Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 84
  2. Top Priorities
     … It may seem like a lot to ask when you’ve got to focus on your work and on the sense of the breath in your body at the same time. But then again the breath is what provides the energy you need to do the work. You’ve got to look after your resources. And it’s possible. You develop a different sense … 
  3. The Value of Concentration
    It’s not all that hard to focus on the breath. As soon as the thought comes into the mind, you’re right there. The hard part is in staying there, and for that you need to have a strong sense of how valuable it is to have a peace of mind, to have the mind centered in one place. You need to be … 
  4. May I Look After Myself with Ease
     … While you’re beginning to focus on the breath, it’s obvious that other thoughts will come into the mind, but you don’t go with them. You stay right there with the breath. It’s like the sounds of the crickets outside right now. If you wanted to have absolute silence before you could concentrate, you’d have to go out and kill … 
  5. Why We Practice the Way We Do
     … In the same way, you want a steady focus in the mind, a steady focus in the body, so that you can read the body and mind. To get that flame just right, you have to look at the state of the mind. If it’s sluggish, it’s like a flame that’s about to go out, in which case you have to … 
  6. Appropriate Attention
     … When we’re sitting and meditating, we focus more of our attention on the four noble truths, which means focusing appropriate attention on the duties of the truths. Like right now, we’re trying to get the mind to settle down, create a state of right concentration, which is something we should develop. As for anything that would come up and interfere with the … 
  7. Gaining the Dhamma Eye
     … The purpose of the four noble truths is to focus us in that direction, to get us there. But more is required than just knowing the four noble truths. The Buddha said there are four qualities that help get you to that first taste of awakening. The first is associating with good people, admirable people, because the people we associate with really do have … 
  8. Kamma & Rebirth—A Handful of Leaves
     … You learn how to focus on another part of the body, you learn how to get the breath in that part of the body comfortable, then you can think of the good breath energy from the comfortable parts going through the pain. Don’t let them be stopped by the pain. Think that good breath can go through anything, can penetrate any part of … 
  9. Give Before You Get
     … You’re going to focus on one thing, and the rewards of that one thing may not appear right away. You have to give some time to it; you have to give some energy to it. And in the course of sticking with the one thought, you’ll find that there are a lot of other things you have to give up as well … 
  10. Deep Understanding
     … So this is why we focus on the present moment: to see these events in the mind as they’re happening and to deal with them as they’re happening. This way, we’re not just playing around with their shadows, arranging their shadows in interesting patterns. We’re dealing with actual events as they happen in the mind, qualities as they develop in … 
  11. Dwelling in Emptiness
     … Sometimes it means changing your focus. If your mind is not ready to settle down with the breath, what things do you have to think about first to get it in the proper mood where it’s willing to settle down? These are all parts of exploring stress, learning about that first noble truth. So even when the mind is not settling down, treat … 
  12. Monologue on the Breath
     … So here we’re trying to focus both the directed thought and evaluation on one thing: on the breath. Just keep thinking about breath, breath, breath, and then notice when it’s coming in, notice when it’s going out, notice where you feel it, and notice what the feeling feels like. Is it warm or cool? Comfortable or not? If it’s not … 
  13. The Limits of Interconnectedness
     … And as you die, as you go towards death, for focus is going to be forced more and more into this area right here, right now, i.e., your direct experience of your mind, your direct experience of your body, how body and mind feel from within. You want to make sure that you’ve developed the tools from within, so that when you … 
  14. More than Just Letting Go
     … There are a lot of kinds of suffering in the world, and the Buddha says you have to focus on the kind of suffering where you can make a difference. It’s the same principle applied inside. The suffering in terms of the three characteristics—in other words, the fact that things depend on causes that are unstable and will have to change, which … 
  15. Getting Out of Karmic Debt
     … So we try to develop the attitude that whatever food we get is good enough, whatever we get in terms of clothing and shelter, that’s good enough, so that we can focus on the real work, which is being not content with the quality of our minds. The Buddha identified that as the secret to his awakening: that however skillful he was, if … 
  16. Complacency
     … time you have to practice, it’s going to swallow up everything. You have to keep pushing back, pushing back, realizing that what is most pressing is not always most important. Focus on the really important things: the state of your mind, the state of your actions, the state of your words, and particularly, the solidity of your mind. How solid is it? How … 
  17. How Much Concentration Is Enough?
     … You’re more and more continuous in your focus. At the same time, the range of your awareness gets broader and broader until your concentration fills the body. So as you’re here, trying to stay focused on the breath, the first thing you want to keep in mind is that everything you’re going to pay attention to for the next hour has … 
  18. Enlarged Awareness
     … In other words, even though your focus is at one point, your range of awareness fills the whole body. From there the Buddha has you going to calming the breath fabrications. In other words, as you’re aware of the whole body, you begin to be sensitive to the way you pull the breath in, pull the breath out, all of what they call … 
  19. Interdependence
     … You focus on the things that you can exert some power over and use that discernment to examine your conviction, virtue, and generosity, so that you can be circumspect in how you practice these things. Sometimes conviction in the principle of karma can get you really worried about what kind of bad karma you might have in the past. I had a lot of … 
  20. Going Out of Your Way
     … What makes it special is when you decide you’re going to focus in on one thing and get the mind to stay there. Now, in some forms of concentration there’s not much ingenuity involved. Simply repeat a word over and over again, and force the mind down, beat it down. But the way the Buddha teaches breath meditation requires that you think … 
  21. Realities Right Here
     … sometimes it comes from inside. Where does the movement originate? Sometimes it seems to start down around the naval; sometimes it seems to start around the heart, or in the head. Focus where it seems to start. Then let it spread smoothly from there. Remember, you’re not just watching things here. There’s that element of fabrication. The observer is one important part … 
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