Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Large Perspective, Small Focus
     … When you get power, are you going to use it well or not? The Buddha saw that the best line of action was to get out of this system entirely, and his line of action focused on: What are you doing right now, what are your intentions, and what is your *attention *doing right now? What are you paying attention to? What are your … 
  3. The Psychology of Harmlessness
     … Like right now, focusing on the breath: As the Buddha says, you discern when the breath is long, you discern when it’s short. The word “discerning” here doesn’t mean you simply watch what’s already there. The analogy he gives is of a turner, someone who turns wood on a lathe. The turner discerns when he’s making a long turn and … 
  4. Duties
     … Because when we talk about doing breath meditation, that’s the breath we’re focusing on. It doesn’t have to be the air coming in and out through the nose. Anyplace where you feel the energy of the breathing process, anyplace where you’re especially sensitive to the breathing process—it can be down in the area around the heart, or in the … 
  5. Pleasure & Pain
     … What are you going to do then? If you can be very clear, mindful, and alert about where you’re focused, and very consistent in maintaining your focus no matter what, then you’re in a position to withstand the pain, to gather your forces for the next attack. And what is the attack? You want to untangle all the many layers of pain … 
  6. With Reference to the World
     … You’d think you are sitting here just by yourself focusing on the breath, but you bring lots of worlds with you. We have this weird ability, as soon as there’s little stirring in this body/mind complex we’ve got here, that we can switch into an entirely different world. It can be world of the past, a world of the future … 
  7. Firmly Intent
     … We’re going to be focusing on that issue. What are the messages that the mind sends to itself? One way of learning about that is to intentionally send different messages and see where they run into your old messages. The Buddha’s basically saying, “Be with the body in and of itself.” And one way of doing that is being with the breath … 
  8. Resourceful
     … And in line with what the Buddha said about developing your refuge by working on the establishing of mindfulness, Ajaan Lee focused on the establishing of mindfulness as the way in which you develop this internal refuge. You have to remember that his approach was interesting in that he focused not so much on body, feelings, mindstates, or mental qualities. He did talk about … 
  9. To Practice Dying
     … He doesn’t talk about what dies, what gets reborn, or what goes in between, aside from explaining the process by which it happens, and focusing specifically on what you’re doing. What happens at death is very much the same as what happens in the process of distraction while you’re meditating. You have an intention to stay with the breath, and other … 
  10. Your Breath, Your Territory
     … This is why when we meditate, we’re focusing on this area of our awareness, the awareness that’s inside. We have to take responsibility for it, because no one else can take responsibility for us. We get recommendations from the Buddha on what to do from within, but we’re the ones that have to do the doing. He says to contemplate, keeping … 
  11. Capture Your Imagination
     … So as you sit here focusing on the breath, ask yourself: Where is the sport? Where is the game? How do we win at it? Where is the enjoyment? Part of it lies in exploring the breath and seeing what you can learn about the breath. You’ve got this breath element in the body. If that concept is foreign to you, you might … 
  12. Listening to the True Dhamma
     … If it’s a good Dhamma talk, it’s talking about what’s going on in your mind right now and pointing out where you’re focusing on the wrong things. Like right now: Focus on your breath, where you feel the breath in the body. As for the affairs of the world outside, don’t focus on them at all. There’s work … 
  13. Calming Mental Fabrication
    When the Buddha teaches concentration practice—breath meditation practice—he gives you a physical fabrication to focus on, i.e., the breath coming in, going out, and then he gives you a verbal fabrication, the instructions, “Keep track of the breath; remain focused on the breath—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” So you keep reminding yourself … 
  14. Analysis of Dhammas
     … In fact, universal goodwill meditation also starts by establishing mindfulness parimukham, and when you’re extending thoughts of goodwill to all beings, you’re not focused around the mouth. What the word seems to mean is that you bring the topic of the meditation to the fore. You make that the most interesting and prominent thing in your range of awareness. Don’t let … 
  15. Your Inner Teacher
     … If you have these sensations in lots of different parts of the body, try to choose one area where it seems most obvious, most natural to stay focused. It could be the tip of the nose, the middle of the chest, the abdomen, any part of the body where you have the sensation that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is … 
  16. The Buddha’s Narrative
     … He saw that focusing in on the intentions of the mind, that what you experience right now is based on two kinds of things: past intentions and present intentions. When you make your present intentions more and more skillful to the point where you don’t need to intend anymore, that’s when you break through to a deathless happiness. This third knowledge was … 
  17. Self-Healing
     … As you stay focused on the breath, you’re going to need some perceptions to remind yourself: What is the breath? Where can you expect to feel it? You can use different perceptions that will actually make the breathing more comfortable—or make it less comfortable. So try to figure out which perceptions are most helpful right now. The word “perception” in English has … 
  18. The Skill of Not Suffering
     … When we talk of focusing on the breath, it’s not so much the air coming in and out of lungs, it’s more the sensation of the energy that flows through the body as you breathe in and out, because it’s not just air coming through the nose and into the lungs. You can feel the energy go all the way down … 
  19. The Need for a Purpose
     … In some cases, the motivation focuses on the fact that you’re not there yet. That’s called renunciate pain. But renunciate pain has a hope. The expression in the Canon is, “There are those who’ve attained this goal, but I’m not one of them.” It recognizes the fact that there is a goal that’s attainable. That’s the hope. The … 
  20. Attention with an Agenda
     … So you realize that as you’re sitting here meditating, you’re focusing on the germs of these things. Any bodily action has to begin with the breath. Any verbal action has to begin with directed thought and evaluation. Any mental action has to start with the perceptions and feelings. So right there you’re watching the present moment but you also realize that … 
  21. Papañca
    As you sit here focused on the breath, you get some hands-on experience in seeing how the mind relates to objects. On the one hand, you have the object that you intend to stay with: the breath. And you’ve got to ask yourself: Where are you in relation to the breath? And what does it mean to keep the breath in mind … 
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