Search results for: "Focus"
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- Thinking Your Way to Stillness… There’s another passage where the Buddha says you’re trying to focus on the breath, trying to focus on the body in and of itself, or feelings in and of themselves, or any of the four establishments of mindfulness, and you find that the mind simply won’t settle down. In his terms, there’s a fever, a restlessness. So to allay that …
- Exploring Possibilities… And it’s not what the Buddha said to focus on. Focus on the fact that it’s possible for you not to be carrying this weight around continually. The next time you detect it coming up, remember that you have the choice of putting it down. Just the realization that you’ve been able to do it once: That’s liberating. It expands …
- Enlarge Your Mind… This way, even though there may be pains and aches in some parts of the body, you realize that you don’t have to focus all your attention on the pains and the aches. There are some parts of the body that may be feeling the heat. Here it’s well after sunset and it’s still hot outside. But if you look carefully …
- Attention with an Agenda… You apply different perceptions and focus on different feelings for the sake of something. Like right now: You’re trying to get the mind into concentration. So you breathe in a way that will give rise to a sense of comfort for the sake of getting the mind into concentration. You use directed thought and evaluation, again for the sake of getting the mind …
- In Training… But the process by which the product is made is pretty much the same, a question of what you focus on, what you don’t focus on, what details you notice, which details you don’t notice, how you stitch things together. It can be something simple, as when you’re sitting here with pain. How do you stitch the pain of one moment …
- Training Your Commentator… Don’t focus your comments on you as a meditator or a commentator. Focus them on actions and results. And don’t let yourself get overcome by negative comments about your own abilities. Try to speak to yourself in more positive ways that are more encouraging. And remember that ups and downs are normal. Don’t get complacent about the ups. Don’t let …
- Choices Now & at Death… Tell the person who’s passing away not to expect closure, and focus instead on the state of his or her mind. The next question is, “Are you afraid of leaving your body? Are you afraid of leaving human sensuality?” If the person says, “Yes,” the Buddha’s first answer is really interesting. He says that there are levels of being where the sensuality …
- Why We Meditate… Where is that feeling most pronounced, where is it strongest? Focus your attention there. Try to stay with the sensation of the breath all the way in, all the way out. You may want to use a meditation word along with the breath. Buddho is a traditional one. It means awake. It’s the title the Buddha earned on the night of his awakening …
- On the Surface of Things… So instead of going behind the scenes, we want to focus more precisely on: What is the seen? What is the sensed? Get your alertness more focused right here. As you get quicker, things will seem to slow down, so that what sounded like a raucous squawk actually becomes a series of notes. You can see: Oh, this follows on that, that follows on …
- Truth as Medicine… Learn to focus your thinking on the aspects of truth that are really helpful right now. You could focus on all kinds of things that would make you depressed and make you discouraged in the practice. They may be perfectly true but they’re not right for you right here, right now. Those particular truths are not useful truths. They’re not worth talking …
- Fear & Conviction… It gives you a place where you can focus your efforts and your desire for what you need to do: You need to train the mind. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but you do know that, whatever happens, you’re going to need more mindfulness, you’re going to need more alertness, more discernment, more concentration. You …
- Unraveling the Present… When we try to develop discernment, we focus on pain, and again that’s something very close to home. Focus on stress. Reduce things to basic experiences that you can relate to immediately, because the more you start dealing with abstractions or big metaphysical theories, the further and further you get away from what you’re actually experiencing, and the more room there is …
- Goodness Comes from Heedfulness… This is one of the reasons why we focus on the breath as a primary form of meditation. If you can breathe with awareness, with a sense of ease and well-being, it’s a lot easier to think good thoughts about other people’s happiness, other people’s well-being as well. If the way you breathe is causing you to suffer, it …
- Stay Principled… where to focus the mind, how to stay with the point of your focus or the theme of the meditation; how to work with it so that the mind can begin to settle down and stay settled down. There are even skills techniques how to leave meditation. All these are techniques that we can work on, but they’re not what the meditation is …
- The Kamma of Self & Not-Self… But he does focus you on the activity. And as I said, he doesn’t just leave it there, saying, “Well, when you see your sense of self as a process, that’s the end of the problem because you realize that you have nothing solid to hold on to.” Actually, people can hold onto processes just as easily as they can hold on …
- The Heart of the Teachings… So focus on your breath, because that’s one of the Buddha’s teachings. Focus on the breath and then notice how to breathe in a way that’s calming, breathe in a way that’s energizing, and see what you need right now. Try to be aware of the whole body as you breathe in, the whole body as you breathe out. And …
- Customs of the Noble Ones… So, just as you don’t compare yourself with other people who are sick and think, “Who’s better at taking medicine? Who’s better at getting cured?” you focus on your cure. You focus on why you’re doing this. You also encourage others that they would do well to be content as well. Now, given that the first three of the customs …
- Building Concentration… Directed thought is when you focus on a topic, as when you establish mindfulness. Evaluation is the next step. You’re trying to do this well, which is part of ardency, which is also in mindfulness practice. You’re trying to develop a sense of ease in the body. Well, what kind of breathing will do that? You experiment. When you find a rhythm …
- Attachment to Views… You focus on what’s to be done right here, right now, and you drop those papañca categories. You focus instead simply on events as they’re happening. And then there comes a point where you drop your focus even on the events, because you’re going to open up to something that’s beyond events. So we’re learning a skill here, and …
- The Mind Comes First… Our focus is someplace else. But if you know you’re bringing skills with the breath—skills in how you talk to yourself, skills in how you picture things to yourself, what feelings you’re going to focus on—you can come with a lot more confidence. This has to do with situations not only outside, but also within the mind as well. Greed …
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