Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. The Lightened Mind
     … You’re focused on your object, but you’ve lifted your awareness up a little bit, just enough so that you can observe the mind itself as it relates to the object. This, the Buddha said, is how you begin to develop discernment within the practice of concentration so that the concentration itself isn’t heavy. It gets lighter and lighter as you drop … 
  3. Contentment
     … Keep reminding yourself that this is what the Buddha was focused on the night of his awakening—his breath. Everything he needed to know in order to gain awakening was present right here when the mind was present at the breath. So even though you haven’t reached that point in your breathing yet, in your comprehension of the breath or your comprehension of … 
  4. Sophisticated Dhamma
     … Sometimes it seems that focusing the breath is like trying to balance a ball bearing on the tip of a needle. It just keeps falling off, falling off, falling off. So you have to have a lot of respect for the potential of concentration to keep at it. The other part of the problem is that we tend to overlook concentration. We all have … 
  5. A Handful of Leaves
     … At the same time, it focuses on where the real problem is. The problem isn’t in trying to figure out which of the Buddha’s teachings is right for you. The problem is that you’re sitting here thinking and using your mind in ways that are causing lots of unnecessary stress and suffering. So you want to look right here so that … 
  6. Skilled in Leaving Concentration
     … You can reflect a little bit more: “During the meditation, at what point were you most settled?” “At what point was the concentration strongest, or the breath most comfortable?” “Where were you focused at that point?” “What was the quality of the breath?” “What had you been doing up to that point?” If you can remember any of these things, make a mental note … 
  7. Worries & Regrets
     … That focuses you back on the present. As for the thoughts that come up after that, learn how to chop them up. As you breathe in, think of the breath scattering the thoughts. Or you can think of the breath as a big broom sweeping through the body, sweeping through the mind, sweeping those thoughts away. That way, you can settle down and actually … 
  8. Discernment: Commit & Reflect
     … And you remember that discernment is a value judgment as to what’s worth doing, what’s not worth doing—because everything the Buddha teaches is focused on action: which actions are better than others. After all, as you see your actions, you begin to see the mind in action. And you catch yourself: “Oh, I’m doing this. I’m clinging here. Craving … 
  9. Behind the Scenes
     … Instead of focusing on the breath, we focus on what we did or somebody else did in the course of the day. And we could feed on that kind of thing for an hour, yet we wouldn’t gain the benefits from the meditation. So we try to put things into the proper perspective. Think of all living beings in all directions, and how … 
  10. Specifically
     … That’s when the teachings work, because you’ve got them focused right at the right space, the right event, the right moment in the mind.
  11. Close to the Heart
     … to look after our own minds, our own hearts.” So although the words may seem foreign and the process of meditation mechanical — you’re focusing on the breath, you’re dealing with the mechanics of the breathing, how the breathing relates to the pains in the body — ultimately these things start getting closer and closer to your heart. As you learn to treat your … 
  12. The Buddha Aimed High
     … There’s a way out, and it’s through your actions. “I’m the owner of my actions.” His quest as he said, was to find what was skillful, so he focused immediately on his actions. He wasn’t interested in testing the idea that human action was incapable of finding the deathless, or that the deathless could be found without acting. He wanted … 
  13. Determined Goodwill
     … When you find yourself overwhelmed with thoughts of ill will, stop and ask yourself: “How am I breathing? How am I talking to myself about the issue? What’s wrong with what I’m saying? How can I change what I’m saying to myself?” And finally, “How can I change my perception of the situation? The feelings that I’m focusing on?” In … 
  14. Impatience
     … being mindful, being alert, keeping mindfulness and alertness focused on our actions and their results. Sometimes this may sound wearisome—that you’ve got to watch yourself all the time—which is why we practice concentration. Give the mind a good safe place to be, an easy task where it’s not so difficult to watch what you’re doing, not so difficult to … 
  15. The Flowing Mind
     … You sit here, focused on the breath, and you can breathe in ways that are comfortable, energizing when you’re feeling tired, soothing when you’re feeling frazzled, relaxing when you’re feeling tense. There’s a lot you can do with the breath energy in the body, both with the in-and-out breath and with the general sense of breath flowing through … 
  16. Right View from Right Effort
     … then another for three—in other words, you keep moving around and you have to keep counting your breaths—it gives you something to do, gets you engaged, helps keep you focused and awake. Or you can think about the different parts of the body. We have that chant on the 32 parts of the body. You can make your own list or you … 
  17. Patience & Endurance
     … When the Buddha talks about endurance and patience, those are the two topics he focuses most of his attention on: physical pain and hurtful words. With hurtful words, he talks about how you have to realize that human speech has different kinds. There’s true and there’s false. There’s kindly and there’s unkindly. There’s useful and there’s useless. Well … 
  18. Right Action & Right Livelihood
     … You may be very focused on some of those sensual thoughts, but it’s wrong concentration. Here you’re trying to provide the mind with a better source of happiness. After all, the way you think is going to bend your mind, and when your mind is bent, it’s going to bend your actions. So don’t think that when you’re sitting … 
  19. When Nothing’s Happening
     … You’re focusing not so much on where you want to go, and more on what might be in the way. You can’t intend to see the deathless and just stick with that intention, because that intention will get in the way of developing the path. You have to focus your intention on what’s getting in the way. So one thing you … 
  20. The Intelligent Heart
     … We find that simply by focusing on the breath in a way that’s comfortable allows the mind to settle down and feel at home in the present moment. That right there is a huge, huge thing. There are so many people who can’t do even that, either out of regret for what they’ve done in the past, or just a simple … 
  21. Not-self Is a Value Judgment
     … You’re going to be sitting here meditating, focused on the breath, and all of a sudden the breath seems far away and you’re in some other thought world. You want to be quick to recognize that and quick to see the disadvantages of staying with that thought world. And then retreat from it. Let it go. There are other identities, of course … 
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