiring. As the Buddha said, we really do define ourselves by our desires, so define yourself around good desires. If we have too clear a notion of what we are as an entity beforehand, it gets in the way of our seeing how mercurial our identities are … 
  5. Mindfulness Immersed in the Breath
     … The method of last resort is to clench your teeth, press the tip of your tongue way up in the roof of your mouth, and just tell yourself, “I will not think that thought.” As you focus on the tension of having the tongue way up in your the roof of your mouth, it makes it difficult to think anything much at all. That … 
  6. A Slave to Craving
     … You focus here on the breath, you become acquainted with the breath to the point where you realize that you can breathe in all kinds of ways, and some of the ways are really gratifying, physically and mentally. It feels good to breathe in, feels good to breathe out. The more intense the pleasure that comes from this, the more the mind is willing … 
  7. Balance & Release
     … Advanced Practice Balance & Release January 27, 2011 When we focus the mind on the breath, we can observe both of them. Ideally, it’s good to be able to observe both of them together. Although some people find it easier to observe the breath, others find it easier to observe the mind. But it’s important to be able to watch them as they … 
  8. Freedom
    We’ve got a whole hour now to focus totally on the breath. There’s nothing else you have to think about, there are no other responsibilities, just be with the breath. Notice how it feels when it comes in, notice how it feels when it goes out. Notice which parts the body are involved in the breathing process, and which ones aren’t … 
  9. Knowing the Body from Within
     … When you find yourself in a bad mood, don’t immediately focus on how bad things are outside. Don’t focus on the object of the mood; focus instead on the mood itself, realizing that it comes from something wrong with how the mind and the body are interacting. Learn to look inside, and not take the mind’s comments on the world outside … 
  10. Damming & Diverting
     … Do you want to do that? How else can you look at the situation? What else can you focus on? If you’re focusing on how horrible that person is, change the focus. Look for that person’s good qualities. And the Buddha gives you a perception to help with that—lots of different ways of perceiving it, actually. One of them is that … 
  11. Prepare to Die
     … I once heard someone say that you shouldn’t focus on the breath as your meditation topic, because after all, at death you’re going to leave the breath and then where will you be? Well, we focus on the breath not to get the breath. It’s because the breath leads us into the mind. It’s the closest physical process there is … 
  12. Breath Energies
     … So you focus on the breath as you experience it. If you can’t yet experience the more subtle levels of breathing, focus on the levels you can experience. Stay with those. Because it’s the staying that makes the mind still, and it’s the stillness that makes the other, more subtle things apparent. But always be aware that there’s more to … 
  13. Signs Along the Road
    In the Canon, when they talk about the nimitta of concentration, they’re referring to the theme you focus on. In the passages that describe it, the themes are the four establishings of mindfulness: remaining focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. The same with feelings in and of themselves … 
  14. Abandoning Effluents (1)
     … Why bother? Why bother being skillful if there’s nobody here to suffer? So it’s best to leave those questions unanswered, and to focus instead on seeing the skillfulness of your actions as really being important, because your actions will make the difference. They can make you suffer or they can end suffering. They can tie you down or they can free you … 
  15. Basic Meditation Instructions
     … With that thought in mind, focus on your breath. Know when the breath is coming in, know when it’s going out. Each time it comes in, each time it goes out. That’s called the mind in position. Getting it there is not difficult. The difficulty lies in keeping it there. The same with the body: Sitting down for a few minutes in … 
  16. Succeeding at Happiness
     … We’re choosing to get the mind to focus on one thing. It’s okay to want the path to happen, to want the mind to settle down. It’s all part of right effort: generating the desire to get rid of unskillful qualities and to develop skillful ones. So desire is a legitimate part of the practice. Of course, you want to focus … 
  17. Animals in the Mind
     … Usually, when we focus on something we’re looking at, something we’re hearing, we blot out our awareness of the body to focus on the sight or the sound or whatever else the sensory input might be. So as you focus on the breath, you’re trying to reopen that awareness of the body, work your awareness through the body, be aware of … 
  18. The Intelligence of Restraint
     … Restraint of the senses is where you decide what you’re going to take in, what you’re not going to take in; what you’re going to focus on, what you’re not going to focus on. Moderation in speech, again, is further restraint of what you say. There are a lot of things you could say that would not break the precepts … 
  19. The Dualistic Path
     … So what happens when you change the perceptions? One of the most interesting ways of dealing with this issue is to focus on space. As the body gets still, the breath gets still, your sense of the boundary on the outside of the body begins to disappear. You’re sitting here in a mist of sensations, like the droplets of mist outside right now … 
  20. A Boxing Lesson
     … What you’ve got to do is learn to grow cold, focus on what you have to do: Take the other guy out.” Galen learned his lesson and was able to defend himself at school. This is a story I like to tell in Buddhist centers because it shocks people, but it teaches an important Dhamma lesson. It’s very similar to the lesson … 
  21. Inner Wealth Management
     … As for using your wealth, you do want to focus on the breath in such a way that gives rise to a sense of pleasure. Actively cultivate that. Don’t be afraid of getting stuck on the pleasure of concentration, because you have to get stuck here first so that you can pull away your attachments to unskillful thoughts: thoughts of sensuality, thoughts of … 
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