Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Right Questions in the Right Order
    There’s a version of quantum mechanics that focuses less on the nature of reality out there and more on the process of how you try to find answers about reality, the questions you ask. As they say, depending on what you want to know, you have to learn how to ask the right questions and in the right order. It’s kind of … 
  3. Fabricated Path, Unfabricated Goal
     … What we’re trying to develop here is a state of mind where you’re still and focused but, at the same time, your awareness is all-around. The focus is so that you can see things precisely. The all-aroundness is so that you can see things out of the corner of your eye that you might otherwise have missed. There’s stuff … 
  4. Death Is Normal
     … His first question for Ajaan Fuang was that he was a Christian; was that going to be any obstacle in his meditation? Ajaan Fuang said, “No, we’re going to be focusing on the breath. The breath doesn’t belong to Christianity; it doesn’t belong to Buddhism. It belongs to everybody. It’s common property all over the world.” When you focus on … 
  5. Relating to Results
     … As when you’re focusing on the breath right here, right now: If you’re focusing in a way that makes the breath constricted, you want to know. And don’t just blame it on the breath, saying that breath meditation is not a good method, or placing the blame in other places. You can change the way you focus, you can change the … 
  6. Observe Your Concentration
     … How about focusing on the state of mind when it goes? Now, sometimes you’re not able to maintain your balance that way, so you go back to where you were before. But when you find that you can maintain your balance in the new, more subtle level, you go for it. You keep this up all the time. Settle in, then watch. Look … 
  7. The Kindness of Body Contemplation
     … Like the breath we’re focusing on right now: How does the breath feel right now? Where do you feel the breath? Where does the breath flow smoothly? Where does it not flow smoothly? If it’s not flowing smoothly, where are the patterns of tension in the body that get in the way? How can you dissolve them? These are things you can … 
  8. The River Gauge
     … You’re not focusing on the things that are hard, the things that are difficult to bear. You keep in mind the things that are positive. Does that feel artificial? Well, every new habit feels artificial to begin with. I was listening to a Dhamma talk by an ajaan the other day, saying that if you have an attitude that you’re here trying … 
  9. Right Now
     … But if you learn to look at those thoughts, you’ll see that it’s stressful and painful to keep focusing on them. Then look at the gratification of thinking about those things: Exactly what gratification do you get out of it? Then you compare the gratification with the stress that’s caused, and you see that it’s not worth it. Even though … 
  10. Looking After Yourself
    The Buddha’s last words were to reach completion in the practice by being heedful, which focuses attention on the word heedful. It’s important to notice who he was talking to. The text tells us that all the monks in the assembly were at the very least stream-enterers, in other words, people who’d had their first taste of awakening, their first … 
  11. Focus on Your Intention
     … the breath that you’re focusing on; the feeling of pleasure you’re trying to create by the way you focus; the perception of the breath as a whole-body process that helps you stay with the breath and helps that feeling of pleasure to spread through the body; the fabrication, the directed thought and evaluation by which you adjust the breath, adjust the … 
  12. Path & Goal
     … Then you can drop the directed thought and evaluation, and can be nourished by the sense of ease, the sense of rapture that come from being focused. As long as you need that rapture to give you energy, you stick with it. There will come a time, though, when it feels like too much. You don’t need it any more. That’s when … 
  13. Big Desire, Detailed Focus
     … It’s a big desire, but to work, it has to get very small, focused on this breath, this breath, what you’re doing with this breath. Yet as Ajaan Lee said, this was how the Buddha became great. He started out small, did each step precisely and carefully. And because each step was well-founded, well-grounded, it became a good foundation for … 
  14. It’s All in What You’re Doing
     … So, at the very least, you’ve got some part of your mind focused in the present. As you get more and more familiar with staying with the breath, you can get to observe the mind in action. How does it keep itself with the breath? How does it motivate itself? What is it reminding itself of? These are the activities we have to … 
  15. Investing Your Happiness
     … So you start by focusing on where the breath feels good coming in, feels good going out. If you can’t get a good sense of ease with the breath, start with thoughts of goodwill. Wish goodwill for yourself, goodwill for other beings. That’s a comfortable thought because it’s not fighting with the wishes of any being anywhere. Everybody wants to be … 
  16. Mental Movements
     … And when the Buddha talks in terms of the four noble truths, that’s the suffering he’s focusing on, where there’s clinging to the five aggregates: clinging to your body or forms of any kind; clinging to feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, consciousness. There’s clinging only when there’s craving. So, these are the issues we have to watch out for. He … 
  17. The Rivers of Karma
     … In some cases that means focusing on another part of the body that’s not in pain to give the mind a sense of safe haven here in the present moment. When it has developed a sense of strength, the sense of well-being that can come from that sense of have, then you can start looking into the pain. To what extent is … 
  18. In the Present
     … So what should you be doing right now? At the moment, you’re focusing on the breath. If the mind slips off, you bring it right back. That involves the three qualities that the Buddha said need to be brought to the establishing of mindfulness. There is a popular belief that mindfulness simply means being in the present moment, but the Buddha never said … 
  19. Bodies & Minds Outside
    Bodies & Minds Outside October 21, 2013 When describing the various ways of developing or establishing mindfulness, the Buddha talks about being focused on the body in and of itself, internally, externally, or both. And the same with feelings, mind, and mental qualities: You can focus on them either internally, externally, or both. Internally, it’s pretty obvious what he’s talking about: your own … 
  20. Addictive Thinking
     … Then you strengthen it by focusing on the breath and finding which ways of breathing feel really good. That puts the mind in a much better mood. That mood may come and go, but you’re exploring. Keep remembering that you’re working on a skill. You’re developing new habits. It’s not the case you get the mind into concentration once and … 
  21. Goodwill All Around
     … If the Buddha’s teachings weren’t based on a motive for goodwill, he wouldn’t have focused on the issue of suffering, the issue of stress. He wouldn’t have focused on the question of how to put an end to suffering and stress as the primary point of the Dharma. So we have to assume that that was the underlying motive, both … 
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