Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Ven. Ananda’s Awakening
     … It’s not a tactile sensation that we’re focusing on. We’re focusing on what the Buddha calls “form.” When he classifies the in-and-out breath, he doesn’t classify it as a tactile sensation, he classifies it as an aspect of the wind element in the body, which is one of the elements that make up your inner sensation of the … 
  3. Your Duty Lies Right Here
     … The problem is that when you spend all your time focusing outside, the areas where you could influence yourself in a good direction get neglected. Time passes. Death gets closer, and the job doesn’t get easier. So you’ve got to realize that this moment of awareness and this breath deserve your full attention. And it’s not just bare attention. Bare attention … 
  4. Concentration Teamwork
     … If you’ve been focusing at the tip of the nose, you can try, say, the base of the throat, the tip of the breastbone, or the spot just above the navel. There are lots of places you can focus. You can also look at the way you breathe in and breathe out. All too often, as we’re focusing on the breath, we … 
  5. Jhana: Responsible Happiness
     … And the results in the body help you to gauge how skillfully you’re focusing the mind. In the beginning it’s hard to tell the two apart. When there’s a sense of focus, there are going to be physical symptoms around the focus. But with time you begin to see that the focus and the symptoms are separate, so that if you … 
  6. All-around Knowing
     … And get used to visualizing the breath energy entering the body at the spot where you’re focused. You’re not having to pull it down, say, from the nose. As soon as you breathe in, there’s energy there. That helps to change your perception of breath and get it more in line with a perception that will actually help comfortable breath energies … 
  7. True for What Purpose?
     … The grammar gives the structure, helps us to interpret the words, puts the words in order and in context, focuses on which words are important, which words are not, what they mean. Then the individual words fit into the structure. When the Buddha taught the four noble truths, it was as if he was teaching the grammar for the practice. They’re not just … 
  8. Honoring the Noble Ones
     … How could he use this knowledge to put an end to suffering? So he focused on the intentions. He focused on the views. What intentions, what views now would help put an end to suffering, help put an end to this cycle of birth and death? That’s how he discovered the four noble truths. He followed the duties with regard to those truths … 
  9. Oneness is a Water Snake
     … Then, as you settle down, there’s the oneness of the object, which means both that you’re focused on one thing and that it’s the one thing filling the entire range of your awareness. When you’re focused on the breath, you want to think of all the sensations in the body as being related to the breath one way or another … 
  10. Gladdening
     … And when you’re focused, where do you focus? Sometimes it’s easy to get sleepy as you meditate because you’re focused on one spot. So tell yourself, as you start out, that you’re going to make a survey. Focus here for a while; focus there for a while. A good place to start is around the navel, but Ajaan Lee also … 
  11. Exercising Discernment
     … Okay, what’s wrong? Is it the way you’re focusing? Is the way you’re breathing? Is there some subterranean issue that’s following you around or that you’re carrying around? Maybe you should look to that first before focusing on the breath. Maybe there’s some unfinished business. Maybe there’s something you did or said today that’s bothering you … 
  12. Anchored in the Present
     … It’s part of the formula, “keeping focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” The breath, of course, is an aspect of the body in and of itself. The activity of staying focused on the breath contains the activity of attention. The act of attention to the breath, the … 
  13. Resources for Endurance
     … I never focused on any one particular thing as being the most difficult part. Difficulties came up, you dealt with them as they came, you did what had to be done, and you tried to find what strength you had to muster, so that you weren’t focused on how difficult it was. You were more interested in the challenge to your ingenuity in … 
  14. Honest & Observant
     … The Buddha focuses you first on your own actions. The instructions he gives to Rahula about examining your actions before, during, and after you do them are basically instructions on how to be observant and honest, and where to focus your powers of observation. They also focus you on where it’s especially important that you be honest with yourself: one, in terms of … 
  15. For Your Future’s Sake
     … When the Buddha talks about focusing on the present moment, it’s not for the sake of the present moment itself. It’s because there’s work to be done here, because there are dangers lying down the road. As in the verse where he says, “Put aside thoughts of the past, concerns of the future, and focus on what you can experience right … 
  16. Concentration & Insight
    When you’re focused on the breath, you’re focusing on what’s called “form.” The breath is one of the elements that make up your sense of the form of the body as you feel it from within. In other words, you’re not concerned with how the body looks on the outside. You’re concerned more with how you feel it from … 
  17. Noble Right Concentration
     … Stay focused on the body in and of itself—in this case, it’s the breath—ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. In other words, you’ve got one topic that you’re focused on. If anything else comes up that’s related to the world, you put it aside. That’s the formula for establishing mindfulness … 
  18. Wisdom & Compassion
     … If the Buddha weren’t concerned about the issue of happiness—that’s what goodwill is, it’s the wish for happiness—then he wouldn’t have focused on this issue. He would have focused someplace else. So the wisdom is based on goodwill and compassion. And goodwill and compassion are based on wisdom. You begin to realize that if you want happiness, the … 
  19. The Middle Way
     … After going through a list of the different factors of this middle way—right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration—he focused on right view. He focused on explaining exactly what is the kind of suffering he’s talking about here: specifically, the suffering that comes from craving, the suffering in clinging to the five … 
  20. Second Wind
     … It has that sense because the body is looking in a certain direction, your eyes are focused out front. But does your mind have to be focused out front? Does it have a front? Does it have a back? Can you think of it looking out in all directions? One of the epithets of the Buddha was the All-around Eye. It has a … 
  21. Calm in the Storm
     … So it may seem strange that we’re focusing on the breath as we meditate, instead of focusing directly on the mind. That’s because it’s a lot easier to see the mind when you’re not focused directly on it. You focus it on one thing, and then you can back up, and observe it as it stays focused. That’s when … 
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