Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Generating Energy
     … You don’t know where to focus your mind. Well, if you have a meditation practice, you know you can focus right here at the breath. Maintain this awareness of the present moment so that the mind doesn’t go flailing around. You’re going to need mindfulness, you’re going to need alertness, you’re going to need as much concentration and discernment … 
  3. Choiceful Awareness
     … For example, you can focus on the way you perceive the breath. When the breath comes in, where do you think of it coming in? From which directions does it come in? You might want to explore first to see what those directions already are before you decide to make changes. Sometimes, when you breathe in, some parts of the body are getting their … 
  4. Purity
     … His teachings on suffering focus on not the suffering that comes from the body, the suffering that comes from what other people do, but the suffering that you’re creating for yourself right here, right now. If you can learn to stop that, he says, then the other suffering doesn’t matter, doesn’t reach into you, doesn’t touch you. So we have … 
  5. Fully Absorbed
     … In the beginning, it’s going to be small, so you protect what small concentration you have, what small focus you have, until it catches and it’s strong enough. Then you can think of it spreading out. Find a spot where you can stay focused and think of protecting it, cupping it with your hands from all the distractions outside. And wait till … 
  6. Cook Your Mind
     … It’s interesting that right resolve doesn’t focus on abandoning the three types of craving the Buddha said cause suffering. Instead, it focuses on three mental attitudes that get in the way of concentration. In fact, all the other factors of the path starting with right resolve through right mindfulness are aimed at getting the mind in right concentration. As you do that … 
  7. Thinking About Rebirth
    Put your focus on the breath. Put aside all the narratives about today, yesterday, last month, next month, that tend to fill up your mind. For the time being, you want to be right here. There’s no real narrative about the breath. There’s a breath coming in and there’s a breath going out. You can comment on it, but once you … 
  8. Xtreme Drama
     … She would think a lot about the earth element, find whatever sensations in the body were solid, still, heavy, and substantial, and just focus on those sensations. That would balance things out. It would balance out the energy both in body and mind. So gradually the wild mood swings became a thing of the past. And her life wasn’t as dramatic as it … 
  9. The Brightness of Life
     … Knowing that fact gives you focus. This is why we focus on the breath as we meditate, because the breath is very close to the mind. As you get to know your breath better, you get to know your mind better, in a way that allows you to see: This is where you’re adding that unnecessary suffering and this is how you can … 
  10. Dreams & Voices
     … There’s one voice that says, “Okay, focus on the breath.” Another series of voices say, “No, I’d rather do this. I’d rather do that.” You have to ask them, “Where is that going to lead?” As the Buddha said, the sign of your wisdom is learning how to look not at what you’d like to do, but for the long … 
  11. Strategic Friends
     … Or if you see that the mind is beginning to loosen its grip a little bit and is getting tired of doing this, wants to do something else, well, focus back in on the breath. How can you make the breath really, really comfortable in a way that you haven’t done before, so that you can keep your interest up? As you do … 
  12. Analyzing the Breath
     … Every sensation has a breath aspect to it, so focus on that breath aspect. If anything seems tight or tense, don’t write it simply off as being a solid part of the body. Think of it as a breath sensation that somehow got tightened. Loosen it up. Approach it as you would a breath that should be moving through the body. See how … 
  13. Discernment Performs
     … When you’re concerned about the results of your actions, those are the kinds of feelings you focus on. You don’t go on to the idea that all feelings ultimately are stressful, because in that case, there would be no idea of what would be a skillful action or a non-skillful action. Everything would be painful. You’d be left, in the … 
  14. Simplify
     … realizing that if you focus on these few things, you don’t have to worry about other things. You can really trust the practice to see you through. Often our desire to cover all the bases is a fear that if one thing doesn’t work out, something else will. And we hesitate to commit ourselves to a particular path of action for fear … 
  15. Pain & the Middle Way
     … In other words, focus not on the pain, but first on the breath energy in the body and seeing what you can do to make that energy pleasant. There arises a sense of pleasure in form, i.e., your sense of the body as you inhabit it from within. Then see how much space in the body that’s not occupied by the pain … 
  16. Take Heart
     … If you think too much about where the path is going and focus all your attention on the fact that you’re not there yet, that kind of desire can get in the way. Tell yourself, “Okay, this is a path that goes in this direction, and the next step is going to be right here, and the next step is going to be … 
  17. Patience & Urgency
     … The best way to express your urgency without impatience is not to focus on the goal. Focus on what you’re doing right now. You’ve got this breath, so try to be as sensitive as possible to this breath. Where is this going to take you? You know it’s going to take you someplace good. How long is it going to take … 
  18. Voices in the Mind
     … We’re not just here to focus on the breath. You find that being able to be with the breath helps pull you out of a lot of dialogues by creating a new dialogue focused around the breath. But then through the force of old habits you get pulled back into old dialogues—your parents, your old friends, all sorts of inner voices. And … 
  19. One Thing Clear Through
    Okay, focus on your breath. We have some background music tonight, but don’t focus there. You have to give up some things if you want to get something of better value. And there’s a lot more value in focusing on the breath, trying to stay with the breath as continually as you can to develop some strength of mind. This is a … 
  20. Loving Yourself Wisely
     … This is the kamma that the Buddha had you focus on most intently: what you’re doing right now. As for your past kamma, that’s going to come willy-nilly. When it meets up with good kamma in the present, sometimes past bad kamma can be dissolved. The image the Buddha gives is of a big lump of salt. If you try to … 
  21. Do, Maintain, Use
     … But focus your primary attention on the comfort of the breath and keep the perception of breath in mind. Otherwise, you go slipping off into just the comfort, and things begin to blur out. When you’ve got your awareness filling the body, you’ve got the breath filling the body, and it feels good, then you can stop evaluating the breath and just … 
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