Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Mindfulness Aims at Concentration
     … Well, think of it as meaning, literally, “with-a-center.” The mind is centered and it’s strongly focused. Without that strong focus, people like Ajaan Lee wouldn’t be able to develop psychic powers based on samādhi. You have to lure the mind into that state—you can’t just force it—which is why, when the Buddha talks about using the breath … 
  3. How Much Concentration Is Enough?
     … It’s simply that they get more and more focused. You’re more and more continuous in your focus. At the same time, the range of your awareness gets broader and broader until your concentration fills the body. So as you’re here, trying to stay focused on the breath, the first thing you want to keep in mind is that everything you’re … 
  4. Stay Tuned
     … So the field here is the sense of the body from within, the seed of consciousness is focused on one spot in the body. The essence of what it means to have a state of becoming is that you choose a location to stay focused. And because you want this one to develop, you don’t go channel surfing. You don’t go moving … 
  5. Alertness: What Are You Doing?
     … Alertness is what keeps you focused on the right things in the present moment so that you know what to deal with, where the big issues are, where the solutions are going to lie. So as you’re in the present moment, don’t just be in the present moment. Also be focused, be alert to what you’re doing. And you’ll be … 
  6. Keep Your Options Open
     … Now, as we’re meditating, we’re not focusing on nibbana. If you’re practicing jhana, you’re not even focusing on jhana, you’re focusing on your breath, but you’re focusing on the breath not for its own sake—it’s for the sake of the concentration, and you’re developing the concentration for the sake of something unfabricated. Always keep that … 
  7. A Post by the Ocean
     … And the point from which you’re going to learn how to handle these things is this point right here — as you’re focused on the breath, focused in the present moment, learning how to let go of all your other wrong views, all your other distractions, all the other things you might cling to that are going to end up getting you smashed … 
  8. Training for Happiness
     … But focusing on the bad things that have happened just gets you in a worse mood, and you’re more likely to do foolish things. Or you can focus on what you’ve done in the past, either the things you’ve done in the past that were wrong or the things you’ve done that were right. Instead of focusing on how much … 
  9. Energy
     … When the Buddha talks about arousing your energy or overcoming laziness, he focuses mainly on the narratives you tell yourself about how tired you are, or how you’re going to be tired tomorrow, so you’d better rest up today. Some of the cases are: You’ve been on a journey. The lazy part of you says, “Well, I’ve been on this … 
  10. Papañca
    We sit here just with the body and the mind, focused on bringing them both together in the breath. Sometimes it can get frustrating. The body doesn’t do what you want. It’s not always doing what you want. It gets sick without asking permission. Your voice gives out without asking permission. Your mind starts wandering around without asking permission. It can be … 
  11. Adult Dhamma
     … It’s a very focused skill, focusing in on your mind and seeing what in the mind causes you to create suffering. It’s also a battle. There’s winning and losing. There’s doing the skill well and there’s doing it poorly. Now, there’s a frame of mind that thinks that this sort of dualistic thinking is narrow. A craft focused … 
  12. Giving Meaning to Life
     … And the skills you learn in the process of focusing on that important issue will serve you in good stead all the way through aging, all the way through illness, and all the way through death. The ability to keep your mind focused on what’s important and to put aside unimportant things, the willingness to learn all the time–those abilities will always … 
  13. One Hand Clapping
     … So he just stays focused on the bowl of oil. In the same way, stay focused on the breath. Even though thoughts may come up in the mind, you don’t have to get involved. Sounds may come in from outside. You don’t have to get involved. You don’t have to make a commentary on them. Think of that image of the … 
  14. Ways to Think
     … That way, you don’t start focusing on harmful emotions, harmful behavior patterns. You realize, “Okay, aging, illness, and death have come. What do I have left? I still have my actions. Make sure they’re skillful.” Or if you find yourself suddenly too sick to do things: Don’t focus on the things you can’t do. Focus on what you can. This … 
  15. The Second Frame of Reference
     … So in this context, some ways of focusing on pleasure are unskillful, and some ways of focusing on pleasure are skillful. In some of the other suttas where the Buddha discusses feeling, he explicitly recommends ways to respond to different types of feelings. For example, with physical feelings: When pleasures of the flesh arise, you have to watch out for the tendency to get … 
  16. Owning Your Actions
     … As you get more sensitive to this area right here in the present moment, you begin to see that certain ways of focusing are more secure than others. Certain ways of focusing are less stressful than others. Certain ways of breathing give you a greater sense of energy, a greater sense of well-being. These are all things you can shape in the present … 
  17. Today Is Better than Yesterday
     … To fight that impatience, you need a combination of your conviction that, yes, this is worth it; and your persistence, your willingness to stick right with it; and your mindfulness and concentration working together so that you can stay focused and use that focus to pierce through things, like a magnifying glass that focuses all the rays of the sun in one spot: You … 
  18. The Range of Our Responsibility
     … How could you change the flow of the breath to help deal with those problems? There was one time I injured my foot, so I was focusing on the sensation of the foot around the injury. I felt that helped to some extent. But then I also found that if I focused on the same spot in the other foot—the injury was in … 
  19. Keep It Simple
     … getting the mind to be really solidly focused on one activity over and over and over again. Thinking about the breath, being aware of the breath, reminding yourself not to leave the breath: It’s a cluster of activities, but it’s focused in one direction, toward the breath. And as you get more precisely focused in, you can drop some of the extra … 
  20. Strengthening Concentration
    Strengthening Concentration January 5, 2012 In English, when we talk about somebody being single-minded, the implication is that the person is very focused on one single purpose, or one single aim. It’s a quality of the will. And that’s a very relevant way of thinking about concentration. It’s not only that you should have a single object on which you … 
  21. Inner Worlds
     … So even though as we’re meditating we’re focusing inside, it’s not a selfish activity. When you learn how to develop a nourishing inner world here, you’re nourishing not only yourself in this world, but also the way you act in the worlds outside. So for the time being, put everything else aside. Just be right here, right now. Notice how … 
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