Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Limitations
     … That gives a sense of space to the mind, and also energy, so you don’t get tied down with the realization that we have only a limited amount of time, a limited amount of energy, to really focus on what’s important. But the even better news is that if you learn how to focus your time and energy on what’s really … 
  3. Joy in the Effort
     … Even if they’re not on the list, like the eyes, you can focus there, too. Where are your eyes right now? How do they feel? What kind of mental pictures do you have of them? Pictures you’ve picked up from anatomy? Pictures you’ve picked up from actually seeing somebody else’s eyes at an autopsy? And how do you relate to … 
  4. Stay with the Breath
     … You don’t even have to focus on the Dhamma talk. If there’s anything relevant to what you’re doing, it’ll come right into your awareness and you’ll notice it. You’ll hear it. If it’s not relevant to what you’re doing, it’s a distraction. So let it go. It may be useful for somebody else, or for … 
  5. Focus on What’s Important
     … So focus on your breath. The texts say that the Buddha was focused on his breath the night of his awakening. His breath was no different from yours. What was different was the qualities of mind he brought to it. He’d been searching for years, ever since he realized that the pleasures of his life in the palace were not going to be … 
  6. Doing Meditation
     … Sometimes it’s simply the choice to focus on one thing rather than another. Other times, it goes further than that: coming up with perceptions, coming up with ideas, coming up with plans, deciding to do something. There’s always activity going on in the mind. It’s no wonder we feel such a lack of peace in our lives, because the mind is … 
  7. Empathetic Joy
     … Which are you going to focus on? Ajaan Lee recommends trying the pleasant ones. The Buddha says to try to nurture the pleasant ones by the way you breathe. Steps five and six in the breath meditation tell you to learn how to breathe in and out with a sense of rapture, breathe in and out with a sense of pleasure. People are not … 
  8. What We Have in Common
     … So the extent to which we focus on that as our priority is what brings us together regardless of our backgrounds. The Buddha did have an appreciation of diversity, but the kind of diversity he appreciated was that of diverse talents. He gave a list of his pre-eminent monk-, nun-, layman-, and laywoman- disciples, pointing out the distinctive talents or virtues of each … 
  9. Bursting Bubbles
     … In other words, when the weather is feeling hot outside, you can focus on the water in the body, and it cools you down. There are cool sensations someplace in the body, and you focus on those. You’re trying to make them more prominent. Simply by paying attention to them, keeping them in mind, you can make them stronger. When you’re feeling … 
  10. Two Kinds of Middle
     … So when pleasure comes up in the meditation, don’t let yourself lose focus. Don’t abandon your focus on the breath to wallow in the pleasure. Think of the pleasure as something you’re going to use as a tool. And then start using it as a tool. This way you develop the mindfulness that keeps you from getting waylaid by the pleasure … 
  11. Your Hair Is on Fire
     … This is one of the reasons why we focus on the breath, to give the mind something else to do aside from its old habits. Then the Buddha also taught Rahula to think about the theme of inconstancy, that these thoughts that appear in the mind are pretty unreliable. They come and they go. And they come again, and then they go again. Or … 
  12. Our Variegated Minds
     … At the same time, learn to develops some equanimity around the things you can’t change so that you can focus on the things you can change, the things you can work with. That’s why, even though we’re different, we can connect on the areas where what we have in common is good, what we have in common is helpful. It takes … 
  13. Stretch Your Mind
     … And then you can focus it, and you’ve got the right attitude to bring to your focus, because there will still be a commentary going on in the mind as you’re trying to get the mind to settle down. When things are going well, you remind yourself, “Don’t get excited, because you’ve botched it many times in the past.” Usually … 
  14. The Brahmavihāras Aren’t Enough
     … So the brahmavihāras are a good focus for concentration. Some people find them more congenial than the breath. And if you’re one of those people, go ahead: Develop thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity in all directions for all beings. But remember: Those practices can take you only so far. There comes a point where you have to start analyzing what … 
  15. Chanting Before Meditation
     … You want to be with this one topic, but think of it as a broad focus. You’re aware of the whole body. The breath may be more prominent in one part than the other, but you’re aware of the fact that it can be related to other parts as well. The other function of right mindfulness is what the Buddha calls putting … 
  16. The Buddha Aimed High
     … So that’s the focus of the teachings. It’s the kernel of the four noble truths. You solve the problem of suffering not by solving suffering, but by solving the cause. You’ve got to abandon the cause. We want to abandon the suffering, we want to push it away, but it doesn’t work. You’ve got to find the cause. It … 
  17. A Better Place to Feed
     … If there’s a pain in any part of the body, you don’t make that your primary focus. Try to focus on the parts of the body you can make comfortable by the way you breathe and by the way you perceive how the breath is moving through the body. Then you can use that sense of comfort to spread through those patterns … 
  18. A Recipe for Jhana
     … You don’t focus on the mango. You focus on the roots of the tree. You water them. You give them fertilizer. The mango will take care of itself. This way, you learn an important lesson: Things happen according to causes. Get the causes right, and the effects will have to come. At the same time, the Buddha’s instructions get you developing both … 
  19. What You Bring to the Meditation
     … Even though the desire starts by focusing on the results you want, you have to learn how to change the focus slightly by learning how to desire the causes—whatever is required to get things right. That requires persistence. That’s the second of what the Buddha calls the four bases of success, or the four bases of power. Here we’re talking about … 
  20. Songkran
     … You focus on what needs to be done right here, right now, because you don’t know how much time you have left. There’s a lot that needs to be done to straighten out the mind so that we can live well and, when the time comes to die, we die well. The question is, have you done that work yet? For almost … 
  21. Enlightenment is Not a Hot Dog
     … Because you’re trying to learn to be more sensitive to your own mind, and the technique is simply a way of developing that process of sensitivity, giving you something to focus on to develop your sensitivities. After all, the things we’re trying to find here, the things we’re trying to learn here are already happening. They’re already here. They’ve … 
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