Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 81
  2. Three Levels of Evaluation
     … So you focus on trying to keep the mind with one object. You direct it, say, to the breath. And the really important factor in all of this is evaluation, learning how to gain a sense of what’s just right for the body, what kind of breathing is just right for the mind; what, when you’re out of balance, can bring things … 
  3. Why Train the Mind
     … We’re doing this because we want the results, but we know that if we want the results, we have to focus on the causes. And the main cause is very simple: You stay with the breath. Focusing on the breath is not all that hard. The hard part is going to be staying. Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out … 
  4. Things Aren’t as They Should Be
     … In the beginning, the focus is mainly on the breath. As you get more skilled at that, then that focus turns to: What is the mind doing around the breath? You’re committing yourself to this practice and then you reflect. All around. That way, you start seeing things about the mind that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise, when the mind wasn’t … 
  5. Basic Breath, Basic Insight
     … You may want to focus most of your attention on one spot. It could be at the tip of the nose, the middle of the head, the middle of the chest, at the abdomen. But at the same time, you want to be aware of the whole body—all through the in-breath, all through the out-. If it’s hard to stay aware … 
  6. Alone with Your Mind
     … Notice where in the body it’s most congenial to focus and notice that the focus does really have an impact, in the kind of mental state it induces. Focusing up in the head tends to be more energizing; focusing down toward the stomach tends to be more relaxing. You have to ask yourself, “What do you need right now?” Learn how to get … 
  7. Purifying Gold
     … Can you see those? Can you see any of them? As the Buddha pointed out, there are many steps leading up to craving, and if you see any connection between one and another, focus on that until you get a strong sense of dispassion around it. Then you see that all the things you create in terms of your self-identity, your sense of … 
  8. All-around Eye
     … You keep it clean; you keep it neat; but you focus your discontent on the fact that there’s still suffering in the mind. As the Buddha said, the secret to his awakening was that he didn’t allow himself to rest content with skillful qualities. Even though he had developed powers of jhana, he didn’t stay there. He didn’t stay right … 
  9. Dhamma Medicine for Free
     … As soon as you focus on the breath, you can find a sense of well-being at least someplace in the body. As you get more and more familiar with the breath, you notice, “This kind of breathing is too long; this is too short.” You know because you’ve been experiencing these things. You’ve been watching them, observing them, taking notes, developing … 
  10. A Haven for Inner Wealth
     … So whatever qualities help us focus on creating more of this good food for the mind, those are our treasures, and those are the things we want to protect as well. The Buddha has a list of seven treasures, and they all focus on what’s necessary to protect the intentions of the mind. The list starts off with conviction, i.e., conviction that … 
  11. On Not Twisting the Cow’s Horn
     … All your directed thoughts and evaluations focus right there. You think of the breath and you comment to yourself on the breath: How is the breath going right now? Is it good? Is it not? Is it comfortable? If it’s not comfortable, what can you do to change it so that it is comfortable? Make it longer? Or shorter? Or should you make … 
  12. The Skill of Restraint
     … If the mind is in a mood for a little bit of anger, you focus on the things that would provoke the anger and then you can elaborate on it, proliferate as much as you like. Those are where our skills tend to be. We’re great at proliferating. But if you think of input at the senses as a kind of food for … 
  13. The Meaning of the Body
     … He couldn’t focus his mind on the breath, all because he had developed unrealistic expectations about the body’s potential for health. But if you learn to expect that the body’s going to grow diseased no matter how well you care for it, disease is not such a shock or a problem when it actually comes. This is one of the reasons … 
  14. Respect for the Path
    Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Watch the breath coming in, all the way in, all the way out. Try some deep, long breathing to begin with. Think of the breath energizing your entire torso. And if deep breathing feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t feel good, you can change. Try shorter breathing, or in short out long, in … 
  15. Ironies
     … Its habit is to focus on something for a little while and then to focus on something else. It very easily slips from one thought to another. So part of the training here requires that you keep remembering: Stay with the breath, stay with the breath. Keep that thought in mind. As for watching the breath, in the beginning it’s pretty simple: Just … 
  16. Metta Metacognition
     … That’s why the Buddha has you focus on the present moment. But you’re focusing on the present moment because what you do in the present moment has long-term consequences. So it’s not just the present moment for its own sake. It’s the present moment as it leads into the future. You realize you’ve got to learn the skill … 
  17. Interdependence & Death
     … You have to learn to think in ways that can cut all those ties, shave all the hooks off the Velcro, and focus more inwardly at your awareness. That’s what you want to work on. But it’s good to have some values that remind you of why this is important—like those pair of chants we had just now. First: “The world … 
  18. At the End of the Day
     … If there’s a pain in the back and you find that focusing on the back makes it worse, then focus on the front of the body. The important thing is that if there are pains in the body, you don’t let them get you down. Because the pains in your body when you’re meditating are nothing compared to the pains that … 
  19. Not-self as a Raft
     … We’re not here even to focus on the question of whether this is or is not a self. We’re focused on the question of “Why is there suffering? What am I doing that’s causing suffering? What can I do to stop?” because this is the big problem in life. We’re constantly acting, constantly making choices, all for the purpose of … 
  20. A Sense of Yourself
     … And then focus on the practice.” Then he’d have them ask themselves questions that would gain insight into what was actually going on in their minds. The questions were actually based on the suttas, based on the Dhamma, just that the way that the Dhamma was being presented in Thailand at the time was pretty off course. But you had cases of, say … 
  21. Overwhelmed by Freedom
     … So use these thoughts to focus your mind on the present moment. You’ve got this moment right now. Don’t waste it, because you don’t know how many more present moments you’re going to have. You sit down and think about a whole day with nothing to do, and the mind begins to fill up the day with all of its … 
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