Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 44
  2. Get Real
     … You’re going to stay focused right here on the breath, focused right here on the immediate sensation of the body no matter what else happens. Try to elaborate that as little as possible. Stay just with the direct sensation: the breath coming in, the breath going out. You feel it right here, and you feel the different sensations in the body that let … 
  3. Right Mindfulness
     … To begin with, you try to remain focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That’s the process we’re working on here as we focus on the breath. It’s the first of the establishings. To remain focused is called anupassana. It means you choose something to watch … 
  4. Modest in Manner, but Not in Goals
     … the one focused on the breath, and the other focused on the relationship between the two. You want to keep them together. Adjust the breath so that it feels good. If any thoughts come up in the mind that would pull you away from the breath, just let them go. If you find that they’ve already pulled you away before you realized what … 
  5. Healing Awareness
     … Choose a spot in the body where it’s easiest to stay focused. Try to focus on it in a way that allows the energy there to flow. Don’t squeeze up around on it at the end of the in-breath. And don’t squeeze up around it at the end of the out-breath. You may call this “soft focus” to begin … 
  6. The Brahmaviharas Are Not a Complete Practice
     … So, goodwill is a preliminary practice for getting the mind into concentration focused on the breath. But there are also passages where the Buddha talks about it as a topic of concentration in and of itself. He doesn’t say how you do it. You simply develop the thought, “May all these beings look after themselves with ease,” an interesting way of expressing goodwill … 
  7. Developing Discernment
     … That principle of focusing on your actions, trying to make them as skillful as you can: That will carry you through.
  8. Work on Your Mind
     … Those are the things that go into creating any emotion, which means that when a strong emotion comes up, you can ask yourself, “How am I breathing? How am I talking to myself? What images am I holding in mind? What feelings am I focusing on?” If the emotion is the sort that would lead you to do something unskillful, you say, “I’ve … 
  9. You Can’t Clone Awakening
    It may seem incongruous or ironic that here we are, hoping for total release from suffering, stress—the freedom of nibbana—and on the way there, we’re hoping for states of infinite space, infinite consciousness, bliss, rapture, and yet what are we doing? We’re focusing on our breath. We’re sitting here in a posture that may or may not be comfortable … 
  10. Modest, Unentangled, Unburdensome
     … It’s going to involve developing external qualities that place some restraint on us, but that simply focuses our attention where it should be focused: If there’s restraint on how you behave outside, you have to turn your eyes around. If you’re going to find true happiness, you’ve got to look inside. So these restraints are for the sake of freedom … 
  11. Sensitive to the Mind
     … The path sometimes does have its paradoxical nature, where you develop something and then have to abandon it, or you’re focused on one thing and then you realize you have to turn around and look at your mind as it’s focused. So it is a subtle path, but again, the Buddha pointed out that this is how you develop subtlety in the … 
  12. The Kamma of Self & Not-self
     … Once he had set his sights on awakening, on finding the answer to the question of whether there’s a true happiness, a happiness that’s not dependent on conditions, he focused all of his efforts in that direction. That was the question to which he gave top priority in his life. After he gained awakening, that was the question he had his followers … 
  13. Dedicating Merit
     … And as the Buddha said, at the end of life, when the body no longer provides a place for the consciousness to stay focused, it can go on. Craving is its bridge to another body. And of course, craving depends on consciousness. Consciousness depends on craving. The two of them, as long as they keep supporting each other, can go on indefinitely. And the … 
  14. Achieving Balance
     … All the more reason to stay focused right here to develop those qualities. And then be very protective of the spot you’ve chosen. As you focus on that spot, allow it to become comfortable. A sense of comfort is important, because it helps you stay. If there’s a sense of dis-ease and blockage in the body you’re going to try … 
  15. Physical Pains & Painful Words
    When you’re sitting here focused on the breath, even when you’re well concentrated on the breath, you don’t have just the breath. You’ve also got feelings, you’ve got the mind, and you’ve got mental qualities. All four frames of reference are right here. The question as to which one you’re going to pay attention to most depends … 
  16. Well-being Despite It All
     … We’re focusing, to begin with, on the breath. The breath itself may be subject to change but it gives you something to hold on to. It’s difficult right in the beginning to focus directly on the mind, so you focus on the breath instead, because the breath is near the mind, it’s near your awareness. Anywhere that you’re aware in … 
  17. Success on the Path
     … He says that when you’re focusing on one of the frames of reference, or establishing mindfulness based on the body, feelings, mind, mental qualities, there may come times when the practice starts getting difficult. As he says, there may be a fever in the body, or a fever in the mind. That, he says, is when it’s good to put that topic … 
  18. The Power of Intention
     … There’s an intention here that focuses you on one thing rather than another. There’s an intention in the way you pay attention to certain feelings and not other feelings, certain perceptions and not other perceptions, certain thoughts, certain sensations in the body. That element of intention is the really important thing we’re after here: seeing how we shape our experience out … 
  19. Values
     … You can focus on the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha either by simply repeating one of those words in your mind as you breathe in, breathe out, or by focusing on their qualities. Think about the Buddha, think about the Dhamma and the Sangha—what you find inspiring about them. You could think about your generosity or your virtue. Think about the times when … 
  20. Loss
     … If we don’t let go of these things now, no matter how much we like them, no matter how intimate they are, if we don’t let go of them now while we’re focused and mindful, the day will come when they’ll be pulled away from us when we’re in no shape to let go of them at all. It … 
  21. Choices
     … This is why we’re focusing on the mind here in the present moment: because of the power of the mind in the present moment to shape both the present moment and the future. So, if you’re focused on the breath, really be sincere in sticking with it. The Buddha says you should be mindful, alert, ardent. In other words, keep the breath … 
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