Search results for: "Focusing"
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- Lessons from the Buddha’s Awakening… You focus on that, and you’re focusing on the right spot. Which is why we’re here meditating, developing some of the factors of the path—right mindfulness, right concentration—or, at the very least, trying to. But by doing this, we’re putting ourselves in the same spot where the Buddha was. That’s the other part about having conviction in the …
- Descartes’ Error… When you really want to get precise about pain for instance, you want a very focused concentration. But you want that in the context of a larger frame of reference: mindfulness filling the body, mindfulness immersed in the body, saturating the body. These are the images that the Buddha uses. Concentration with a large frame doesn’t get knocked over easily. If your concentration …
- Separate… So when you’re meditating, it’s not a selfish activity, even though you are focusing on training yourself. The important point is that you’re training yourself to be reliable. So you have to learn how to see things as separate. We talked this morning about seeing how your awareness of things is something separate from the things themselves. That separate awareness is …
- The Six Properties… There was no place in the body where you could focus your awareness and have any sense of comfort at all.” So for a moment she felt lost, but then she remembered, “Well, there’s the space property.” So she focused in on the space property, and all that sense of the house on fire suddenly disappeared. There was a very strong sense of …
- The Practice is Wherever There’s Mindfulness… For it to be right alertness, it has to be focused on what you’re doing and the results coming from what you’re doing. And finally, right ardency means you’re trying to do this well, with your whole heart. This is your main focus. So the ability to keep in mind what’s skillful and unskillful, and to notice whether you’re …
- Love for the Dhamma… The real problems lie in the mind, which is why we sit here focusing the mind on the breath as a way of bringing the mind into the present moment, where we can watch it. We turn our gaze inward, instead of outward. What do you see when you look outward? You see aging, illness, and death. You see other people’s issues: their …
- Protect Your Inner Center… So watch for a while to see what feels best and what kind of breathing is easiest to stay focused on. You bring three qualities to this. One is mindfulness: You remember to stay with the breath. Two, alertness: You watch what’s actually happening both in the breath and with the mind, so that you can get a sense of how well they …
- Dhamma in Vinaya… Then there’s the action, which is the act of focusing. We talk about watching the breath. That’s an unfortunate image because it tends to involve the eyes a little bit too much. Think of sensing the breath, wearing the breath. Think of it all around you. See if that helps. What you’re trying to do is to become sensitive to the …
- The Whole Story… You’re focusing on a few details and turning a blind eye to what you don’t want to see. A glance, a word, this part of the body, that part of the body that you can weave into a story: The whole point of the story is to act as a disguise. It’s like a cloth that we weave to cover up …
- Getting Familiar with Concentration… After all, the Buddha said that insight is insight into the process of fabrication, and all of fabrications you need to know are right here when you’re focused on the breath. The breath itself is the bodily fabrication. It’s the factor that keeps the body going together. Then there’s verbal fabrication, the mind’s inner chatter, where it directs its thoughts …
- Truth as Medicine… In other words, there are lots of truths out there, just as there are lots of medicines, and the question is, “Which ones are really useful?” The Buddha focused on truths that are useful for putting an end to suffering, an end to stress. He wasn’t interested in truth in the abstract, or about the true nature of things out there, for its …
- Well-armed Efforts… For example, the Buddha says when you’re focused on the breath, try to breathe in a way that’s comfortable, breathe in a way that gives rise to rapture. But he doesn’t say how. When he talks about getting the mind into strong concentration, he says try to gain a sense of ease and well-being and let it spread throughout the …
- What We’re Here to See… If you want to learn about the mind, you have to give the mind something to do, but you want that something to be very focused here in the present so that you can observe the machinations of the mind clearl. This is why we bring it to the breath. The task at hand now is to develop concentration around the breath, or if …
- An Anthropologist from Mars… It means deciding what’s really important in life and focusing your energies there. As for the things that fritter away your time, just drop them. That simplifies life a lot. It’s the old-fashioned way of simplifying things. The modern ways of simplifying things, of course, is to buy a magazine that tells you what to buy to simplify your life. But …
- Alighting on the Dhamma… am I doing that’s causing suffering? What could I be doing? What could I change, so that instead of causing suffering, I’m leading away from suffering?” So you’re focused but questioning at the same time. The questioning is directed by what you’re learning. You have the confidence that what you’re learning really is giving you information that you need …
- Heedful of Death… It’s right here in the present moment we make our choices, which is that’s why recollection of death keeps our awareness focused right here. With each breath we have the opportunity to practice the Buddha’s teachings and accomplish a great deal.
- Faith in Present Intentions… Those are the qualities you want to keep in mind as you stay focused. Those are skillful images to keep in mind. So learning this principle of being skillful in the present moment is not just work. It’s not a chore. It’s also a matter of learning how to nourish the mind, feed the mind, so that it finds true happiness in …
- Directed Thoughts, Random Thoughts… But when the mind is focused on one thing, directing its thoughts to an object, then its other thoughts, its random thoughts, become clear. So try to stay anchored in this one object. Get to know it really well. The breath has lots of ins and outs. If you have parts of the body that tend to have chronic pain, see if you can …
- Possessed by Emotions… Then you’ve got images or perceptions in mind about how the breath comes in and out of the body, where you’re going to be focused. That’s mental fabrication. You’re getting some hands-on experience in how to use these fabrications to create a sense of well-being, right here, right now. Then you can take those same insights and apply …
- A Meditation Karma Checklist… They had focused on an object. They put effort in. This was the result of all that. If you can remember these factors, then it’s very easy not to fall for these states. So keep remembering that concentration is a kind of karma. It’s a karma you want to develop as a skill whether it’s simply for the good results it …
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