Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 90
  2. Giving Meaning to Life
     … They clear away all the distractions and focus on what’s really important. And it’s good that they do that, but it’s sad that they had to wait for a death sentence before they do. We have to remember we are all here with a death sentence. It’s simply that we don’t have the days marked out for us, how … 
  3. Equanimity Isn’t Nibbana
     … Our present decisions, what we’re going to do with the mind, what we’re going to focus on, how we develop it: That’s the kamma we witness as we meditate. So you want to focus on doing things that help you understand what’s going on in the mind right now. What is this process of intention? How does the mind create … 
  4. Four Mountains Moving In
     … The media will divert our focus other places, but we have to hold firm in our conviction that what we do is important, what we do is going to make the difference between danger and lack of danger. Because it is possible to get to the end of danger, this interconnectedness of ours. Sometimes we call it inner-being, but it’s basically inter … 
  5. Ready to Evacuate
     … We focus on what we’re doing right now and hold on there. And that’s an important point. Ajaan Suwat liked to emphasize this a lot. The Buddha says that so many things are not-self, not-self, not-self, but your actions are your own. Or as the passage from the Canon says, “We’re the owners of our actions.” Those are … 
  6. A Position of Strength
     … Where in the body does it feel best to focus? It might be right between the eyes, in the forehead, at the palate—“breath” here meaning not just the air coming in and out of the lungs, but the whole energy flow in the body. It could be in the middle of the chest or right over the navel—any spot in the body … 
  7. Mindfulness
     … keeping in mind what you know about what’s skillful and what’s not, and reminding yourself that you really do want to focus on pursuing the skillful path and avoiding the unskillful one at all costs. This is why mindfulness and discernment usually go together. In fact, in Thai they have a term, sati-pañña, mindfulness-discernment, which is their word for intelligence … 
  8. Determined on Goodwill
     … What we have to learn how to do is bring that same focus to a happiness that’s good for us and good for others. So when we talk about basing our determination on discernment, we have to include that quality of goodwill as well. We open our minds to the possibility that there may be opportunities in our lives that we hadn’t … 
  9. In Control
     … As we’re living here at the monastery, we don’t have too many tasks, so we can focus our attention on each task as we’re doing it as a way of developing our mindfulness and alertness. But in the outside world often you have so many tasks that you have to decide which ones are worth doing well and which ones are … 
  10. Refuge in the Dhamma
     … In other words, developing your powers of memory so that they’re useful on the path, providing you with the right framework for looking at states of mind, remembering how to be alert to what you’re doing, and how to focus your ardency to stop suffering. That way, when you get in a bad state of mind—and it seems to settle in … 
  11. When Things Seem Dark
     … And the best way to develop those qualities is to focus not on how difficult things are, but on where your strengths are. And to look at things in a way that allows you to maintain your hope. So take an inventory of your strengths. That’ll differ for each of us. But then look at the images you hold in mind. There’s … 
  12. Rightly Directed
     … It gives you a good focus. So all these qualities are strengths. The virtue comes under conviction, together with persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. This is what keeps you strong in doing good. And if you can maintain that strength all the way through death, then a good destination can be hoped for. It all depends on what you’re doing right here, right … 
  13. When Your Will Is Ill
     … You have to remember—for the sake of training your mind, for clearing up your own discernment—that you need to focus on the areas where you’re doing something wrong right now and you need to do something about it right now. Because it’s in the actions themselves: Whether they’re skillful or unskillful is what makes us happy or unhappy. We … 
  14. Awe
     … Don’t focus on any of the little details. Make the earthness of earth, and how vast it is, the object of your concentration. Allow your awareness to take on some of that vastness and then learn how to hold it there. If the elements seem threatening, think of the vastness of space, the space that penetrates all of this activity of the wind … 
  15. A Post for the Mind
    To be mindful of the body, you can focus on the breath. The Buddha compares it to a post for tying down the mind. In one case, he compares it to a post to which they tie an elephant. They’ve gotten the elephant out of the forest, out of the jungle, and they’re bringing him into the city to train him. And … 
  16. Inner Worlds
     … If physical survival were everything, then the current pandemic would be a cause for real concern and you’d have to focus all your energies on making sure that nothing happened that would put you in any physical danger. But you have to remember that survival of the mind is something else—and something more important. The mind sheds bodies in the way we … 
  17. Practice at Home
     … It’s all Dhamma practice if you make it Dhamma practice and focus on these four qualities in your relationships. You’re going to develop endurance. You’re going to develop the ability to be harmless. You’re going to develop a mind of goodwill and a mind of empathy. That’s how, in helping others, you help yourself.
  18. Patience Is a Skill
     … You focus on the causes, and you keep coming back to them, coming back to them, coming back to them, and after a while they will begin to have an imprint on the mind, an influence on the mind. We can’t tell beforehand who’s going to be fast, who’s going to be slow in making progress. As Ajaan Lee says,* *some … 
  19. The Role of the Observer
     … Then there are perceptions and feelings—the labels we put on things and the feeling tones we focus on—pleasant, unpleasant, neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant: Those are mental fabrications. Those are our tools, our weapons in our internal battle over those thoughts that come into the mind and just seem to hang on because there’s part of the mind hanging on to them … 
  20. Mind in & of Itself
    As you start to focus on the breath, it’s good to make a survey of three things. First, the breath itself. Take some good long deep in-and-out breaths, and think of the whole body breathing. Not just the lungs, not just the nose, the whole nervous system is involved in the breathing process. If there’s any area in the body … 
  21. Thoughts with Fangs
     … While you’re sitting here and meditating, for instance, how is this breath? And then how is this breath? How about this one? How is your focus? Where are you focused? Is it working? Is it getting results? If you like the results, stick with what you’re doing. If you don’t like the results, you can change. As for the issue of … 
  22. Load next page...