Search results for: "Attention"

  1. Page 76
  2. The Four Noble Truths from Within
     … So this is where all your attention should be focused. Learn to how to get more and more familiar with this place. It’s like knowing you’re going to be mugged at a certain street corner if you’re not careful. So you go down and you check out the street corner to figure out, “Okay, who’s going to mug me and … 
  3. The True Cause of Suffering
     … But I found that if I would focus on one spot for three breaths and then another spot a few inches away for three breaths and then another spot a few inches away for three breaths and kept moving my attention like that, it helped keep me awake. So that’s another possibility you might want to try. If you really have trouble sitting … 
  4. Hunting & Foraging
     … Wherever it’s most blatant, wherever it’s easiest to follow, let your attention settle right there. That’s your focal point—or, as they call it in Pali, your support. You’re going to be watching the mind, but first you’ve got to give yourself a place to stay where you can watch it. So you watch the breath first and try … 
  5. The Balance of Power
     … The more you try to cause a revolution in the world outside, the more these powers fight back at you, try to divert your attention from the real issue. If they can’t do that, then it’s out-and- out battle. So you need allies. It’s the same in the mind. If you are going to create a revolution in the mind … 
  6. Issues of Control
     … All too often, we talk about paying attention to the breath. We say, “Focus on the breath,” and we instinctively tense up around whatever we’re focused on. That makes it uncomfortable. So instead, think of the breath bathing your body. It’s on all sides—it’s in the front, it’s behind, it’s to the left, to the right. You’re … 
  7. Rivers of Craving
     … But we weren’t paying attention to that at the moment when we chose to come into the human realm. All we saw was what was attractive, what was appealing. And do you want to fall for that again? That’s one kind of craving. Another kind of craving is simply wanting to be somebody. You see all the things you’ve identified with … 
  8. Oppressed by Old Kamma
     … So focus all of your attention here. Make sure this moment is well handled. As for your ability to handle moments in the future, well, leave that for the future to take care of. If you develop good habits now, you’ll make it that much easier to handle things in the future. Don’t believe all the pictures your mind paints about what … 
  9. Staying, Moving, & Neither
     … In other words, you focus your attention on the roots, and the fruits take care of themselves. And for the time being, you don’t want to go anywhere else. This is where the principle of staying comes in. We’re creating a state of becoming here, a state of mind. As the Buddha said, that requires a desire, because desire is the basic … 
  10. How to Think about Death
     … One of the most important of those skills is learning how to direct your thoughts, direct your attention, to what’s of value. After all, there is a something of extreme value, supreme value that the Buddha teaches: total release from suffering. It’s something we can do, and whether we reach it in this lifetime or a future lifetime, we can work in … 
  11. The Dhamma Eye
     … You find a person of integrity, you listen to the true Dhamma, you apply appropriate attention, and you practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. That’s how you get there. It’s all very plain stuff. As the Buddha said, there were no secrets that he kept up to the last moment. In other words, it’s not the case that he … 
  12. A Path of Aggregates
     … So focus lots of attention on your intentions, your actions: what you think, what you do, what you say. That’s all part of right view. Then there’s right view about the four noble truths. Again, the cause of suffering is not something outside; it’s not built into the system. The system can be really bad, but the reason you’re suffering … 
  13. Four Determinations
     … The first, the Buddha says, is “not to neglect discernment.” What does it mean to neglect discernment? It implies that you have some discernment already, but you’re not paying attention to it. Remember that the basic principle of discernment is that you look at your actions to see which of your actions lead to long-term welfare and happiness, and which ones lead … 
  14. A Path Under the Trees
     … Can you sense any distinction between the way the body feels as you breathe in, and the way it feels as you breathe out? Wherever it’s clearest, focus your attention there. But try to keep this full body awareness going at the same time. So you focus simply on the breath right here, right now. Any thoughts of the world, you just let … 
  15. Guardian Meditations
     … It’s easier to look at the desire in and of itself once you’ve learned how to take apart whatever object you may be fastening on, and then direct your attention back to the desire. Look at it. Try to understand what it’s coming from. Think also about where it leads. If you were to give in to that desire, or even … 
  16. Honest & Observant
     … This was brought to a Ajaan Mun’s attention, and he said that an important element was missing in that definition: the mind. It’s the mind that creates the intentions, and the intentions are what make the difference between what does and doesn’t fall under the precepts. In fact, one time he said he himself observed one precept, which was the mind … 
  17. All Three Functions of Mindfulness
     … One is to remember to stay alert to what you’re doing in the present moment and not let your attention shift off to the past or the future. The second is to remember to recognize what’s coming up in the present moment, and specifically what you’re doing, to see what’s skillful, what’s unskillful. If, say, a thought arises in … 
  18. The Lessons of Good Kamma
     … What the Buddha does emphasize when he introduces the topic of kamma is the need to be responsible and to focus your attention on your present kamma, and not to worry about the past. Your focus on the present moment is not simply for the purpose of being fully present to everything in the present. It’s for the purpose of looking closely at … 
  19. Staying Power
     … Don’t see them as too small to pay attention to. For example, with anger—the normal ways that people deal with anger are either to express the anger, which creates bad kamma, or to bottle it up. Of course, what happens to bottled anger? It ferments and then it explodes the bottle. And even before it explodes the bottle, people can sense that … 
  20. In Line with the Truth
     … You just let it go and don’t pay any attention to it, don’t follow it, and it’ll die on its own. Just keep coming back to the breath, back to the breath. Each time you come back, reward yourself with a good, comfortable breath, something that feels really good deep down inside. If there’s any part of the body that … 
  21. Habits of Perception
     … So as we’re practicing meditation, remember that perception and attention — the way we perceive things, the questions we ask about the things we perceive — are the two main issues we have to focus on. This is one of the reasons we put so much emphasis on concentration, for the levels of concentration are perception attainments. Can you hold onto a particular perception so … 
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