Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 85
  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. The Karma of Pleasure
     … And the editor of the magazine that I wrote this for said he was surprised that I had focused on that as the Buddhist issue, while I was surprised that he was surprised. Because the principle of cause and effect is what the Buddha said lay at the heart of his awakening When he summarized his awakening in one sentence, he’d state it … 
  11. The Water in Your Cup
     … And if you can think of that sense of well-being then spreading from whatever spot you focused on, you get more and more anchored in the present. As things begin to calm down in the body, it has a soothing effect on the mind. The chatter can get more and more subtle. And it’s when your chatter gets more subtle that you … 
  12. Over-informed
     … So he focused back on the present moment. “What am I doing right now?” “How do I understand what I’m doing right now?” and “What’s the best way to understand it so that I can stop causing suffering?” That was how he gained awakening. He kept looking at what he was doing, what was happening as a result, and being very honest … 
  13. The Karma of Perception
     … But consciousness is what basically receives sensory input, and perception is what then creates a world out of it, focuses on what’s important, puts aside what’s not. All the mind’s activities in terms of recognizing a figure against a ground: That’s the activity of perception. Think about the difference between sight and taste. With sight, it’s not just a … 
  14. The Buddha’s Safe Space
     … The description of mindfulness that we chanted just now—staying focused on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world—describes what you’re doing as you’re trying to get the mind into concentration. You stay with the breath, remembering to keep the breath in mind: That’s mindfulness. You see … 
  15. Passion for Dispassion
     … a teaching that focuses us on where the real problem is, and how we can solve it. It’s amazing that such a teaching exists. What’s also amazing is how many people want to change it. Or to say, “Well, the Dhamma was just one person’s opinion. There are many versions of the Dhamma out there and none of them are totally … 
  16. The Power of Choice
     … When the Buddha’s inviting you to practice the Dhamma, he’s inviting you to be more conscious of your choices so that you can make more intelligent ones, to stop focusing on things that you can’t change and to focus on the things that you can. Like right now, you have the choice to focus on just about anything at all. No … 
  17. Step Outside the World
     … And as I said, the qualities that establish mindfulness include not only mindfulness itself but also alertness—knowing what you’re doing, knowing the results of what you’re doing—together with ardency, the ability to stick with it, to put effort into the practice to be skillful, the effort to be sensitive, the effort to be focused. When these are all working together … 
  18. A Mind like Wind
     … The thinking is focused right here, on the body in and of its self. Ajaan Lee compares this kind of thinking to grabbing hold of a post and running around it. As long as you hold on to the post, then no matter how much you run around, you don’t get dizzy. But if you let go of the post and try to … 
  19. What’s Relative, What’s Constant
     … So the question is, how are you conditioning your consciousness right now? What are you focusing on? What are you paying attention to? How are you talking to yourself? Your inner conversation: Have you ever stepped back and just said, “Well, this is just a bunch of directed thoughts and acts of evaluation,” and looked at it simply in those impersonal terms? When thoughts … 
  20. Here to Learn
     … Where were you focused? What was the breath like? If there seems to be a point where things were especially solid and clear inside, what were the steps leading up to that? Can you remember? If you’re mindful enough, you should have some memory. Try to apply that the next time around. Now, the next time around it may not work, which means … 
  21. Compassionate Duties
     … You’re focused on the body in and of itself, you’re ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That’s the standard formula. You stay with the body, right here, right now. You take one aspect of it that you experience, like the breath, and you stay alert to what the breath is doing, and how … 
  22. Load next page...