Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 42
  2. Good Work
     … The mental side is a lot more difficult, but having that task of focusing on the breath is one way to anchor the mind in the present moment and to give yourself a standard. As long as you’re with the breath, you’re in the present. If you’re not with the breath, there’s the possibility you could be away some place … 
  3. Many I’s, Many Eyes
     … We’re not focusing just on the movement of the air in and out of the nose. We’re also focusing on the sensation of the energy flowing through the body, as you breathe in, as you breathe out, and that’s something you can focus on anywhere, anywhere in the body at all, anywhere where you have a good clear sensation that tells … 
  4. Attention & Intention
     … This is why he defined appropriate attention as focusing on two issues. One is what is skillful or unskillful to do with your thoughts, words, and deeds. The other issue is the four noble truths. These two issues are connected in that the four noble truths take the principle of skillful and unskillful action and apply it specifically to the question of why there … 
  5. A Good Dish of Concentration
     … And as the Buddha said, by focusing continually on the breath, you can actually give rise to a feeling of well-being. That’s what we’re trying to create. Now, to focus on the breath what do you use? You use *sañña, *or perception, which is a mental label that you apply. This can either be simply the word “breath” or your mental … 
  6. A Snare of Death Laid Out
     … Often that’s where our craving is focused. Often, when you desire a person, it’s not the person you desire. You desire your perceptions and thoughts of the person. So you want to get the mind really still so that you can see, when craving of any kind comes up: Exactly what are you focused on? What is the allure? Because that’s … 
  7. Directing Yourself Rightly
     … Just because the mind is focused doesn’t mean you’re going to see things clearly and rightly. You have to actively contemplate once the mind is still, because a mind that’s still can latch onto all kinds of things. The concentration can get suddenly focused on something that gets you irritated, something that gets you angry. And the stronger your concentration, sometimes … 
  8. When Things Regress
     … But the desire has to be focused on the causes. So be right here as much as you can—that’s the alertness part. You watch what you’re doing—those are the causes—and watch the results you’re getting from those causes right now. Don’t worry about the results you had last year or a month ago or whatever. Focus on … 
  9. Own Your Actions
     … It helps keep you focused on the issue of action. Because that’s what the Buddha’s teachings are all about. The word dhamma can also mean action. It’s not a common usage of the word, but it’s there in the language. And for the Buddha, it’s always in the back of the mind. When he gave his list of important … 
  10. Dependent Co-arising Right Now
     … For instance, while you’re focused on the breath right here, you’ve got all three forms of fabrication. You can choose to approach them with ignorance, or you can choose to approach them with knowledge. With ignorance, you’re saying, “Here I am trying to meditate,” and you judge how good a person you are by how well the meditation is going. It … 
  11. Patterns to Happiness
     … For instance, when you’re focused on the breath, you can play with the breath in different ways: long in, long out, short in, short out, long in, short out, short in, long out. Try to see what rhythm feels best for the body right now. You can focus in different spots in the body. Then you can explore the way the breath energy … 
  12. Pain Is a Noble Truth
     … You’re not there focused on the pain and you learn to let it have part of the body. Ajaan Lee’s image is of a house with floorboards, some of which are rotten, and you’re going to lie down on the floor. You don’t choose the rotten spots. You choose the good spots. And as I say you’re lying on … 
  13. Facing Pain Straight On
    When you give the mind an exercise to do—like focusing on the breath, contemplating the virtues of the Buddha, developing goodwill, or even some of practices that are said to be vipassana practice—they’re all actually concentration practices. You tell the mind to do something, you will the mind to do something—that’s the concentration—and then you observe it. That … 
  14. Respect
     … As you’re focusing on the breath, you want to pay attention to how the feelings in the body and the feelings in the mind relate to the breath. What way of breathing is comfortable? What way of breathing is good for the mind? You’ve got three of the frames of reference right there. You’ve got the body and the breath, the … 
  15. Flexibility
     … But if you understand that you keep the mind focused on the breath in a particular way, the continuity with which you do it, the right amount of pressure, and the breath is not too heavy, not too light: You focus on doing that properly, and the rapture just keeps coming and coming and coming until you have enough. Then you can focus in … 
  16. Seeing the Stillness
     … But instead of focusing on the bands of tension, look at the broader sense of ease surrounding them. It’s like looking at the blank spaces on a map. We tend to look at the roads and the cities and the words, but the blank spaces serve a function, too. Otherwise the placement of the roads and cities wouldn’t bear any relation to … 
  17. Questioning Everything
     … As you’re focusing on the breath, the only thoughts that are really relevant are the ones that help you stay focused on the breath, the thoughts that ask questions about: How is this breath? What’s going on with that breath? How’s the mind right now? Is it staying with the breath? What do I need to do in order to help … 
  18. Heedfulness All the Way Through
     … The formula says to keep focused, say, on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, and mindful. Then there’s something you put aside: unskillful things, your greed and distress with reference to the world. Mindfulness is very dualistic—a point that a lot of people miss. The Buddha illustrates this with his simile about monkeys. He said there’s a safe territory … 
  19. Not-selfing Your Selves
     … A sense of self is there inside, focused on the breath, at ease with the breath, having a sense of belonging, a sense of solidity from which it can look at other senses of self and ask the question, “Are they really necessary? Are they really worth the effort that goes into them?” This is also helped by being around people who’ve managed … 
  20. All About Change
     … So as you’re focusing here, notice how the mind wanders off and try to be quick in catching it. The Buddha’s instructions on mindfulness talk about two activities. One is to put aside greed and distress with reference to the world and the other is to stay focused, keeping track of, say, the body in and of itself, or the breath. So … 
  21. Making an Effort
     … And as the formula also says, you “uphold your intent.” In other words, you keep focused on the issue of what’s going on in the mind, whether it’s skillful or not. Those three qualities—desire, persistence, and intent—are also involved in three of the bases for success. And the ability to distinguish between what’s skillful in the mind and what … 
  22. Load next page...