Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 83
  2. The Power of Truth
     … So you’re going to suffer from that, too.” He says, “No, following this view, I see the escape from it.” That’s because it focuses you back on the process of how you relate to truths, and how you relate to your views, so it enables you to let go of it when you no longer need it, when it leads to nothing … 
  3. Fear of Death
     … Get the mind focused on the breath, and the pleasure that can come from that doesn’t count as a sensual pleasure. You can get the breath really, really comfortable, and there can be a strong sense of well-being. With that, you’re less inclined to be concerned about missing sensual pleasures in the human realm, because you’ve got something better: a … 
  4. Training the Mind
     … When the breath does get comfortable, though, it’s important that you start expanding your sense of awareness in the body, because if you stay focused on any one spot and the breath gets more refined, more gentle, you lose it after a while. The mind can fall into what’s like an air pocket for a second, and then you come out. So … 
  5. Goodwill for the Real World
     … In fact, you start with goodwill for them and then expand it out into the whole universe, so that you’re not focused on them and what they’re doing to you. You realize that your most important wealth is the state of your mind, and that you protect that above all else, even if it means you’d be faced with death. You … 
  6. Breath Energies
     … A good rule of thumb is if say you’ve got a pain in the lower right side of your back—if you find that focusing on the breath energy there doesn’t seem to have much effect on the pain or if it seems to be making it worse—focus on the lower left side; focus on the front, left or right. Or … 
  7. A Real Education
     … desire so that it’s not too weak, not too strong. “Too weak” means you just don’t put much effort in, don’t care. “Too strong” is when you’re focused solely on the results you want and you’re impatient. You have to learn to focus on the causes and be meticulous in what you’re doing, because training the mind is … 
  8. Treating the Diseases of the Mind
     … But your main emphasis should be on focusing on curing *your *own problems. You’ve got to learn to be a doctor for yourself first before you can give any kind of advice to anybody else. That’s how the cure is effected—and it’s how the whole purpose of the Buddhist teaching is effected as well. There is a word in Pali … 
  9. What Am I Becoming?
     … Experiment with different kinds of breathing; experiment with different places of focusing your mind. If the mind’s hung up on some issue from the day, learn how to think about that issue in a way that helps you put it aside, so that the mind can settle in with the breath and have a sense of well-being, a sense of belonging here … 
  10. The Whole Elephant
     … We get the mind centered and, once it’s properly centered, it can look around itself—because you not only see the object that you’re focused on when you concentrate, but you also begin to see the activities of the mind as they relate to the object. That’s what you want to see. You want to see what you’re doing. This … 
  11. Up for the Challenge
     … And then you just learn how to stay focused right here on one thing. This helps to counteract the mind’s tendency to worry about this, worry about that, be restless, fidgeting around. These are the five factors of concentration, the factors that go into getting your mind to settle down: singleness of preoccupation, directed thought, evaluation, rapture, pleasure. They’re your weapons against … 
  12. The Body Doesn’t Care
     … The Buddha’s instructions are that you stay focused—the word is anupassana—continuing to follow and watch one thing. In this case, the one thing would be the breath. At the same time, you subdue or let go of greed and distress with reference to the world. So you’re developing your concentration, alertness, and mindfulness as you let go of everything that … 
  13. Skills of the Dhamma Wheel
     … Then we keep focusing on that stressful side until we can develop a sense of dispassion for it. The duty with regard to the cause of stress is to let it go. Letting go is also a skill. You don’t just toss things out willy-nilly. You look to see: Where is the craving, where is the ignorance that underlies that stress? As … 
  14. Admirable in the Beginning, Middle, & End
     … There are so many people who say that the Dhamma is pessimistic because it focuses on suffering, but that’s not the case at all. The whole point is that you can put an end to suffering, which is very optimistic. It gives you hope: There’s a way out, and it’s within your power to get there. If somebody else were making … 
  15. The Breath Soufflé
     … Notice what that does to your sense of what’s a comfortable way of breathing, because sometimes a way of breathing that feels comfortable when you’re focused on one spot doesn’t feel so comfortable when you’re aware of the body as a whole. Think of the breathing as a whole-body process. There are lots of different ways of approaching this … 
  16. Dreams & Voices
     … So get the mind focused with as little input from outside as possible, just enough to be aware that you don’t walk off the path.” He tried out the advice and found that it worked. He could get his mind into stronger concentration while he walked. That’s the kind of thing you can test: something that deals with what you’re doing … 
  17. Negotiating with the Committee
     … It’s focused right at something. One of the six senses is where the seed of an identity gets planted, and gets watered, nourished. There’s not just one sense of identity. There are lots of different identities that you develop over time. Each one is related to a particular skill set. Some of the skills may be really skillful and others are very … 
  18. The Six Properties
     … Ajaan Fuang would say, “Try to have that kind of tenacity as you stay focused. “ After water, he’d have you focus on earth. Where are the solid parts of the body? You could think of the bones, or just of a feeling of solidity down in the lower part of your torso. This is really useful for times when you’re feeling dizzy … 
  19. The Resolve to Let Go
     … So you can look over the drawbacks of the sensual thinking and also the drawbacks of the actual objects on which you’ve been focused, to see that they’re really not worth all of that obsession. That makes it easier to let them go. The same with ill will: If there’s somebody you’d really like to see suffer—even if that … 
  20. Luminous
     … And when you’re focusing on short breathing and long breathing, he doesn’t explain whether one is better than the other. Are they the only alternatives, breathing short or long? In other words, there are a lot of questions he doesn’t answer. He gives you the framework and he gives you an area in which to explore, because this is how you … 
  21. In the Mood
     … Sometimes, focusing on the breath is the way to put it in the right mood. You take a couple of long, deep, in-and-out breaths, and it feels good. You can just feel the stress and the strain melting away. The patterns of tension you’ve been holding in your body begin to dissolve. There’s a sense of nourishment that comes from … 
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