Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Responsible for Your Goodness
     … the ability to drop all your other concerns and focus on what really is your responsibility, which is the shape of your mind. It’s so easy for us to talk about how we’re responsible for things outside, and that is part of our goodness. But where does that goodness come from? If you’re responsible for things outside and yet are doing … 
  3. Delusion Concentration
     … Both of these conditions depend on the focus of your mind on the breath, alert and mindful. You don’t want to drop your alertness; you don’t want to drop your mindfulness, because that’s what happens in delusion concentration. You’re not very alert and you really forget what you’re doing and so you slip into the pleasure. You always want … 
  4. Intense Stillness
     … Or you can try moving your point of focus around: three breaths at the nose, three breaths at the base of the throat, three breaths at the center of the chest, three breaths down at the abdomen, and so on. Or you can change the topic for a while. You can think about the bones in your body. Start with the bones at the … 
  5. An Auspicious Day
     … Because there does come a stage in the meditation where the in-and-out breathing stops; there’s no air moving in or moving out, but there is a sense of energy in the body, and that will be your focus at that point. So get used to focusing here. As you find a place where the breath is especially clear, stay there. And … 
  6. The World of the Body
     … Try to focus as much attention as possible on those sensations and keep your attention continuous. You’ll begin to see that little tendency to move off. As you learn to look for it, you can learn to say No to it. As you learn to say No to it, you start learning lots of important lessons about the mind. This is why concentration … 
  7. Looking Off to the Side
     … first the four jhanas, then the four formlessnesses that you can develop based on the fourth jhana, as interim goals that you can actually focus on in making the mind more sensitive. This is the important part of the practice: making the mind more sensitive to what’s going on. All the things you need to know about awakening are right here. Even the … 
  8. No-Tech Meditation
     … When you get to the fourth jhana, the breath energy gets more full in the body because of the steadiness of your focus, undisturbed by thoughts about the world. You get to the point where even the in-and-out breathing stops. You could pursue this through the formless jhanas, and get to the point where mental fabrications—perceptions and feelings— stop as well … 
  9. Stepping Out of the Waves
     … It does have its solid aspects, but you don’t have to focus on them. Focus more on the sense of its being energy that can flow in any direction, that has no barriers, no boundaries. When you can think in this way, it’s a lot easier for the mind to settle down. Then, when things come up, you can just watch them … 
  10. Sensitive to the Breath
    When you focus on the breath, you want to be friends with the breath, which means that you have to be friendly to the breath. The breath just sits there, comes in and goes out, and pretty much responds to your activities, the activities of the mind. And there is a part of the body that tends to be shy: feelings in certain parts … 
  11. Riding an Elephant to Catch Grasshoppers
     … What do meditators do? They focus on their minds.” The same with your world view: Think about your worldview until you get to the point where the narrative tells you that the important people in the world are the ones who focus in on their minds. There’s a nice passage in one of Ajaan Maha Boowa’s Dhamma talks, where he wrote a … 
  12. Birth Is Suffering
     … And only a very well-trained mind can be sure to focus on the skillful things at the moment of death and rebirth—and what you focus on is what creates a state of becoming. There will be a desire of one form or another. Around the focal point of that desire, there will form either a world—the world in which that object … 
  13. Not-self in Context
     … So right now your choice is, “Where are you going to focus?” Okay, focus on the breath. “What are you going to do with the breath?” Try to make it comfortable. “Once it’s comfortable what are you going to do?” Well, see if you can maximize that comfort, make it steady, and then allow it to spread so that the whole body feels … 
  14. Concentration Isn’t Dumb
     … Even though you’re getting the mind into concentration, they’re still going on, simply that you’re changing their focus. Focus on this: How do you change your breath so that it’s more enjoyable? How do you change your inner conversation so that it’s more willing to settle down and take an interest in the breath? This whole issue about the … 
  15. Skills for Dying Well
     … If there are pains here or there, don’t focus on the pains. Focus on the parts of the body that you can make comfortable, because you want a place where you can feel good staying, and not be tempted to just float out after any thought that comes through. Whatever thinking you do, make it centered in the breath and the mind’s … 
  16. Steps in Concentration
     … So focus on the conditions, focus on the causes: being ardent, alert, and mindful. Those three qualities will play different roles as your concentration develops. They’re all right here, it’s just that their role gets more and more subtle. Your work is to make it more continuous. Because when things are really still like this, that’s when you can see subtle … 
  17. Focused on Results
     … So we do focus on results. We focus on acting in a skillful way and learning from the results of our actions. That’s how the Buddha found awakening, and that’s how we’re all going to find our own awakening: by being very clear about what we’re doing, the results we’re getting, and what we can do better. So in … 
  18. The Five Strengths
     … So try to focus more attention on the breath. Notice how it feels when it comes in, how it feels when it goes out. You can focus your attention on the breath at any spot in the body where it’s clear: now the breath is coming in; now the breath is going out. Allow that spot to be relaxed and comfortable. Notice what … 
  19. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … The noble truths focus on suffering and stress, but there in the fourth noble truth, at the heart of the truth, is right concentration, and one of its factors is bliss or pleasure, happiness. Another one is rapture. This is why, when we talk about practicing the Dhamma, the focus is on practicing concentration, getting the mind to settle down, having a sense of … 
  20. The Right Place to Look
     … And then you won’t have anything at all.” When we focus on the breath, it’s not just for the breath. When the Buddha gives instructions on how to deal with the breath, he talks not only about bodily fabrication, which is the breath, but also about verbal fabrication, i.e., the way you talk to yourself: When you tell yourself to breathe … 
  21. A Simple Path Through a Complex Map
     … If it’s too complex, you’re overwhelmed with details and don’t know where to start or what to focus on. If it’s too simple, things that are actually important sometimes just get ignored. So you can imagine the Buddha making a map of the mind, or the workings of the mind—the challenge he faced because the mind is very complex … 
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