Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 95
  2. Looking at Your Life
     … It gives the mind the strength it needs to be true to itself, not to be a traitor to its deepest motivation, and the strength to be able to give up things that are going be difficult to give up, knowing that you can develop a sense of well-being just sitting here with your eyes closed, focused on the breath. That gives you … 
  3. Sensitivity & Strength
     … If you liked focusing on the breath, that was fine as well. If you liked to think of any of the 32 parts of the body, if you found that conducive to a state of calm and detachment, that would be fine, too, because the whole point of concentration is to give the mind an object it feels comfortable with. In some cases, it … 
  4. The Reality of Your Thoughts
     … And focusing here on the breath puts you in a position where you can think from that perspective. So even though there are some constraints on what we could possibly think and possibly do at any one time, those constraints don’t prevent us from doing what’s skillful. So always try to look for that: What’s the skillful way of dealing with … 
  5. Breath Meditation: The Fourth Tetrad
     … In this way, focusing on the inconstancy of the pain—and the inconstancy of the images that get in the way, that make the pain worse than it has to be, more of an obstruction than it has to be—will allow you to develop some dispassion for your old ways of seeing things. Then, with dispassion, the obstruction those images create can cease … 
  6. Change Your Perceptions
    When you’re focused on the breath, you need a perception to hold you there. The perception can be an image you hold in mind—a visual image, a word, a little sign to remind you that this is where you want to stay. If it’s a visual perception, this is where Ajaan Lee’s instructions become handy, because remember, when we talk … 
  7. Imagine
     … All of this comes from creating that spot in the body where it feels good to stay focused. Then learning how to maintain it. Then inspecting it to see where you can expand it, where you can make it more stable. And then adjusting it in various ways: using your imagination to think at least of the possibility that the breath could be more … 
  8. Fabricating Around Pain
     … You’re talking to yourself about the breath, focusing your attention on the breath, and commenting on it, asking questions about it. Is long breathing good, or is shorter breathing? Deep? Shallow? Once you’ve found a breath that’s good, how do you maintain it? And then when you maintain it, what do you do with it? These are questions you ask yourself … 
  9. Skills for Awakening
     … Concentration keeps you focused on what you’re doing. Equanimity is needed to observe things carefully so that you can make clear and accurate judgments. Here, as we meditate, we’re observing the mind as we’re trying to get it calm and still, because when it gets still, you see things more clearly. But we don’t simply stop with the calm and … 
  10. People Suffer from Their Thinking
     … You’ve got to convince yourself this is a worthwhile activity, sitting here focusing on your breath. Then you have to think about letting the breath be comfortable, trying not to force the breath too much, just noticing what kind of rhythm of breathing feels good right now. This requires some thought, but it’s constructive thought. It’s okay to think and pose … 
  11. Full-Body Breath
     … You come out of delusion concentration and say, “Where was I? What was I focused on?” Not anything in the body, not anything you could really put your finger on. It’s pleasant. It’s nice. But it’s delusion concentration. To stay firmly planted in the present moment, it’s good to establish full-body awareness. It’s as if you nail your … 
  12. An Auspicious Night
     … If you keep focused on doing your duty ardently here in the present moment and stopping every now and then to gauge how well you’re doing, you’re following the Buddha’s example. That’s how the Buddha gained his awakening. Nobody taught him the path to awakening. He found it by doing the best things he could imagine doing and then looking … 
  13. Thinking Seriously about Happiness
     … We’re using the body, focused on the breath, as our object of meditation, trying to feel the body, the entire body, from the top of the head down to the tips of the toes, as we’re grounding the mind. So even though the body does have its limitations, it does have its uses as well. It’s just that you have a … 
  14. Perceiving the Breath
     … Your best way of dealing with them is to give the mind something really interesting to focus on, something to explore here in the present moment, whatever feels good and gives you an immediate sense of reward for focusing in a particular way and just staying right here. Having this good place to come back to is one of the prime ways of training … 
  15. Beyond Inter-eating
     … And it focuses your attention on the right place: that regardless of the conditions of your life, if you focus on acting skillfully, things are going to improve. But conviction also strengthens you in the sense that it alerts you to the fact that there’s a danger here as well. If you look at your intentions in your untrained mind, then you realize … 
  16. The World Is Swept Away
     … This is called focusing on the pleasure of form—the body as you feel it from within. When we talk about meditation, we usually don’t refer to the fact that this is a kind of renunciation, but that’s what it is. People don’t like the word renunciation, it sounds like you’re being deprived of something. But actually it means you … 
  17. Mindfulness the Gatekeeper
     … You keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. The “body in itself” here means the body simply as its sitting here right now. You don’t think about the body in the world, because that would give rise to other duties: Is your body attractive enough? Is it … 
  18. The Best News in the World
     … After all, the Buddha was focusing on his breath the night of his awakening. There’s no difference between his breath and your breath. The difference lies in the qualities of mind he brought to the breath. And you can develop the qualities that he did. So it’s good to think about how he developed those qualities. By all accounts, he was a … 
  19. How to Straighten Out the World
     … But to get there, first you have to have at least a spot in the body where you’re focused and try to maintain that focus through time. Try to develop a oneness through time. This is the function of mindfulness and alertness. You keep the breath in mind and you keep watching. There may be thoughts in what seem like other parts of … 
  20. Looking after Yourself with Ease
     … We’re focusing not so much on the air coming in and out of the nose as on the feeling of movement and energy that goes along with the breath. And that breath energy exists on many levels. There’s even a still breath inside, a level of energy that doesn’t move. You can access it in certain spots in what Ajaan Lee … 
  21. An Environment for Practice
     … In this environment, it’s because they’re focusing on their minds. It’s understood that that’s okay. Not only okay, but actually desirable. Back when I was living in Thailand, most of the time I was the only Westerner. Toward the end of Ajaan Fuang’s life, we had a French monk come and stay with us for three months. One morning … 
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