Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 96
  2. Becoming
     … And the reason the Buddha focuses on these and not on other issues is because the nature of action is important for understanding why we suffer and how we can stop suffering. There’s the kamma that leads to suffering; there’s the kamma that leads to its end. So we’re here trying to understand what action is all about, what action does … 
  3. How to Be Alone
     … What kind of mood would take me further?” There’s a passage where the Buddha talks about a meditator who finds, as he’s focusing on the breath, that there’s a fever in his mind. So he needs to change his topic for the time being, to find something more inspiring, more uplifting. That could include reflecting on the Buddha, the Dhamma, the … 
  4. Practicing for Dispassion
     … It’s the acts of discernment focused on the drawbacks that help give rise to dispassion for all the things that would pull you back, pull you back. So we practice virtue, concentration, and discernment, for the sake of dispassion. That’s when we’re using them rightly. We don’t practice virtues to think that we’re going to be better than other … 
  5. Pride in Your Craft
     … This is why the breath-meditation method of Ajaan Lee taught focuses on breathing in a comfortable way. At the same time, you learn from what you’re doing. You can observe your breath and you can learn from uncomfortable breathing. Fortunately, there’s no moral stigma attached to the fact you’ve been breathing in an uncomfortable way. It’s simply a practical … 
  6. A Committed Relationship
     … And as you’re focusing on the breath, learning how to meditate, you have to make some other sacrifices in life as well. It’s the same as when you’re having a relationship with another person. You’ve got to give up some aspects of your relationships with other people. If you really want to get to know the breath, you have to … 
  7. How to Use the Teaching on Kamma
     … This is why we’re focusing on the breath in the present moment. We want to catch the mind in the present moment because that’s the source of all our karma. People in the time of the Buddha had lots of different teachings about karma. One of the prevalent ones was that the most important karma was what your body was doing, and … 
  8. Faith in the Practice
     … As the mind begins to settle down, you really do find a sense of pleasure that comes from simply sitting here still, focused on a very comfortable sensation in the body and learning how to maintain it without squeezing it and cutting it off, or just blissing out: as Ajaan Fuang used to say, “just letting your hands and feet go limp” and just … 
  9. Maintaining Goodwill
     … But to get the best use out of the meditation, you have to be good at focusing the mind, and then maintaining that concentration. Because in the maintaining comes the steadiness that you’re going to need in order to see things. When something moves in the mind, you don’t have to move along with it. When you can learn that skill, you … 
  10. Intelligent about Change
     … The focus strengthens the breath, and then as the breath gets more consistently comfortable, you find that it gets easier to stay focused. The two qualities help each other along—strength of focus and strength of body—but the preliminary strength comes from your concentration. So remember that strength of mind is what matters most, much more than the strength of the body. Because … 
  11. Selves with Skills
     … To begin with, you’ve got the breath that you’re focusing on. Where in the body are you feeling it right now? Focus your attention there. Try to keep it there. That’s going to require that you talk to yourself about it. In other words, if you notice that the mind is wandering off, you remind yourself to come right back. Then … 
  12. Read the Breath
     … So we’re sitting here focusing on the breath not simply because the breath can become a comfortable place to stay—although it is a good place to hang out, with a sense of ease in the present moment. The Buddha said that is one of the rewards of concentration, but you can’t just sit there and eat up the rewards. Ajaan Lee … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
  22. Load next page...