Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. Perceptions & Potentials
     … You’re focusing on the sensation of the breath energy in the eyes and you’re holding a picture in mind: in this case, the picture of the breath energy going around the eyes. As the Buddha said, every state of concentration up through the dimension of nothingness is a perception attainment. That picture you hold in mind—that’s your perception at the … 
  9. Sensitive to Fabrication
     … So when you’re focusing on the breath, realize that you’re going to be using perceptions to stay focused. Just learn how to be very, very sensitive to what they are. And learn how to play with them so that you can develop even more sensitivity, because it’s in that realization that you can really choose which perceptions you’re going to … 
  10. Mature Happiness
     … Your present actions include the way you conceive the breath and where you’re focusing, how you’re focusing, and how much pressure you’re putting on it. If you exert too much pressure, the Buddha said it’s like holding a baby quail in your hand and squeezing it: It’s going to die. Not enough pressure: It’s like holding it so … 
  11. Look after Yourself with Ease
     … We’d have no idea that simply sitting here, looking at your breath, focusing on the breath and getting really absorbed into it, could be the path to anything. If you were a little kid sitting there, focusing on your breath, and your parents came along, they’d say, “What are you doing here, sitting here doing nothing?” That’s what they’d say … 
  12. Use Your Defilements
     … You’re developing all kinds of good qualities in the mind by focusing on this skill, so the desire to be virtuous is a good desire. Your aversion to stooping to something below the standards of the precepts is a good form of aversion to take on, to develop. The same with your concentration: It’s okay to desire for the mind to be … 
  13. Three Perceptions
     … The three perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self are focused on our psychology, on how we can recognize when we’re looking for happiness in the wrong way so that we can learn to look for happiness in the right places, in the right ways. The contemplation of these three themes, the use of these three perceptions, is aimed at finding happiness of … 
  14. Approaching the four noble truths
     … How does this teaching relate to how I’m suffering? How I can put an end to suffering? And you’re really focused. The term for singleness of mind—cittass’ ekaggata—is sometimes translated as one-pointedness of mind: so one-pointed that, in some cases, people interpret it as meaning you can’t even sense your body or anything else around you. Of … 
  15. Visakha Puja
    Stay focused on the breath. When the breath comes in, know it’s coming in; when it goes out, know it’s going out—all the way through the in breath, all the way through the out. On the night of his awakening, the Buddha watched his breath. So this is one way of commemorating his awakening: by focusing on your breath, to see … 
  16. Lessons in Fabrication
     … You’re focused on the breath. The fact that you have this body sitting here comes from past actions. Some of the actions are pretty recent, others go way back, but you can do things with the potentials that they’re yielding here right now. The breath is one such potential. You can breathe long, you can breathe short, fast, slow, heavy, light. No … 
  17. The Self-correcting Mind
     … You want to stay focused on these things, make them your frame of reference. But just staying with the breath, if you could just do that, would not be enough. You need two other themes to think about. One is what the Buddha calls “the theme of uplifting—in other words, energizing the mind so that if it sees any unskillful qualities in the … 
  18. Cut the Currents
     … The good thing when you’re focusing on the breath is that the breath is quite large. It has space for all the movements of your mind because it’s a whole-body process. When you breathe in, the whole nervous system is involved—all the way down to the tips of your fingers, the tips of your toes, out to every pore of … 
  19. Sources of Lasting Happiness
     … As you’re focusing on the breath here, there are three qualities that have to come to the fore right away. The first one is mindfulness, which is the ability to keep something in mind. Sometimes you hear it defined as being non-reactive or being fully present to the present moment, but that’s not how the Buddha defined it. Non-reactivity he … 
  20. Determined to Make a Difference
     … You keep reminding yourself: “This object that you’re focused on is really worth staying with.” Then you evaluate it to make sure that the mind stays with it—with a sense of satisfaction, wanting to be here. Other thoughts will come up, and you have to remind yourself, they’re not worth it right now. The Buddha gives some principles for your speech … 
  21. Developed in Body & Mind
     … And as we’re meditating, we’re focusing more and more directly on the mind. With generosity, you’re thinking about this person, that person, what object you want to give. With virtue, you’ve got to think about your dealings with other people. But when you’re practicing meditation, it’s exclusively the mind dealing with itself. You’re taking on the big … 
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