Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Lessons from the Breath
    Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Know when the breath is coming in, know when it’s going out. If you want, you can use a meditation word along with the breath, like buddho. It means awake. Think bud- with in-breath, dho with the out-: buddho, buddho. Allow the breath to be comfortable. Try not to force it too much. You … 
  3. Weathering Karma Storms
     … bodily fabrication—the breath; verbal fabrication—the way you talk to yourself; and mental fabrication—the perceptions you hold in mind together with the feelings you focus on. These are the things that provide you with a safe shelter right now. So, first try to work with your breath. No matter what emotional content there may be in the thoughts that are coming through … 
  4. Occupy Your Body
     … When you’re looking at somebody’s face, what’s the shape of the area between the nose and the eye? Or between the nose and the lips? The lips and the chin? Or the eye and the eyebrow? In other words, focus on all the parts of the face that you didn’t focus on before, and that lets you see it more … 
  5. Perceptions as Targets
    When you focus on the breath, try to be sensitive to the image you hold in mind of what the breath is doing, and of where you are when you focus on it. Use those images as your targets to help keep you with the breath. And notice the impact that those particular perceptions have on your breathing. If you find that the breathing … 
  6. Befriending the Breath
     … So it’s not the case that you focus on the breath and then you forget about it. You use the breath as an anchor even when you’re focusing on the mind. The way to focus on the mind is first to get it anchored to the breath and in touch with the breath, so that you know you’re staying in the … 
  7. Start by Relaxing Your Hands
     … So you’re going to focus on the causes. It’s like cooking. If all you can think about is eating, then you’re not paying careful attention to what you’re doing. The food may burn, or you may forget an ingredient because you’re not paying careful attention to the steps that’ll take you to the food you want. So focus … 
  8. A Load of Straw
     … So your only responsibility to the world is to focus on doing what’s skillful. That’s all you have to take care of. As for the working out of everybody else’s karma, that will work out on its own without your having to get involved. Just make sure that your own present karma is skillful. One thing you can do that’s … 
  9. Mind Control
    Okay, time to focus on the breath. If you’re going to think, think about the breath. As for any other thoughts that might come into the mind right now, just let them go, no matter how important or how compelling they may seem. This is not the time and a place for them. One of the most important principles of the practice is … 
  10. Varieties of Mindfulness
     … So that’s where we focus our attention. That’s what we should keep in mind. This is called dhammanussati, keeping the Dhamma in mind. This is why the Buddha has us listen to the Dhamma, read the Dhamma, because the Dhamma contains all sorts of useful and encouraging ideas. For instance, there’s the passage where the Buddha is talking to his son … 
  11. In Alignment
     … And you have to be careful not to focus on them. As I was saying today, it’s like a sign on the side of a road. It says, “Now entering Valley Center.” But you don’t drive on the sign. You keep on the road. You notice that the sign is there, but you don’t focus on it. The same holds true … 
  12. Effective Self-Discipline
     … You realize that if you want results, you have to focus your energy on the causes. You have to focus your attention on them and get them right. Right now the causes are being mindful of the breath, being alert to the breath, and being ardent as you stick with the breath. Those are the issues you focus on. Sometimes it seems paradoxical. On … 
  13. Goodwill Is Respect
     … by the way you breathe, by the way you talk to yourself, by the perceptions you hold in mind, and the feelings you focus on. Be careful as you focus on the feelings, because if you generate a feeling of ease and then leave the breath and just focus on the ease, that’s going to last for a little while and then start … 
  14. Is the Buddha’s Wisdom Selfish?
     … You might ask, “This focus on your happiness and your suffering: Isn’t this selfish? Isn’t this a small goal compared to larger goals you can think of, such as working for the good of other beings?” Well, not according to the Buddha’s analysis of what suffering is and how happiness is found. Because one of the answers to the question, “What … 
  15. Your Duty Lies Right Here
     … When the Buddha talked about gaining penetrating insight into arising and passing away, the *penetrating *there is the word you have to focus on. When you penetrate into these things, you realize what kind of causes they come from, what they lead to—and again, whether they’re skillful or not. You also realize what should be done if they’re skillful, and what … 
  16. The Buddha’s Letter
     … And you can choose which of those to focus on. For example, when there’s intense pain, you focus on the body. Remember: The body’s one thing, the feeling is something else. Your awareness is something else. They can occupy the same place right here, but when you can see that they’re separate right here, that’s your protection. You tune into … 
  17. Skilled in Aims
     … You focus the mind on a pleasure that has nothing to do with sensuality. In fact, it’s when the mind gets past sensual thoughts, secluded from sensual thoughts and secluded from all types of unskillful dhammas—unskillful qualities from wrong view all the way up through wrong mindfulness—that you lift the level of your mind. You give it a good foundation inside … 
  18. Messaging Your Mind
     … One is to focus on the sensation of breathing in and of itself. In other words, you’re not going to think about the breath in relationship to anything else at all, just the breath feels as it comes in, how it feels as it goes out. The second activity is to put aside any interest in the world outside. No matter how wonderful … 
  19. At Home in Your Own Skin
     … This is why you focus on the breath, because the breath, of all the different elements and properties in the body, is the one that’s closest to the mind. And it’s the one you can use to adjust all the other properties so that you feel at home. Adjusting the breath is like knowing how to run a thermostat in your home … 
  20. All-around Knowing
     … So you start right around the navel and focus on that section of the abdomen as the whole area you’re going to work with. Pay attention there and notice how the breathing feels there. If there’s any tension or tightness in that part of the body, allow it to relax, because the tension is what blocks the breath energy. When you work … 
  21. Body Contemplation Is Compassionate
     … So you learn how to focus on those. And here again, perceptions and intentions are going to play a huge role when you pass away. You want to be able to question your perceptions, question your intentions, and not just run with whatever comes through the mind. So these contemplations are really valuable. They give you alternative themes to focus on when the breath … 
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