Search results for: "Focusing"
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- Food Insecurity… Of course, there’s always that worry that if you haven’t gotten far enough along the path, what’s going to happen to you when you die? You have to remind yourself that the only way you can guarantee something good is by focusing more and more and more on the path. It involves an act of will to change the way you …
- Educating Equanimity… I’ve heard people complain about Ajaan Lee’s method of meditation where he focuses on the comfort in the breath, saying that this gets you attached to comfort. But if you don’t have a source of well-being to hold on to, it’s going to be really hard to deal with the difficult situations that the breath can’t cover, that …
- Potentials Past & Present… But the Buddha found that by focusing attention on his breath, breathing in different ways to help the mind to settle down—energizing it when it needs energizing, calming it when it needs calming—that was his path to awakening. So there’s a lot of potential right here. Take some time to explore it. This is in line with the principle that he …
- How to Listen… You begin to realize that once you’ve got the mind firmly settled, firmly focused in a state of singleness, the thinking that got you there is now the disturbance. So you let that go. In other words, you’ve been adjusting the breath, relating to the breath, getting the breath so that the breath and the mind can fit snugly together. Now that …
- Because the Mind Is Purposeful… Concentration, the heart of the path, is something fabricated, and that means it requires desire—the desire to get the mind focused and to settle down. So you use these processes, you use this movement of the mind that’s always for the sake of something, and you direct it to be for the sake of the path. So observe yourself as you settle …
- Voices in the Mind… You find that being able to be with the breath helps pull you out of a lot of dialogues by creating a new dialogue focused around the breath. But then through the force of old habits you get pulled back into old dialogues—your parents, your old friends, all sorts of inner voices. And so in addition to learning how to stay with the …
- Mindfulness + Discernment = Intelligence… You start out, say, with the body, staying focused on the breath in and of itself, ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. “Mindful,” of course, means keeping things in mind. “Alert” means noticing what you’re doing while you’re doing it, and “ardent” means trying to do it well. It’s in the ardency that mindfulness …
- Sensuality… Why is the Buddha focused so much on the negative side of sensuality? It’s because we tend to focus so much on what we see as the positive side, all the pleasure we get out of thinking about these things. But that, too, gets in the way. As these thoughts come into the mind again, and again, and again, they create ruts. From …
- Appreciating Dispassion… When you start out getting focused in the breath, you’ve got to talk to yourself about it to adjust it. There are perceptions of the breath that allow you to visualize the breath going through the different parts of the body to create a sense of the well-being. You can maintain it and you can spread it around. If you find a …
- Lessons from Stilling the Mind… From that level, the Buddha says, you stay focused on the breath in and of itself. There’s a formula: “ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” You’re with the breath, he says, but you don’t think thoughts associated with the breath. In other words, you drop your thinking and evaluation of the breath—your discursive …
- Better to Give than to Consume… When you’re focused on the breath, it’s good not to hold anything back. Just think of yourself plunging into the breath and the body, totally. The reward is that you develop an all-around experience of ease and refreshment. If part of you is pulled back, there’s a part of you that’s not sharing in this, that’s not gaining …
- Start Out Small… Don’t let it clutter up your mind, because any progress in the meditation has to come from being very solidly focused on the present moment, fully intent on what you’ve got right here. If a lot of expectations are cluttering up your view, you’re not going to see what you’ve got right here. Whatever progress you make won’t be …
- One Thing Clear Through… And there’s a lot more value in focusing on the breath, trying to stay with the breath as continually as you can to develop some strength of mind. This is a basic principle all the way through the Buddha’s teachings. Luang Puu Dune one time came to see Ajaan Suwat when he was in Thailand and gave a Dhamma talk. The main …
- Battling the Hindrances… That gives you a narrative that focuses you back. So each of the hindrances has a series of techniques that you can use against it. But the important thing is that you really do want, deep down inside, to overcome the influence of the hindrances. And that requires that you develop the right attitude as you meditate. Sometimes we think of meditation as a …
- Basic Stuff… Choose an area of the body that’s congenial, where it feels comfortable to stay focused. And try to make your focus just right. If you clamp down too hard on things, it’s going to make the breath uncomfortable, and you won’t want to stay. If your focus is too loose and casual, it’ll go wandering off. The image they give …
- Your Own Karma… This focuses your responsibility where you really can make a difference, and it takes you off the hook for a lot of things you really can’t make a difference. All too often we get upset about things we can’t control, which means that we’re ignoring the things we can control. When you focus on keeping your thoughts, words, and deeds in …
- Choices that Matter… It’s not focused in the right place. You want to focus your desires on the causes. Each time you breathe in, stay with the breath. Each time you breathe out, stay with the breath. Desire that. And as long as you’re going to stay together, try to breathe in a way that allows the mind to feel at ease with the breath …
- A Path Rooted in Desire… And then try to stay focused on that. That’s how any desire is accomplished. Notice that those eight factors are all versions of the eightfold path. They may be wrong versions, but they follow the pattern of the path. Here our desire is to put an end to suffering, to act in a way that, instead of causing suffering, will actually bring about …
- Do, Maintain, Use… That’s what you’re focusing on. You’re doing the path. But then you start asking, “Well, who is this you who’s doing the path? Where is it? What is it?” Track it down. Ask yourself, “Is it really me, this voice in the mind that keeps giving directions?” When you reflect in that way on what you’re doing, that’s …
- Games the Mind Plays… The Buddha’s path focuses specifically on what is your problem: the fact the mind is causing suffering for itself. And the Buddha gives clear instructions on how to put an end to that. This is something you’ve got to hold onto, because other parts of your mind will say, “No, I don’t particularly care for that analysis. I don’t care …
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