Search results for: "Attention"
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- Detail Work… Where are they right now? Pay attention to how they feel in that part of the body. Is there any tension or tightness around those bones? Relax it. Then move up to the next joints—relax any tension around them—and then the third joints, the bones of the palms of the hands, the wrists, the forearms, the elbows, the upper arms, the shoulders …
- Shoot Your Pains with Wisdom… You were the one who turned your attention there and highlighted it in your awareness. You were the one who tried to make something out of it, tried to shoot it with fancy labels. The fancy labels may seem reassuring, but they’re not the skillful shooting that the Buddha has in mind. He wants you to shoot yourself with the pleasure and bliss …
- Nobody’s Servant… But as you pay attention to the details, that’s how your discernment develops. You begin to see subtle things in the body you never noticed before. You realize you’ve got potentials here inside, so that you can become independent. Because the world outside gets swept away, swept away, and as long as we’re trying to hold onto things in the world …
- Healing Skills… Give it your full attention, put your whole heart into it, really try to be skillful as you do this. The greater the skill and sensitivity you bring to this process, the greater the healing effect. What you’re doing is taking advantage of the medicine that’s right around you, right here. They tell the story of the Buddha’s own personal doctor …
- Honesty… When you pay attention to the causes, you’re going to get the results. So when things aren’t going as well as you’d like them to, turn around and look: “What am I doing?” Over time you’ll begin to see the connection between your actions and your results. This is a very large area of ignorance in our minds. When the …
- Ripples Go Far… But then when you see the larger pattern, you understand what’s going on and where to focus your attention. That’s the second knowledge that he gained on the night of his awakening: seeing all beings in the cosmos being reborn in line with their karma. And that’s when he began to focus in on the karma his mind was doing in …
- Refuge in the Dhamma… If the student is diligent, pays attention, tries hard to study, then the teacher’s duty is to make sure the student is well taught. Beyond that, as he says, the teacher’s duty is to offer protection in all directions—an interesting idea. What it means, of course, depends on the skill that the teacher imparts as to what that kind of protection …
- More than Mindfulness… Even though there may be one point of their vision that’s more prominent than the others, their attention is diffused, it’s not focused in. It doesn’t point in, it spreads out. So whatever they see, they see and they let go because they want to be fresh to see the next moment and the next step. Whether they’re trying to …
- Gratification… This is something you really ought to pay attention to. You try to draw out the pleasure as much as you can. That’s a type of skill in and of itself, but it doesn’t go very far. It stays totally in the present moment and leaves you no better than you were before. Whereas with the second sort of skill, you’re …
- Inner Civil War… In other words, don’t pay attention to it. Some defilements are like the tar traps that they set out for monkeys: Once you touch it, even just to shake it off, you’re caught. So you just don’t touch it. It can be raging, but you don’t have to do anything with it. You’ve got the breath, so you stay …
- Believe in Your Actions… You have to ask yourself, “If you don’t do the practice now, if you don’t pay careful attention to this choice right now, when are you going to start being careful? And if you keep on letting things slide this way, aren’t you building up some bad habits that are going to be hard to overcome down the line? And if …
- Duties… Allow your attention to settle there. You can change the rhythm of the breath if you like. Try to find a rhythm that feels good. But always try to stay with that sensation of where you feel the breathing. Because when we talk about doing breath meditation, that’s the breath we’re focusing on. It doesn’t have to be the air coming …
- A Mirror for the Mind… The first jhāna employs directed thought and evaluation, which means that you direct your attention to the issues of the breath, and then you evaluate how it’s going, and in what ways you can make it better. Then, when it does go well, how can you make the most out of that sense of pleasure? Not by wallowing in it, but by allowing …
- Pleasure & Pain… This is one the reasons why learning how to let go of distractions is such an important part of learning meditation—being able to choose your focus, instead of simply allowing whatever comes in with the strongest force to grab your attention. There will be times when the pain is intense, and you’re not ready to deal with it yet: What are you …
- Training in Right Resolve… Focus your attention there, then ask yourself if the breath is comfortable. If you’re not sure, you can experiment with different kinds of breathing. See what the body needs right now, see what the mind needs right now, and see if you can bring their needs together. Sometimes the body likes very gentle breathing, but if it’s too gentle for the mind …
- With Reference to the World… That way, you really get to be here, to enjoy being here, having a sense of belonging here, because you really pay attention to what’s here and the potentials of what’s here. Learn how to cultivate right here, so that it becomes a field where you can eat all you need from the produce you create.
- Practicing from Gratitude… Let your attention settle there, and take that as your guide for what’s going to feel good. Think of the breath as nourishing that part of the body every time you breathe in. If there’s any tension in that part of the body, allow it to dissolve each time you breathe out. If you find that there’s a sense of well …
- Above & Beyond Suffering… The act of walking requires less and less of its full attention so that it can focus on other things as well. The same with the mind. We have some very awkward and inefficient ways of dealing with life, various very unskillful ways of dealing with life, because we’re under the impression that we have to think in a certain way and we …
- Patient & Inquisitive… The purpose of the Dhamma as the Buddha set it out is to point your attention toward the right spots, and to get you to start asking the right questions. A famous author once said if they can get you asking the wrong questions, it doesn’t matter what answers you come up with. But if someone like the Buddha gets you answering the …
- Firmly Intent… Usually the message is, “Watch out for this, watch out for that, worry about this, pay attention to that.” This is a habit we developed way, way back. A lot of it came from our experience with pain. We experienced pain well before we knew language. That’s one of the reasons why the Buddha has us look at pain, because a lot of …
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