Search results for: "Focusing"
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- In Charge of Your Moods… Why are you focusing on things that make you angry? Part of the mind will say, “There’s something wrong here. Something has to be done to change it.” Well, can you change it without getting angry? The problem with anger is it tends to blind you, but if you can clearly see a situation that’s wrong, and you learn how not to …
- Challenges… You learn that you’re developing these things not only by focusing on the breath, but also by fending off the things that would pull you away. It’s all part of training the mind. Just give yourself the encouragement so that you’re up for it, that you can take these things as challenges and not as obstacles. Approach them with interest, with …
- Healing Breath… Find one spot where it’s easy to stay focused on the sensation of breathing, and begin to get a sense of what kind of breathing is going on. Learn how to read the breathing. Become sensitive to its variations. Then stay there until you find that the breath gets more comfortable, more at ease. In the texts, they talk about then spreading your …
- The Karma of Self & Not-Self… Everything that’s related to being ardent, alert, mindful, focused on your topic of concentration: That’s self. You’re the one who’s doing the meditation. You’re the one who’s going to benefit from it. You’re the one who’s watching it to make sure that you’re doing it well, and who offers suggestions on how to do it …
- Evaluating Your Practice… To begin with, you’re focusing on the breath in and of itself. At the same time, you’re also keeping track of the mind, to make sure it stays with the breath. If the mind slips off, you want to be able to remember, “What have I been able to do in the past that keeps the mind with the breath and keeps …
- Skillful Thinking… This is why we don’t just sit here focusing on the breath without thinking at all. We have to understand the Buddha’s teachings and see how they actually relate to what we’re doing right here, right now. That requires some humility. No matter how smart we are, we’ve been causing suffering, so we’re not all that smart. We’ve …
- Yes & No… You choose a frame of reference that you’re going to stay focused on. You try to keep track of that, ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. There are two activities there. One is choosing your topic. And the other is learning how to say No to everything that’s going to pull you out into the …
- In the Details… The problem with lust is not just the imperfect objects that it focuses on, but also all the things that we do under the power of lust. Remind yourself of those, too: all the stupid things you’ve done in the past because of lust. Bring those to mind. And keep at it. The lust may still be there, lurking around, but you can …
- “May I Be Happy”… He even has you use it as a topic of focused contemplation. When things are going dry in your meditation and everything seems to come to a stop, remind yourself of the ways you’ve been generous in the past. The other topic the Buddha uses to introduce the topic of kamma is gratitude. Think of all the people who have helped you in …
- What Are You Doing in the Present?… So as long as you’re with the breath in the present, you’re focused on the right spot. That’s where you can begin to see the movements of the mind in the present: where they go and what purposes they have. We find this most easily by giving ourselves the purpose of just staying here with a breath, so that the other …
- A Meritorious Heart… As you go beyond the practice of goodwill into focusing on the breath, developing mindfulness, developing concentration, it’s all best done with this attitude of a meritorious heart, a heart that wishes happiness for all, wishes true happiness for all. This is why we meditate. This is why we practice to begin with. We want a happiness that doesn’t harm anybody. We …
- The Source of Goodness… Several questions that were addressed in that group of people focused on the issue of the Dhamma of relationships, or relationships as a path. Although the Buddha never said that that path was equivalent to the path of meditation, you can’t just meditate and hope that it’s going to straighten out your life. You have to work on developing certain qualities in …
- Chronic Pain… You keep your focus focused on the comfortable parts, but you expand your range of awareness and you think of the breath not just going up to the pain but going through it. That way, it helps to dissolve any bands of tension you may have built around the pain. You’re testing to see exactly how much of the pain is a result …
- The Brightness of the World… If it’s only a little bit, you have to be careful about focusing specifically on the goodness, so that you don’t mix it up with the dirt. With someone with a lot of goodness, enjoy their goodness, soak it up, because that’s what gives nourishment to your goodness. There are four qualities the Buddha says to look for in a friend …
- The Buddha’s Investment Strategy… So as we’re sitting here, trying to stay focused on the breath and noticing when the mind wanders off: That ability to drop a thought mid-sentence, drop a thought even when it’s all loose ends, is an important skill. You catch yourself in the middle of creating a little reality there but then you can reestablish your frame of reference in …
- The Image of the Raft… For instance, you’re sitting right here, focused on the breath—that’s the body, or form. You’re trying to breathe in a way that gives rise to a feeling of pleasure—that’s feeling. You hold in mind your image of how the breath runs through the body and you try to choose a perception that allows the breath energy to flow …
- Study to Practice… What kind of feelings are you focusing on? The Buddha gives lots of recommendations for how to deal with these three kinds of fabrication. He tells you even how to breathe: Breathe in a way that gives rise to rapture, breathe aware of the whole body, breathe in a way that calms the breath. It makes you sensitive to the different kinds of fabrication …
- Artillery All Around… Another cure for sleepiness that I’ve found is that if focusing on one spot in the body gets you really blurry, make up your mind to focus on one spot for three breaths, and then another spot for three breaths, and then another spot, and another, and another, and just keep chasing these spots around the body. That could wake you up. Or …
- Choices Now & at Death… If you’ve been focusing on some past bad actions, then if a vision of a bad place to go comes up, you’re likely to fall for it, because that’s one of the things we fear as we approach death: that maybe there will be some punishment lying in wait for the bad things we’ve done in life. This is one …
- The Regularity of the Dhamma… Any feelings and perceptions will be the feelings and perceptions of a mind really focused on the breath. As the mind gets more and more still, those fabrications fall away. Directed thoughts and evaluations fall away. The movement of the breath falls away. All you have is a still breath energy filling the body, a clear, bright awareness filling the body. That’s Powell …
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