Search results for: "Focus"
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- Freedom from Fear… But the Buddha says that you should focus instead on things that can be put under your control. Realize that those are actually your most valuable possessions. He points out two things: your virtue and your right views. If you look at your behavior and keep to the precepts, that’s the quality that develops all kinds of good qualities in the mind. Ajaan …
- Working Hypotheses… Even something as simple as deciding what to focus on, where to put your attention, what to ignore: There’s an intentional element there. Which means we’re always making choices. We’re always trying to decide which choice is the best choice, and there may be a lot of uncertainty around it, but that’s the basic nature of a choice. You choose …
- Learning from Desire… Okay, we’re going to focus on that as we breathe. We breathe in, breathe out, focusing on the breath. Then there’s feeling—the different feelings of pain there may be in the body—but we’re also trying to develop a feeling of pleasure by the way we breathe and the way we focus on the breath. Perception: the labels we apply …
- At Ease with the Breath… Then there are the four sublime attitudes, contemplation of food, all kinds of things you can focus on that are congenial for getting the mind to settle in and stay in the present moment and not go chasing off after its thoughts. So the important principle while you’re meditating is to feel at ease with your topic. The breath is a topic congenial …
- Chewed Up by Your Food… We focus on the breath: That’s form. We focus on the sensations of the body: That’s form. We try to work the breath through the body so it gives rise to pleasant feelings: That’s feeling. We have to hold the perception of breath and body and mind, because otherwise the mind will wander off into other worlds. You need to use …
- The World of the Noble Truths… He’s saying this is the important issue to focus on. As you focus on this issue, everything else makes sense, everything else finds its meaning. That’s because the truths don’t just sit there. They have duties. The truth of suffering—What is suffering? It’s clinging to the aggregates—that’s to be comprehended. We don’t usually comprehend our sufferings …
- Turn Off the Automatic Pilot… In fact, it’s one of the first things you begin to notice as soon as you focus on the breath: You’re going to start controlling it. If you try to tell yourself, “I’m just going to be with the breath as it is naturally,” the controlling element goes underground where you’re not acknowledging it. That’s not healthy. So you …
- One Hand Clapping… They focus on the breath, and all of a sudden other things come up. They think there’s something wrong with their meditation, that they’ll never get the mind to settle down. It’s simply a matter of learning how to focus in the midst of distraction and not get distracted. The Buddha’s image is of a man walking through a crowd …
- Adult Education… You give the mind one thing to focus on, and very quickly you notice that it’s going to focus on other things instead. Which you might not have really noticed, unless you’d given yourself one thing, one task to stick to. So you learn things about the actions of the mind. As you get really sensitive to the actions of the mind …
- The Languages of the Mind… You can see this clearly as you focus on the breath. You’re talking to yourself about the breath and all of a sudden you’re talking about something else. The shift from one topic to another can be based on all kinds of weird things—a random association, a total blanking out and finding yourself in another place entirely, little bits and snatches …
- Creativity & Play… Or, if you want, you can play with your focus. Instead of focusing on just one spot, try to focus on two spots at once. I personally always find that riveting. One spot can be in the middle of the head, the other spot can be down in the body — say, at the base of the spine — and think of a line connecting the …
- The Bridge to Concentration… When you listen to somebody say something you don’t like, think, “This is going to lead to all kinds of unskillful states in the mind if I’m not careful.” Make it a top priority to focus on what’s going on in your mind and try to control whatever unskillful states arise. When you have that sense of priorities, it’s a …
- Four Noble Questions… This is the problem to focus on: the suffering you’re causing yourself. That’s the big problem. You can focus on all the problems that are being created out there in the world, but we suffer from them simply because we approach them in the wrong way. If we changed the way we approach our inner sufferings, we wouldn’t have to suffer …
- A Self Rightly Directed… Can you breathe right now? Can you focus on your breath? Yes? Then you’ve got what it takes. You’ve got what you need, because all the things you need to know are right here. Of all the strengths we have to develop, the highest one is discernment. And discernment has to do with understanding—or as the Buddha says, having penetrative knowledge …
- Examine Your Happiness… We often hear the Buddha talking about how the five aggregates are stressful because they’re inconstant, and as a result we’re taught not to identify with them, but there are levels of the teaching where the Buddha says you don’t focus on that yet. You focus instead on the fact that some aspects of form, feeling, perception, mental fabrication, and consciousness …
- Centered… And they can’t focus only on the ground. They have to focus also on the leaves of the trees, the branches that might be broken. The signs of animals having passed by can be anywhere, so the trackers need what they call “scatter-shot” concentration. In other words, your concentration is spread out in all directions, while your awareness is centered inside, so …
- Dhamma Medicine… And focus primarily on the results that you want, not on whether you like the causes or not. Make your likes and dislikes secondary. If you’re going to like or dislike something, focus your likes and dislikes on the results. Then do what you have to do in order to get the results you want. This as an essential principle in wisdom. Most …
- The Power of Truth… They talk about anicca as a *sañña, *a perception, or as an anupassana, something you focus on as a practice. In other words, you focus on this theme so that you can see what it does to the mind, particularly in terms of how it helps you gain dispassion for things you hold on to. The same with dukkha and anattā: Each is a …
- Judging Your Meditation… Does the breath feel good? Does it not feel good? What would feel better? When you choose a point to focus on, which spot is going to be most congenial? You’ve got to learn how to judge these things. So it’s good to keep in mind some important principles about judging as it applies to the meditation. The first one is that …
- Fabricating the Present… You begin to see that the way you sense your body depends on exactly what you focus on. The potential for all six elements is all here, throughout this range of energy. It depends on which sensations you’re going to focus on, which ones you emphasize. Seeing this serves three purposes: One, it gets you really focused on the present moment. Two, it …
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