Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. No Happiness Other than Peace
     … The things you focus on have to change, which means there’s no more pleasure in being there, so the mind has to change to keep staying happy. But again, things have to change in a very, very particular way for the mind to be content with the change. And all too often the change doesn’t go the way we want it to … 
  3. Patience & Hope
     … It makes it a lot easier to live with the things you can’t change, and focus on the ones you can. You could make a case that the Buddha’s reflections on kamma are very un-American, if we define “American” as being in line with the Declaration of Independence. There’s no creator, there are no rights, and we’re not born … 
  4. Two Kinds of Cross-Questioning
     … We focus on the breath, learn to be sensitive to when it’s long, when it’s short, and how it feels when it’s long and it’s short, to see which feels better. Then you can try working with deep and shallow, heavy or light, focusing the breath energy in different parts of the body. There’s lots to play with here … 
  5. The Pleasure of the Middle Way
    Focus on the breath. Experiment with the breath to see what kind of breathing is comfortable right now. Sometimes it’s short breathing, sometimes it’s long, deep, shallow, heavy, light. It’s often good to begin with some long, deep in-and-out breaths just to emphasize the feeling of breathing in the body. And as long as long breathing feels good, you … 
  6. Freedom Through Painful Practice
     … After all, as you practice, even though you may be listening to a Dhamma talk or living with a teacher, still the teacher can’t get into your head and say, “Okay, do this, focus there.” If you’re lucky to have a teacher who has the ability to read your mind, that’s one thing. But even then, the teacher’s not going … 
  7. Elemental Normalcy
     … You don’t focus on the bad things that are happening around you; you focus on the things that you have some control over that you can make pleasant. This way, it’s not simply a matter of bearing up, bearing up, bearing up against something that’s difficult. You’re got some friends inside. And when we say that you can bring this … 
  8. A Wealthy Memory
     … Knowing how to focus on the breath, keeping the breath comfortable in the midst of different circumstances, and reminding yourself that it’s important to do that: These are all forms of wealth. So is the realization that your mind is a lot more likely to think of the right thing to do or say when it’s inhabiting a comfortable body. When your … 
  9. Progress & Regress
     … So remember, it’s not just a question of technique—what you do with the breath, where you focus on this, that, and the other thing—it’s also a question of your attitude toward the technique, your attitude toward success and failure, mistakes and the good times and the bad times. Remember that there’s nobody who’s hopeless. Even in the case … 
  10. Defilements with Their Bambi Eyes
     … So before you focus on the breath, it’s always good to think about why you want to get out of your thinking, particularly sensual thoughts. Concentration requires that you be secluded, as the Buddha said, from sensual thoughts. In other words, your mind is not totally devoid of them, but at the moment, you’re not going to be getting engaged with them … 
  11. Self-Knowledge
     … So that’s the issue you want to focus on. Whatever habits you have, look for where they’re unskillful and see what you can do to change them. That’s what self-knowledge is all about: seeing where you are and getting a sense of the possibilities of where you can go in causing less suffering, less harm, through your thoughts, your words … 
  12. Training Your Minds
     … If you followed a particular line of thought, where would it lead you? Do you really want to identify with that? Another way to deal with these things is to focus on a meditation topic you find interesting. One of the reasons I liked the Ajaan Lee method was because it made the breath interesting. Prior to that, the breath was just in out … 
  13. Family Ties
     … So you focus here where the work can be done and, at the very least, you can be a good example to others to show that it is possible to train the mind. It is possible to step back from your own greed and learn how not to identify with it, and the same with your aversion and your delusion. This is where the … 
  14. Alone & with Others
     … different levels of subtlety in your focus, ease, rapture, equanimity, stillness in the concentration. And although this is not in the Pali Canon, it’s useful to put a post-it note on what you’ve noticed, because you have to remember you’re still exploring. What may seem like a really refined, still state of concentration at one stage in the practice, may … 
  15. The Uses of Pleasure
     … This means keeping your focus very carefully with the breath and learning how to make yourself alert enough so that you don’t start drifting off. It’s usually good, once you’ve developed a sense of well-being that comes from the breath, that you spread it around to be very active in moving your attention around the body, knowing whether there’s … 
  16. One Person
     … So unlike her, you may not be able to cut the winds of other people’s storms, but you can cut the winds that are causing your storms, and that’s what you have to focus on. If everyone were to take responsibility for him or herself, the world would be a very different place, a much better place. We’d simply be dealing … 
  17. Whole-Hearted Concentration
     … You do this singly in the sense that this is the one topic you’re going to focus your mental activities on. If you really want to know this, give it your full attention. As you go through the day, you have to split your attention between the breath and the things you’re doing outside. But right now, while you’re sitting here … 
  18. Complexities of the Mind
     … What did you do? How did you focus on the breath? Where were you focused? What feelings surrounded the mind as it began to settle down? To what extent can you recreate that? The next time around, you want to try that. See if you can recreate it. Ask yourself, what did it feel like? What were the steps going in? You want to … 
  19. On Not Being a Victim
     … There are lots of different ways you can intend to focus on the breath. So find an intention that seems to get good results. It may not be the sort of intention that your preconceived notion of “you” would ever think of, but why confine yourself? Why make yourself a victim? Why leave yourself in that position? You can learn how to be proactive … 
  20. Peace of Mind
     … That’s going to be the focus of our attention for the rest of the hour. Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths, and notice how that feels—because if you stay with the breath, you’re staying with the part of the body that’s closest to the mind. Without the breath, we wouldn’t know about the body … 
  21. Treasures Beyond Death
     … That conviction is a treasure because it encourages you to focus on your actions and not underestimate the powers you have. It’s an empowering conviction. The remaining treasures have to do with avoiding unskillful behavior and developing skillful behavior. The next three deal with unskillful behavior. You develop virtue, which you make up your mind that you’re not going to harm yourself … 
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