Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. The Brahmaviharas Are Not Enough
     … You stay focused on the breath in and of itself, and you put aside any greed or distress with reference to the world. The quality of ardency is where the discernment starts coming in, as you try to do this skillfully and really analyze where the suffering is. This active part of meditation often gets overlooked. It involves both the observer, the more passive … 
  3. Only Your Best
     … Think of your hour here as a meditator focusing on the breath as a time to show your craft in staying with the breath, so that when you come out from the hour, you have a sense, “Okay, I did my best,” because this is one of those areas where only the best will do. The state of your mind. Your ability to put … 
  4. Staying on Track
     … If he were here looking at the way you’re breathing, the way you’re talking to yourself, the perceptions and feelings you’re focused on, what would he say? When you come up with what seems like a good solution, give it a try, but then remember: You’re giving it a try. Our problem is that we’re all coming from ignorance … 
  5. Timeless Dhamma
     … You’re focusing on the breath coming in, going out. You’re not concerned with how your body manages in the world, whether it’s good-looking or strong enough or resilient enough to take on the tasks you want to take on. You just look at the fact you’ve got a body here. Try to look at the raw materials of your … 
  6. Perfections as Priorities
    Perfections as Priorities August 21, 2008 We sit here focused on the breath, mindful of the breath, alert. We want to make sure we’re not just mindful and alert for a few breaths and then off someplace else. We want to stay mindful and alert for the whole hour. And then at the end of the hour when you get up, you want … 
  7. The Five Precepts for the Mind
     … At the end of the retreat, one of the questions on the very last night was, “How do we carry this practice into our daily lives?” And so he focused on the five precepts: against killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, taking intoxicants. Some of the people were upset. They thought that he was looking down on them, thinking that they, as lay people, were … 
  8. Respect for What’s Noble
     … craving for sensuality, craving for becoming—that’s to take on an identity in a particular world, focused on a desire of any kind. Then there’s the “you” who can bring the desired object about, and the “you” who’s going to enjoy it once you’ve found it. And then there’s the “you” who’s watching the other two senses of … 
  9. All for the Sake of Freedom
     … This is the territory you’re going to try to inhabit right now—the body as you feel it from within—focusing particularly on the breath energy as it flows in the body. When you breathe in, where do you feel the breath? What does the breath feel like? Here we’re not talking just about just the air coming in and out of … 
  10. Factors for Awakening
     … How do I stay more focused on the breath? This may involve breathing more heavily, or taking a quick survey of the body each time you breathe, going through the different parts of the body. One thing I’ve found is when that you’re getting drowsy, it’s helpful to move the spot of your concentration every three breaths: the middle of the … 
  11. Two Types of Dukkha
     … So the second type of suffering is where your energy is going to be focused. When that problem is solved, there’s nothing else to weigh down the mind.
  12. Strong & Heedful
     … For instance, when anger arises, instead of focusing on the object of the anger, focus on the anger in and of itself. When skillful states arise, focus on them, too. As you do this, you begin to see that there are times in the mind when things are at peace, when the mind has a certain level of intelligence. You want to foster those … 
  13. Look after the Source
     … Does the body need short breathing right now? Does it need long breathing? Deep, shallow, heavy or light, expansive, or more focused? That’s something you can play with, something you can adjust. You have a large measure of control here. So learn how to exercise your control: one, where you can have the most impact and two, where you can have the best … 
  14. Things that Arise & Pass Away
     … It’s right here that insight can come, and it’s focused on just that issue: Can you detect something changing in here? If you can, then the next question is: What did you do to cause the change? Notice that you’re looking into your mind for the cause. There’s a Dhamma talk where Ajahn Chah is talking to a group of … 
  15. Grounded in the Breath
     … If your awareness is too narrowly focused, it may be good for concentration sometimes. Sometimes it is necessary to start out with a smaller focus. But if you want to gain some insight into the mind, you have to expand the range of your awareness. It’s like a theater. If there’s a spotlight on the stage, it brightens up that one spot … 
  16. The Meaning of Insight
     … These are all means to a goal, although you don’t get to the goal by focusing on the goal or trying to clone the goal. You get there by paying attention to the means and doing them really carefully. Still, it’s good to have in the back of the mind the realization that the practice does serve a purpose, and to have … 
  17. Guardian Meditations
     … So when you broaden your view here and don’t insist on focusing just on the things that are exciting or lust-provoking, you begin to realize that this is not anything really worthy of lust. Then you start turning around to look at the mind: What is it that the mind needs or wants to use for some immediate pleasure? Can you provide … 
  18. Exploring Fabrication
     … the feelings of rapture and pleasure you’ve been inducing, and also the perceptions by which you can stay focused on the breath. What affect do those have on the mind? Then you try to calm that affect. In other words, you move from rapture to ease, and then finally to equanimity. With the perceptions, you try to find ways of perceiving the breath … 
  19. From Dependence to Independence
     … You’re sitting here meditating and focusing on the breath, and the mind doesn’t seem to get anywhere at all. Sometimes it seems to be getting worse. Or things can be going really well, and you start getting complacent, not realizing that you’ve still got things coming in from the past that you don’t know about. This is where it’s … 
  20. The Safety of Dualities
     … So, although there were some dichotomies or dualities that the Buddha avoided—he called them extremes—he focused on teaching the dichotomy and duality of suffering and not suffering, what should be done, what should not be done, what is skillful to do, what is not skillful to do to put an end to suffering. Those are important dualities to keep always in mind … 
  21. Not Swept Away
     … You’re after the mind, and you’re going to learn a lot of interesting things about the mind as you try to stay focused here. Other thoughts are going to come up for sure, and you need skill in learning how to not get sucked in by them. Sometimes you can simply notice the fact, “Oh, here comes another thought.” That in and … 
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