Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Feelings Not of the Flesh
    Feelings Not of the Flesh August 23, 2012 When the Buddha talks about focusing on feelings as a frame of reference, he talks about two main kinds: what he calls feelings of the flesh and feelings not of the flesh. The distinction doesn’t have to do with the difference between physical and mental feelings. Feelings of the flesh can be physical or mental … 
  3. Free for the Time Being
     … You want a center at some point in the body to keep you focused, but at the same time you want to enlarge your range of awareness so that it fills the whole body. If there are parts of the body that you’re not consciously occupying right now, other things can slip in, or other things can hide out. You don’t want … 
  4. The Pleasure of Concentration
     … So I focused on the area immediately around it and treated it very gently. In cases like this, you don’t go barging in to straighten things out. You listen and then try things out very gently. And you listen again. This is in line with the Buddha’s general principle for how the Dhamma is nourished. He says you commit yourself to it … 
  5. Cleanliness is Next to Mindfulness
     … learning how to be focused on that activity, learning to be strict with the mind when it starts wandering off. That way the mind is right there; you learn how to keep it right there no matter what you’re doing. And when the time comes to sit down with your eyes closed, well, you’re right there. You don’t have to go … 
  6. Peace of Mind
     … And even though it may seem like a simple thing, being focused on the breath, still the qualities you develop around it are important. Just like going down to the gym: They ask you to lift some weights. What does it accomplish, lifting weights? It doesn’t generate electricity. It doesn’t do anything. It just goes up and down, but strength of the … 
  7. Beyond Sound-bitten Dhamma
     … Have some compassion for them.” So Ajaan Maha Boowa realized that he had to look at things in an all-around way—not just be focused on one thing at a time. I’ve told you the story about Ajaan Fuang talking to a young monk who was scheduled to disrobe. His parents and his fiancée had come to pick him up. They were … 
  8. Meditators at Work
     … In the Canon, when he talks about focusing on the present moment, it’s always in the context of death contemplation: that there’s work to be done, and you don’t know how much time you have, but you do know you have the present moment, so this is where you focus to do the work. And what is the work? As Ajaan … 
  9. The Breathing Game
     … If you want, you can use a meditation word to go along with the breathing to help keep you focused. A traditional one is *buddho. *It’s the title of the Buddha after he gained his awakening. The word means “awake.” Use bud- with the in-breath, dho with the out-. Buddho, buddho. No matter how many times you fall off the breath, just … 
  10. The Dhamma Protects
     … All too often we’re focusing on the suffering caused by other people, other things, so we’re ignorant of what we’re doing. This is why the patience and the equanimity are needed, so that you can step back from what you’re usually doing to see that it’s optional. You don’t have to harm yourself in that way. This is … 
  11. The Four Biases
     … So this exercise we’re doing here, focusing on the breath, getting the breath to be comfortable, letting that comfortable breath sensation spread throughout the body, bringing all the different strands of the breath energy in the body into alignment: It’s a gift not only to ourselves, but also to the people around us. It’s our protection. They talk about taking refuge … 
  12. A Complete Training
     … The first was all about the pleasures of samsara, and the other was focused on the drawbacks of samsara. They seemed to be heading in different directions. But as you start actually practicing the Dhamma, you find that the two go together. You’re trying to understand your mind. The best way to understand the mind is to realize it’s not just mind … 
  13. Imagine
     … We’re not focusing just on in, out, in, out. It’s not just the air coming in and out of the nose. It’s the whole energy flow in the body. That’s something you can inhabit. That’s something you can make really, really comfortable. Really riveting. When the breath gets really full, it fills up the different energy channels that are … 
  14. Feeding on the Breath
     … In the same way, as you meditate, you get a sense of ease from staying focused on the breath and then you knead it through the body. So you have to figure out: Where are you going to get the sense of ease? Where are you going to get the rapture that’s supposed to go along with it? And then how do you … 
  15. A Thread into Awareness
     … You focus on the breath because the act of focusing on the breath is what causes that sense of fullness to be there. Don’t get the cause and the effect mixed up. Eventually, that fullness will begin to fade because the energy channels in the body get more and more connected. You finally get to the point when everything settles down and is … 
  16. Virtue Fosters Concentration
     … If you go around gathering up images of things you like to look at, or hearing about things that you hate to hear about, focusing on what’s attractive about other people or what’s really disturbing or upsetting about other people’s behavior: If you gather that up all through the day, it’s going to be sitting here waiting for you as … 
  17. The Lotus in the Mud
     … So use the concentration to get the mind in a position where it’s willing to look at its own drawbacks, instead of focusing on things outside. Ajaan Maha Boowa makes a comment about how we have a tendency, if there’s mud in our minds, to sling it around on other people: “There’s something wrong with this person or that person, the … 
  18. Freedom Undefined
     … This is why the Buddha focused his four noble truths on precisely this question, because that’s what the four truths are: an issue of skillful action, desirable result, unskillful action, undesirable result. They’re a way of sorting those issues out. As for the other questions — concerning the world, the oneness or plurality of the universe, the existence of a self, the nature … 
  19. Purity Comes Through Discernment
     … You need to understand it at least to some extent, so that it can stay focused on one topic without getting duped by its normal tendency to wander off. Once the mind gets more solidly concentrated, more solidly centered like this, then the tranquility gets greater, and the opportunity for gaining any insight gets sharper. The less you stir up the water of the … 
  20. Goodwill First & Last
     … It starts with his own narratives, moves to the larger picture, and then focuses in on the present moment. This is what we have to do as we settle down to meditate. You remind yourself that you’re here for the sake of goodwill, for the sake of true happiness. And you realize you’re not the only one out there who has to … 
  21. Patience & Consistency
     … A centered and broad awareness lasts a lot longer and is also more helpful in gaining insight than a very narrowly focused one, because a narrow focus gets confining after a while. And it’s easily knocked off center. But when your awareness is broad and covers the whole body, you can maintain this centered but broad state of mind in all your activities … 
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