Search results for: "Attention"

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  2. Focus on the Doing
     … It’s in paying full attention to what you’re doing: That’s when you start seeing the subtler things of the mind. This is why intentness is one of what they call bases of power or the bases of success in the practice: You give yourself totally to what you’re doing. The other factors in the list work around this. In other … 
  3. Agreements to Perceive
     … The way you label the breath, the way you label states of mind as they happen, the way you label what’s important and what’s not important to pay attention to: These are all major issues in the meditation. I remember, when I was studying with Ajaan Fuang, that things would happen in my meditation that I’d get all excited about: “This … 
  4. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … You really want to pay close attention to what you’re doing. If the meditation starts getting mechanical or automatic, pretty soon you’re going to be off someplace else, and you won’t know how you got there. You want to pay very careful attention to how things are going. Then again, there’s your ability to analyze to see what’s working … 
  5. Dichotomies
     … The two really important name factors are intention and attention. This is where the issue of skillful and unskillful plays itself out most clearly in dependent co-arising. With attention, it’s the way you look at things. There are skillful ways of looking at things and unskillful ways. The skillful ways have to do with looking at things in terms of cause and … 
  6. When Things Regress
     … Try to remember what’s important to remember right now and what’s important to forget right now, where you pay your attention. Alertness is not all about being alert to whatever is coming up in the present moment. It’s focused precisely on: What are you doing in the present moment? The other people in the room may be running around, but what … 
  7. An Issue of Control
     … There’s attention, the things you pay attention to; perception, how you label things; the intention itself; and then the contact among all these things. This contact is what spurs you to act. You see things in a particular way. You’re focusing on a particular issue, and you’re going to act in line with that. Now, the Buddha says the most useful … 
  8. What We’re Here to See
     … Focus your attention there and try to keep it there. The fact that you’re trying to keep it there gives you something to measure its movements against—because it will move. That’s been its habit for who knows how long. But all too often it moves without really being clear about which direction it’s going, and where it’s been. It … 
  9. The Heart of the Teachings
     … At first you pay attention to what’s inconstant about what’s burdening the mind. In seeing its inconstancy, you also see where it’s stressful, where it’s not-self, where it’s not worth holding onto, not worth identifying with. And so you develop dispassion for it. From dispassion, there’s the cessation of that particular problem. And then you abandon the … 
  10. Patterns to Happiness
     … One is directed thought., when you direct your thoughts, you direct your attention, to a particular object. The second is evaluation. You evaluate the object to see what’s working in the sense of getting the mind to settle down. For instance, when you’re focused on the breath, you can play with the breath in different ways: long in, long out, short in … 
  11. A Meditation Karma Checklist
     … This means really paying attention to the breath and trying to be on top of the mind when it begins to wander off. Be really intent on what you’re doing. Don’t just go through the motions. If the breath gets mechanical and your awareness gets mechanical, pretty quickly you’re going to lose interest. So remind yourself that you’re here to … 
  12. As Days & Nights Fly Past, Fly Past
     … When you’re listening to a Dhamma talk, how do you listen? Do you listen attentively, single-mindedly? Give it your full attention, and if there’s anything of value, try to memorize it. As you memorize it, you think it over, see how it fits in with what you’ve learned so far, because when you see that it fits, that’s when … 
  13. The Mind Comes First
     … We tend not to notice them, but the Buddha’s calling our attention to them. He says that the mind is the forerunner of all things. Everything you experience comes from the fact that the mind is already moving out to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, think about things. In other words, what you bring to experience is going to have a huge impact … 
  14. Respect
     … When you respect something, you pay full attention. You really notice what you’re doing. You’ve really got to be alert. You’ve really got to be mindful. And you’ve got to be ardent. You really put your heart into what you’re doing. You may have noticed those three qualities were mentioned in the chant just now, the analysis of the … 
  15. Strategic Friends
    Gather your attention right here at the breath. Take a couple of good long, deep breaths and see where you notice the sensation of breathing most strongly. It could at the nose, could be at the chest, the abdomen, shoulders, wherever the sensation tells you very clearly that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. Then allow the breath … 
  16. Analyzing the Breath
     … So, if you find that the breath is boring, it’s because, one, you’re not paying attention; and two, you’re not asking the right questions. You’re assuming lots of things you don’t really know about the body in the present moment. Learn how to question those assumptions. Is the body as solid as it seems? Certain sensations of tension or … 
  17. Right Mindfulness
     … Alert means you’re watching what you are doing, paying close attention to what you’re doing and the results you’re getting. And then of course mindful , keeping the body in mind. Putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world means that any time you might switch your frame of reference back to the world, you try to remind yourself, No … 
  18. The Buddha’s Protection
     … As he says, you apply appropriate attention to every situation you encounter. It’s not that each present moment is totally brand new or unheard of. It may be a new moment, but it falls under the same patterns that all the other moments of the past have fallen under. In other words, it’s a mixture of your past actions and your present … 
  19. The Stairway Up
     … Bring all your powers of attention to bear right there. And be glad that you’ve got the opportunity to practice. Don’t view it as drudgery. A lot of people are in situations where they have no inclination, have no idea what the practice is about. Or they may have an idea and the inclination but they don’t have the opportunity. Here … 
  20. The Skill of Patience
     … In this case you say, “Okay go ahead and chatter, but I’m not going to pay any attention.” It’ll say some outrageous things for a while to get your attention. But if you’re really persistent, if you have some patience, it’ll start to wear down. A lot of the results in the meditation come slowly—or they come suddenly, but … 
  21. Potentials Past & Present
     … But the Buddha found that by focusing attention on his breath, breathing in different ways to help the mind to settle down—energizing it when it needs energizing, calming it when it needs calming—that was his path to awakening. So there’s a lot of potential right here. Take some time to explore it. This is in line with the principle that he … 
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