Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. The Grass at the Gate
     … Allow that to happen, but don’t lose your focus on the feet and the hands. Just let that sense of relaxation spread and keep watch over its source. The focusing on the sensation here is directed thought. Watching over it, protecting it, is evaluation. Staying consistently with the relaxed sensation is singleness of preoccupation. And in that relaxed sensation there’s the potential … 
  3. The Energy You Broadcast
     … If you find that you need more energy, okay, focus on that. But again, don’t push it too much. You’re feeling your way into a sense of well-being that then creates an energy that radiates out, without your having to think about it radiating out at all. It radiates on its own. Just like the brainwaves in the body: They say … 
  4. Wise About Pleasure
     … You breathe in a way, focus on the breath in a way, that gives rise to a sense of well-being, a sense of pleasure, even a sense of fullness and refreshment. The potential for that refreshment is there in the breath right now, so ask yourself, what kind of breathing would feel good right now? Try not to pre-determine what you think … 
  5. The Triple Training
     … There has to be a certain amount of insight into how you’re fabricating your mind-states—the way you talk to yourself, the perceptions you use, the feelings you focus on—if you want the mind to settle down. If you don’t see these things happening in the present moment, it’s going to be really hard for the mind to settle … 
  6. Heedful, Ardent, & Resolute
     … Try to focus your attention there and keep it there. And to make it more interesting, try to notice what type of breathing feels good. If long breathing feels good, keep it up. If not, you can change. Short in long out. Long in short out, or short both in and out. Deeper, more shallow. Heavier, lighter. Faster, slower. Try to find what rhythm … 
  7. The Buddha’s Basic Therapy
     … Notice, the focus here is on action, because that’s what can be really special, the things that people do when they go out of their way to do something good. Having appreciation for that, having gratitude for that, makes it easier for you to go out of your way. The gout-weed doesn’t have any intention at all; it just grows. You … 
  8. The Practice of Right View
    The Practice of Right View April 22, 2009 When there’s a talk during meditation, don’t focus your attention on the talk. Focus on your breath. The purpose of the talk is to act like a fence, to catch you when you wander away from the breath, to keep pointing you back to the breath. Because it’s right at this spot—where … 
  9. The True Cause of Suffering
     … Move your focus around. There was one time when I was looking after Ajaan Fuang and I had the 2 a.m. to 8 p.m. shift. As you can imagine, around 3 a.m. I was pretty tired. 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 … 
  10. Victory over Death
     … You focus on the present moment not because it’s a wonderful moment or because your awakened nature is here. You focus on the present because there are things you need to do here, duties you have to fulfill, because tomorrow death may come. Your duties, of course, have to do with the duties of the four noble truths. We’re here to comprehend … 
  11. Dealing with Confusion
     … You can focus your attention on any one spot in the body that seems convenient or you can focus on the body as a whole right from the start. The choice is yours. What’s important is that you allow the breath to be a good place to stay, a comfortable place to stay. If the body seems tired or weak, think of breathing … 
  12. Life Well Lived
     … You can focus anywhere in or around the body: the tip of the nose, the base of the throat, the middle of the chest, around the abdomen. Any place where it’s easy to notice that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. And allow the breathing to be easy. Don’t struggle with the breath. Don’t force … 
  13. Oppressed by Old Kamma
     … Here you have a real luxury—hours and hours and hours of time simply to focus on the mind—and what happens? You get bored or oppressed by the idea that you’ve got to fill up those hours with something. Well, why do you have to fill it up? There’s only one little simple task that’s being asked of you, which … 
  14. For the Good of the World
     … What the Buddha did teach, though, is to focus on what’s the most skillful thing we can do now, given the situation. That’s where the emphasis should lie. And one thing we can do is to help the world through our meditation. Many people think that to sit with your eyes closed like this is irresponsible, that we’re running away from … 
  15. Staying, Moving, & Neither
     … When you’re working with the breath, the second approach is your primary focus. You want your posture to be straight. You want the organs of your body not to be scrunched up against one another. But if you try too hard to straighten things out, you can actually damage yourself. Remember, we’re working with breath energy here. As Ajaan Fuang used to … 
  16. The Rewards of Stream Entry
     … When you focus on the breath, try not to tense up around the breath. Think of the spot where you’re focused as spreading out, spreading out. Whatever energy is there gets spread out, so that you can suffuse the body with a sense of well-being. Then try to maintain that. This is what we do with the path: We maintain it. As … 
  17. The Forerunner of All Things
     … I’ve heard sometimes people say “What are you going to do when you die? You’ve been focusing on your breath all your whole life, but the breath is going to leave you.” The reason we focus on the breath is not to get the breath itself, but because it’s so close to the mind, so close to the processes the Buddha … 
  18. Duties in the Present
     … You can focus your attention in any part of the body where it’s easy to see that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out, and the mind feels comfortable being centered there. These are your resources. Try to keep them together: Keep your thoughts with the breath, keep thinking about the breath each time it comes in, each … 
  19. The Big Picture
     … But the big picture taught him that if you want to get out, you have to focus on what you’re doing right now, because the power of the mind in the present moment that can counteract the results of previous actions is quite strong. The question was, could he use that power to get out? And he found that he could. That was … 
  20. Staying Power
     … Then, when the initial enthusiasm breaks down or peters out, that’s when you’ve got to have other reasons to practice or to readjust your focus. I’ve been reading recently about the exploration of the Transantarctic Mountains. The story started simply with the fact that people discovered the mountains existed. Remember: Exploring the Antarctic wasn’t like Europeans exploring the rest of … 
  21. To Begin the Day
     … If there is, focus on relaxing the side that’s more tense to bring things into balance. This sense of balance will make you even more centered. When you’ve surveyed the body enough, then you choose any one spot in the body that seems congenial. Allow your attention to settle there and then—from that spot—to spread out through the whole body … 
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