Search results for: "Focusing"
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- Immediate Knowledge… This is why we’re focusing on the breath. It’s something right here, right now. Even if you have doubts about other things, you can at least be confident, when the breath is coming in, you know that it’s coming in. When it’s coming out, you can know that as well. When you’re with the breath, you know what you …
- Seclusion… There can be just awareness focused on the body in and of itself. And whether the body is sick or healthy, young or old, that doesn’t matter right now. Just what does it feel like to be in the body right now? Focus on that. Be mindful. Be alert. And develop a quality called ardency, that you really stick with it. There’s …
- No Happiness Other than Peace… That’s how you know you’re properly focused in the present moment: if there’s a sense of well-being here. But concentration is not the goal, because there’s a certain amount of effort that has to go into keeping the mind concentrated. And it’s an acquired taste. Some people sit here and they’re miserable for a whole hour. What …
- Two Kinds of Cross-Questioning… Then you can try working with deep and shallow, heavy or light, focusing the breath energy in different parts of the body. There’s lots to play with here. But even though we have a technique, we’re not trying to force the mind into a mold. And we’re not trying to force it into believing certain things. As the Buddha said, the …
- The Veils of Delusion… And the solidity of mind, the solidity of your focus that can keep you focused from cause to effect, that’s missing as well. So you can’t see how these things get strung together, what leads to what, and then what that leads to, and where it comes around again. The mind has to be really steady to see this. So the time …
- The Best of a Bad Situation… He ended up not only surviving, but also discovering new ways of focusing on the breath, using the breath, connecting to the breath energies throughout the body to cure his heart. And he arrived at a way of teaching breath meditation that he used for the rest of his life. So the Dhamma is here to offer you something with which you can make …
- Progress & Regress… Dwell on that, because when you realize the potentials are there, it’s simply a question of which ones you’re focusing on, which ones you emphasize. Then it’s not hopeless. Just learn to hold on tight to whatever’s good within the mind, and as you stay with that long enough, it’ll begin to grow, gain strength, and get to the …
- Defilements with Their Bambi Eyes… So for the time being, put all your thoughts that are not related to the breath in the category of “under suspicion,” and get the mind still, focused on the breath. Any other thoughts not related to the breath, no matter how good they may seem, no matter how right they may seem, just say, “No, not right now.” No matter how true they …
- Self-Knowledge… What we’re focusing on is the unskillful side. People who are quick to see what’s wrong in a situation can do that either skillfully or unskillfully. People who are more laid back can do that skillfully or unskillfully. So that’s the issue you want to focus on. Whatever habits you have, look for where they’re unskillful and see what you …
- Giving Ballast to the Mind… The more continuous the sense of pleasure of the body, the more easily the mind will stay focused continually. It’ll be less and less inclined to want to change. To teach it the habits that it needs in order to be reliable, you have to stick with something. Train the mind to be continuous in its gaze, continuous in its attention, continuous in …
- Alone & with Others… And even when you’re with other people, try to make sure that your inner center stays in place, wherever you’ve focused it in your body. That way, living alone doesn’t become a problem or an obstacle to your practice; and living with other people doesn’t become an obstacle, because you’ve learned to develop a sense of balance. Particularly when …
- The Karma of Meditation… Primarily he’s focusing on the suffering of stress in the mind. But to comprehend that, you have to consider how the mind conceives of, say, pain in the body. How does it conceive unpleasant emotions in a way that makes it suffer even more? For most of us, as the Buddha said, when we’re struck with a pain of some kind, it …
- Learning How to Talk to Yourself… So, you can provide yourself with good food here in the present moment by developing the right attitudes, focusing on the right things, useful things to think about, focusing on commenting on them, evaluating, asking questions, answering the questions in a way that’s really useful—true, useful, timely. That becomes your food. You find that when you have a good source of food …
- Whole-Hearted Concentration… If you’re focusing on the breath in and of itself, okay, every cell of the body is breathing in, breathing out. Everywhere there’s a nerve end, think of its being awake to the breathing in and breathing out of every cell. Be fully present. Willingly present. Whole-heartedly present. All too often our concentration gets cut off because we’re partly here …
- A Pure Happiness… This is why we’re focusing on the breath. This is our manageable bit, our manageable piece right now: this breath, right here, right now; this moment of mindfulness right here, right now. And whatever comes up in terms of an obstacle, it’s just that little bit of a thought right here, right now. If you start thinking about it in big terms …
- Neither Here nor There… We go through many becomings in the course of the day, focusing our desires here and then jumping over there, and then coming back here again and then someplace else. It all comes from our cravings. The cravings, of course, are the cause of suffering. They’re precisely what we need to study if we want to get past suffering. We have to understand …
- A Gift of Well-Being… Which side of the body seems to be holding more tension? For example, if you’re focusing on the back, notice: In it the upper back, is the left side or the right side holding more tension? Then go down to the lower back. How about there? Down through your legs. You find that the tension tends to be distributed in very unusual ways …
- On Not Being a Victim… He focused his conviction on that. And the power of his conviction made a difference. It reshaped his mind, reshaped his experience of things. It shaped his mind until it reached a point where it could see things very clearly in terms of why there is suffering and how you can put an end to suffering. It didn’t just happen; it happened through …
- Peace of Mind… If you choose a spot that seems difficult to stay focused on, move around a bit until you find a spot that’s just right. Let the mind settle down and rest for a while. It doesn’t have to go anywhere; it doesn’t have to do anything. You have no responsibilities right now. Anything that has to do with the past or …
- As Days & Nights Fly Past… Heavier or lighter; deeper or more shallow; faster or slower; broader or more focused. There are lots of different ways you can breathe. Experiment to see what the range of breathing can do for the body. It’s like getting a new stereo. You fiddle with the dials to see how they affect the sound, what kind of noises you can get out of …
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