Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 95
  2. The Language of the Breath
     … The act of evaluation builds on that as you learn how to adjust, to see what’s working, see what’s not working, first as you try to get the mind to stay with its object, and then as you learn how to adjust both your focus and the object. In this case, the object is the breath. The breath is one of those … 
  3. Two Roads to the Grand Canyon
     … How much pressure do you have to put on the concentration to maintain it, to keep your focus steady, to keep mindfulness continuous? And how much effort is actually getting in the way? In many ways, practicing concentration is like relaxing into a yoga pose. When you first get into the pose, you feel a little stiff because of the patterns of tension going … 
  4. Skillful Thinking
     … So you find other topics aside from the breath in the present moment to focus on. If you’re really having trouble focusing on the present, think of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Those topics help foster conviction in the path and in your own ability to practice the path. After all, the members of the noble Sangha are human beings just … 
  5. How to Read Yourself
     … You can focus your mind in the right way. Both Ajaan Lee and Ajaan Maha Boowa, when they wrote their books on meditation, would talk about using your discernment to get the mind willing to settle down. In fact, in Ajaan Maha Boowa’s case, that was the name of the whole book: Discernment Fosters Concentration, pointing out that some people find it difficult … 
  6. Balancing Effort & Patience
     … So you focus on what you can do. From that point, right view takes on another level: seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, which are not particularly beliefs, but are categories for sorting out your experiences. Which experiences are suffering? Which experiences are the cause of suffering? Usually we have these things all mixed up. Which things you do are the … 
  7. In the Land of Wrong View
    Focus your attention on the breath. Notice, when you breathe in, where do you feel it? You may not be feeling it primarily in the areas where you think you should. But that doesn’t matter. In fact, when you notice that the breath is doing things you don’t expect, that’s when you know that you’re really watching it. Because the … 
  8. Friends with the Dhamma Wheel
     … Usually, we tend to focus on the suffering, say we don’t like it, and try to get rid of it. But we’ve got to comprehend it first. What we get rid of is the craving. And here again, there’s a problem because craving is our friend. As the Buddha said, it’s been our companion since who knows when. We have … 
  9. Assumptions
     … What’s right under the skin? What goes into the body? What comes out of the body? These perceptions help to weaken your focus on the object. And then you can start focusing on the desire itself. Here again, we tend to think of the desire as something glamorous, something alive, but the Buddha provides lots of different perceptions to help you think about … 
  10. Meditate Because You Have To
     … And instead of trying to keep one eye on what landmarks you’re passing, or whether the goal seems to be coming into sight, or whether it seems to be receding away, you just focus on what you’re doing. This is the best way to interpret that statement that the goal is in the path. In other words, you don’t keep one … 
  11. Virtues & Values
     … So we focus on the breath as an anchor here in the present moment because, of all the things in the world, it’s the closest to the mind. When you’re with the breath, there’s no past breath you can watch. There’s no future breath you can watch. You’ve got to be in the present moment to be with the … 
  12. The Governing Principle
     … So you focus the desire on looking for the causes and maintaining what causes you can. Try to be gentle with the concentration. Learn to appreciate it. Learn to treat it with care, because when you look after it, it’ll do a lot of good things for you as well. It’s like that story of the lion and the mouse. The lion … 
  13. Passion, Dispassion, Compassion
     … For most of us, we live in a state of obsession with our pleasures, so that only if we feel somebody else’s pain will we turn from our pleasures and focus on helping them. But a mind free from passion doesn’t need that pain in order to be helpful. You see that there’s suffering and you want to help. That’s … 
  14. Dealing with the Hindrances
     … figuring out what kind of breathing feels best for you right now, where you can create a sense of well-being in the body, and then how you can make the best use of that sense of well-being, letting it spread down the nerves, down the blood vessels, bathing the whole body, maintaining your focus with the breath so the mind is willing … 
  15. Where Your Mind Gravitates
     … We focus on the parts of the body to remind ourselves that this really is not where you’re going to find any true happiness, any true beauty, without a lot of downsides. So that turns you around, and you ask, “Well, what am I doing this for?” The mind is very changeable, so you have to watch for it. It’ll say, “No … 
  16. Equanimity & Power
     … You now focus on things inside, and you see that things are not quite what you want. The breath may not be comfortable. The mind may be all over the place. You can’t be blown away by that fact. You can’t give up because of that. The Buddha gives you some confidence. You have tools you can work with. After he taught … 
  17. Unlearning Unskillful Behavior
     … situation is, what the problem is, what your unskillful reactions have been, why you engage in them. Just pose that question in the mind, and then drop it to the side. Focus on the breath. Try to get the mind as concentrated and still as you can. If any nibblings of that thought come up in the course of the hour, say, “No, not … 
  18. How & Why We Meditate
     … If you can’t feel it everywhere, focus on the areas where you can feel it, where it’s most blatant. Eventually, as your sensitivity develops, you’ll notice it in areas where you never sensed it before. You’ll start to realize that many of the sensations you are familiar with are actually breath sensations. As with any delicate task, this takes time … 
  19. Correcting, Fostering, Cutting Away
     … For example, you focus on the breath, but the mind is not settling down with the breath. The question is, what can you correct? Is the problem with the mind, or is the problem with the breath? What attitudes are you carrying in from the day? What can you do to drop them? This is one of the reasons why we have the chanting … 
  20. The Use of the Present
    The Use of the Present November 28, 2016 We focus on the body in and of itself, feelings in and of themselves, mind states in and of themselves, but we don’t make them the goal in and of themselves. We’re trying to take them apart to see what they’re made of, because we’ve been putting them together in all kinds … 
  21. Take Care of Your Tools
     … Those are the issues that are worthwhile to focus on. So whatever comes up in the course of the concentration, there’s always a cure for it. And it’s not that difficult, especially if you stay with the breath. That’s one of the reasons why Ajaan Lee focused on the breath in all his books, because it’s the safest object of … 
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