Search results for: "Attention"

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  2. Peace of Mind
     … That’s going to be the focus of our attention for the rest of the hour. Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths, and notice how that feels—because if you stay with the breath, you’re staying with the part of the body that’s closest to the mind. Without the breath, we wouldn’t know about the body … 
  3. The Analytical Mind
     … But then she thought of the space element, so she went there, keeping the perception of “space, space, space” in mind, without paying any attention to any sensation of the body. When she came out of that meditation, everything in the body had gone back to normal. She didn’t die—that’s why we know the story—but she learned an important lesson … 
  4. Samvega vs. Dispassion
     … This allows you to put all your energy and pay all your attention to following the path. Now one thing that can get in the way, though, is when we confuse samvega with dispassion. We’re developing this path all the way to what? Dispassion? The mind asks that and it recoils a little bit, because it keeps confusing the idea of dispassion with … 
  5. The Power of Your Actions
     … He focuses particular attention on your actions in the present moment. Even though your actions from the past can influence the way things are coming into your senses right now, you don’t just sit there and receive these things. Your mind processes them. Its ability to process and filter and shape things is what makes the difference between suffering and not suffering. Not … 
  6. Ready for the Truth
     … He wants to point your attention here. You’re going to have to be in the right mood to stay right here; you have to have the right focus to stay right here. That’s what the step-by-step discourse is for: to bring the mind to concentration. As you stay right here and you’re succeeding in getting the mind to stay … 
  7. Discernment Is in the Details
     … But you actually exercise your own discernment each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out, figuring out where to place your attention, how long the breath is going to be, how deep it’s going to be—and all the other elements in the meditation that require balance. Whether this is a time to stay with one spot, whether it works better … 
  8. Self-reliance
     … They point your attention to something else. But the Buddha’s focus is right here, and his analysis comes down to the fact that you can do something about suffering because you’re causing it. So you have to look inside. And the reason you’re causing it is not because you want to. It’s because you’re ignorant. The word for ignorance … 
  9. Respect for the Training
     … As a result, we tend to miss a lot of the really good lessons that can be learned from paying attention to the basics, giving them a lot of respect. Like the precepts: There are a lot of people who don’t like rules, who feel that rules make you a very small-minded person: that they make you think that by abiding by … 
  10. Suffering is an Addiction
     … But you keep subjecting the mind to new ways of thinking, new ways of paying attention, to drive home the point that you do have a choice. Then you have to argue with the voice that says, “Well, the choice isn’t better.” Or even more with the voice that says, “You can’t do it.” You know those voices, especially that last one … 
  11. A Full Life
     … The Buddha says also to delight in seclusion—the opportunity you have to focus direct attention on your mind with a minimum of distractions. That, too, is part of the skill of a good life. Then there’s the meaningful life: The last two objects of delight, the Buddha said, are delighting in the unafflicted and delighting in non-objectification. These are two names … 
  12. Breathaholic
     … But to get the mind settled down, you focus your attention completely on the breath to begin with. As Ajaan Fuang used to say, “You have to be crazy about meditation if you want to do it well.” You really have to be addicted to it; you want to cling to it for a while. They say that alcoholics, when they walk into a … 
  13. Karma Storms
     … The next one is simply to say, “Okay, those things are there, but I’m not going to pay attention to them.” That requires that you have some little corner where you can go to hide out and wait till the storm blows over. This principle applies in meditation; it applies in life in general. You’re minding your own business living a perfectly … 
  14. At Ease with the Breath
     … You’ll notice that a lot of the tension tends to seep in when mindfulness lapses, when you’re not paying attention. So try to keep your awareness with the breath continuously, as if you were following a long strand of silk. You want the silk to be smooth, you want it to be even, and if any bumps come up, any fraying comes … 
  15. Preparing for Death
     … To know where to focus our attention, what to hold on to, if we have to hold on. Where we can let go. That way, we’re not so desperate. In other words, we go into death without trying to run away. The importance of this skill is obvious, especially now with death all around us. As the Buddha points out, there are four … 
  16. Four Mountains Moving In
     … All the mosquito-borne diseases were still there, just that nobody was now paying attention. And sure enough, some of the people in the community where I was staying got dengue. So we have to look all around, be circumspect in our heedfulness and watch out particularly for the dangers we create that come from trying to prevent or put an end to one … 
  17. How to Be Self-Centered
     … You should center your attention not so much on what’s irritating about their behavior. Center on your own irritation. Why do you let yourself get worked up about it? What’s the problem? Why are you feeling offended by that other person? That’s what you’ve got to look into. Now, this doesn’t mean you don’t care about other people … 
  18. Play with the Breath
     … Even if you pay attention to it, it’ll run away. But if you glance at it out of the corner of your eye and focus on other things, it’ll feel more at ease with you. If you deal well with those other parts of the body, after a while the parts of the body that are tense and tight will begin to … 
  19. Location, Location
     … You really do want to pay careful attention to where your cravings are located, because they can easily lead you astray. You know the image the Buddha gives of rebirth as being like a fire spreading out from a house, clinging to the wind. The wind stands for craving. If your craving is totally unknown to you here and now, it’ll be even … 
  20. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … How are you processing the breath right now? As soon as you turn your attention to the breath, the breath is going to change—based on your perception of the breath, your intentions around the breath—which means the breath is a really good mirror for seeing these things in action. We know that one of the principles of causality that the Buddha taught … 
  21. In Control
     … As we’re living here at the monastery, we don’t have too many tasks, so we can focus our attention on each task as we’re doing it as a way of developing our mindfulness and alertness. But in the outside world often you have so many tasks that you have to decide which ones are worth doing well and which ones are … 
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