Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Don’t Focus on Jhana, Focus on the Breath
     … You don’t focus on saying, “I want to do this level or that level.” You just keep focused on this question of, “How can I get the breath and the mind really snugly together? And how can I let go of anything that seems unnecessary so that it doesn’t require so much effort all the time?” Because if you’re going to … 
  3. Equanimity in Heart & Mind
     … Other people, though, don’t find that that particular insight is joyful, so they have to take the route of concentration, as we’re doing right now, focusing on the breath in a way that gives rise to a sense of ease and a sense of fullness. You can think of the energy in the body as something you can fill up, not by … 
  4. Safe Haven
     … Each different craving focuses on a different point, and our sense of who we are then develops around the craving. So there’s not just one self in here. There are many selves that you’ve made. Some of them are skillful; some of them are not. Right now you want to develop a really solid sense of self that’s just aware of … 
  5. Figuring Out Concentration
     … Each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out, try to get focused like that, and you’ll find the mind gets more and more steady, more and more centered. Then finally, the last step, the Buddha says, is to release the mind. Anything you find that’s getting in the way of the concentration, you let it go. The question was raised … 
  6. Skills for Dying Well
     … You want to keep it focused and on target. You want to keep it, as they say, “with the program.” In other words, you want to keep it in line with your intention that you want to die well. And so you focus it on the breath as a means of maintaining that intention. There will come a point, though, where it’s difficult … 
  7. In Earnest
     … He was focusing on the fact that there is a problem. There is suffering and there is something you can do about it. If you don’t do anything about it, you’re just going to keep on suffering. So you’ve got to keep your priorities straight as to what’s really important in life. It’s very easy for us to distract … 
  8. Friends with Pain
     … That’s when you can really look into the pain and go back to focusing on it, to see it from a different attitude. Which part of the pain is physical? Which part is mental? Which part is given? And which part are you messing up? The Buddha said that normally pain is like an arrow, and we then we shoot ourselves with a … 
  9. Gratitude, Goodwill & Generosity
     … it focuses first on the power of your good actions:, that there is a special value to generosity. There’s a special gratitude you owe to your parents. Gratitude is considered the beginning of all skillful qualities. Generosity is considered the basis for all the practice. These qualities get you started with right attitude. So when you find your mind feeling ungenerous or ungrateful … 
  10. Anchored by Skillful Roots
     … You sit here focusing on the breath, and learn to pry the mind away from the distracting thoughts that fly off in all directions. You sit here learning how not to get involved in them, in the worlds of that the mind creates, that pull it here, pull it there. Then, as the mind finally settles down, you find that it’s like an … 
  11. The Patience of a Hunter
     … You’re focused on something you can see right here, right now, that’s been right here, right now. You’ve been looking past it, but now you see. That’s what this is all about. When you solve this problem, you find it’s like pulling a thread out of a stocking. The whole weave begins to collapse. That’s the sudden part … 
  12. Dispassion Isn’t Depression
     … As you stay focused here, you can watch the mind to see what it’s doing to shape the present moment. Use it to settle down until you get the breath comfortable, and get the mind comfortable with the breath. In the beginning, there has to be a fair amount of thought: Think of the image of the bathman or the bathman’s apprentice … 
  13. Technique & Attitude
     … If you have trouble focusing on the breath in the beginning, you can combine it with a meditation word like Buddho. Bud- with the in-breath, -dho with the out-. Some people find it easier to start out by contemplating different parts of the body. Say with the bones: Visualize the bones in your body and just go through the body from the toes … 
  14. Culture Shock
     … There’s no concern about keeping the human race going or keeping your appetites going, but there is a focused concern on finding a true happiness. That one point, that one focus, trumps everything else. And it affects everything within the culture — from the way we walk, the way we talk, what we wear, what we eat, the kind of shelter we look for … 
  15. Acceptance & Equanimity
     … Get the mind focused in such a way that it’s feeling rapture and pleasure. Rapture may be too strong a word sometimes. Sometimes it’s simply refreshment. In other cases, though, it really is that strong. But the point here is that if you’re going to go on to a more all-embracing equanimity, you’ve got to be coming from a … 
  16. Strength Training
     … Where is your head? Where are your shoulders? Where are your legs? Where are your arms and hands? One really good way of staying focused right here is to go through the body and think about the different bones. Start with the bones in the tips of the fingers and the thumbs. Where are those bones right now? Try to be aware of that … 
  17. Breath Energy
     … See if you can breathe in without tightening up at the spot where you’re focused. When you’ve managed that, then move up the spine even further—section by section, vertebra by vertebra if you can—all the way up through your neck and then into the skull. Think of all the muscles around your head relaxing—and that they can stay relaxed … 
  18. Close to What You Know
     … You’re sitting here focusing on your breath, so notice how the breath feels. If it doesn’t feel comfortable, see what you can to do to make it more comfortable. In other words, notice what you’re doing and notice the results. That’s a very direct kind of knowledge. The sensation of ease or stress or whatever you’re feeling with the … 
  19. Question Your Perceptions
     … So as you’re focusing on the breath, try to notice what kind of perceptions you use. What do you perceive of the process of breathing? How does it happen? And what kind of perceptions help you settle down? As the Buddha said, perception is a mental fabrication. It has an impact on the mind. What ways of perceiving the breath have a good … 
  20. Tranquility & Insight Together
     … You don’t feel confined in the mind; even though it’s focused in the present moment, it has a spacious sense of well-being here. So you’re trying to develop stillness and, at the same time, trying to develop some insight into what you’re doing. Ideally, these two qualities work together. The stillness is called samatha or tranquility; the insight is … 
  21. The World of Conviction
     … As for the world, once you’ve focused on that desire, everything in the world that’s relevant to that desire actually forms the world in that becoming. Whatever is either going to help you get the pizza, or get in the way of getting the pizza, forms the foreground. Everything else falls into the background. Everything else in your own personal identity that … 
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