Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 54
  2. More than Just Letting Go
     … That’s where the Buddha focused. He didn’t take on all the suffering in the world—which is another misconception you hear around: that the Buddha said he wanted to end all suffering in the world. Well, no. He wanted to end the kind of suffering that people cause themselves unnecessarily. That’s what he focused on. He couldn’t go out and … 
  3. Reflecting on the Requisites
     … So what are you going to do with that food? Are you going to pretend that it comes without a cost? Or are you going to be conscious of the cost and do what you can to pay back the debt? One of Ajaan Lee’s more memorable Dhamma talks focuses on the fact that this body we have right here is made of … 
  4. Getting Out of Karmic Debt
     … He focused, of course, on the animals he’d eaten. But even people who are vegetarian have debts to the farmers and other people involved in the food chain. When you do something good with the body, that’s how you pay back the debts. In the Canon they talk about how one of the motivations for wanting to gain awakening is that the … 
  5. The Hall of Mirrors
     … Everybody comes to the breath with lots of different preconceived notions about what the breath is, or, when you’re focusing on something, how you have to focus in order to stay with it. These are old habits we picked up a long time ago, and it’s up to you to observe them. The breath is a good mirror for reflecting the mind … 
  6. Determined to Stay with the Breath
     … The Buddha has a passage where he talks about the reasons why people get lazy: “It’s too hot,” “It’s too early,” “It’s too late,” “It’s too cold.” There’s no reason why heat should be an obstacle to getting your mind focused. There’s no reason why cold should be, or earliness or lateness. When there’s noise outside, think … 
  7. Discipline Is a Choice
     … Normally, we jump back and forth, focusing on our bodies for a while, then going out into the world for a bit, then coming back in. But that’s not much of a path. It’s a very zigzag path. You want to make up your mind that the path of right mindfulness is the one you want to follow, and anything that’s … 
  8. Questioning the Hindrances
     … If you wanted to actually gain that object or that person, what would you have to do? And try to think of all the implications, not just the nice ones, because we tend to dress things up, focusing only on the good things and forgetting the bad things. You’ve got to keep reminding yourself: These are the implications. You want a body that … 
  9. Realities Right Here
     … See if we can work with it.” I focused on it and I was able to get it to unknot itself, I guess you might say. Then it got into my digestive system, and I belched. I was really surprised: It really was breath. I don’t know what I’d been thinking up to that point: that this was some kind of make … 
  10. Pleasure & Pain
     … This is why you have to start here, creating this little corner and giving all your attention to this one spot where you’re focusing on the breath or whatever your meditation object is. The purpose is to create a little space, at least, where you can put aside the madness of the world — where you feel solid, secure, where there’s a sense … 
  11. Endurance & Contentment
     … In terms of endurance, if you’re constantly focusing on what’s difficult, what’s painful, where you’re weak, it just aggravates the situation. Look for your strengths. Look for the things that do give you support. I found this very helpful when I was living alone on the mountain there in Thailand. The situation sounds like it should have been ideal: I … 
  12. Fighting off Ignorance
     … For instance, while you’re focusing on the breath, to stay with the breath you have to keep it in mind. You can’t let yourself forget. Otherwise, you’ll go wandering off in your old ways. That ability to keep this one thing in mind is called mindfulness. Every time you breathe in, try to remember that this is where you want to … 
  13. Ironclad Technique vs. No Technique
     … The point to having a technique is that it focuses you on your actions, what you’re doing in the present moment. This is where you can see the processes of fabrication in action. This is where you can see your intentions in action—all the factors of dependent co-arising that lead up to contact and can shape the course of what’s … 
  14. Pushing the Three Characteristics
     … On different days, during different periods of time, even within one meditation sitting, you find past karma of different kinds will come up, so that focusing on the breath for one five-minute period will get results, and for the next five-minute period, it doesn’t seem to get any results at all, even though you’re doing the same thing. So that … 
  15. Booster Stages
     … There’s a passage where the Buddha says that if you find that the way you’re focusing on the body makes you anxious, irritable, uncomfortable in the present, try to focus on a theme that inspires you, that gives rise to a sense of clarity, confidence in the mind. Then, when that theme has done its work, you can put it aside. That … 
  16. The World Is Aflame
     … He focused on the suffering that comes from the mind’s own actions, because that’s where suffering is caused. He’s not here to save the world. He’s here to go beyond it, and that’s where our practice should be aimed.
  17. Friends with the Breath, Friends with the Buddha
     … When you’re focusing on the present moment, alertness is not about being with anything at all coming up in the present. Its focus is on what you’re doing. Be very clear about that. Then ask yourself: Are the results the results you want? If they’re not, what can you change? Give the teachings a serious try. They’re not all that … 
  18. Free Sources of Energy
     … And of course, when you’re focusing on the breath, you have to have certain perceptions in mind and you’re developing certain feelings. That’s mental fabrication. In this case, what kind of breathing would feel energizing? What kind of perception of your abilities right now would be helpful? Your freedom to search for potentials that may not be obvious is something you … 
  19. Working with Nature
     … And focusing on them, you get more observant. You get more alert. You notice things in the mind that you wouldn’t have noticed before, which is precisely what we’re trying to do here. We’re not just trying to squeeze it in a certain direction. We’re trying to get it to settle in so that we can watch it. The more … 
  20. The First Noble Truth
     … You’ll notice with the clinging to views and clinging to habits and practices that a lot of the problem lies in this sense of I, I, I that develops around them; especially the “I’m better than somebody else because of my views or my practices.” As the Buddha says, instead of focusing on who you are, focus on what you’re doing … 
  21. Test Everything
     … You want to keep the mind focused on the spot that you’ve determined for it to stay. After all, when you’re going to try to develop insight, it requires that the mind be very, very steady and not be moved even in the slightest way by the currents that come through it. So the practice of meditation is not just a matter … 
  22. Load next page...