Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 97
  2. Take an Interest
     … When anger comes, when fear comes, when you’re lying awake at night and can’t get to sleep, you can focus on the breath. It’s like having something to play with, or a friend to talk to at any time at all. And as with any friend, when you don’t know the friend very well, you just sit there and you … 
  3. Delight in Conviction
     … There are a lot of potentials you have here for understanding yourself, understanding your breath, understanding the way you talk to yourself, understanding the perceptions you hold in mind—even the feelings you focus on. These are not just random things. They’re things that you play a role in shaping. With some good guidance, you can learn how to shape them well. The … 
  4. The Mind Set Tall
     … We often focus on the good side of the lust without wanting to look at the bad. And again, you’re not going to be able to uproot that until you’ve looked at both sides. Exactly what gratification do you get out of it? Sometimes it seems obvious, but it’s not really. You have to look little bit deeper. And you have … 
  5. A Meditator’s Environment
     … But you start with the right view in general, to give yourself the right perspective, to focus your eyes in the right direction. Then do your best to see clearly what’s there. This is how you create a good environment for the practice. This applies to monks; it applies to laypeople. It gives you a strong sense that you’re not just on … 
  6. Shelter Through Restraint
     … The part of the mind that doesn’t like the idea of restraint feels like it’s being hemmed in, but when you narrow your focus like this, you see things a lot more clearly. You stay in what the Buddha calls your ancestral field as a meditator. This is where our ancestors all stayed. By staying here, you get to see anything that … 
  7. Look at Yourself
     … That’s the primary focus because that’s where the primary problem is—and it’s also where the solution could be found.
  8. There’s Work to Be Done
     … If you focus directly on them, they’ll resist even more. They’re like wild animals. If you stare at a wild animal, it’ll run away. If you act like you don’t know that it’s there, it’ll hang around for a while and not feel so threatened. So when you’re first dealing with these blockages inside—and they’re … 
  9. A Taste of Freedom
     … This is why we focus on the breath. It’s your anchor in the present moment. There’s no past breath you can watch. There’s no future breath you can watch. When you’re with the sensation of the breathing, you know you’re in the present. And when you’ve made up your mind to stay here, then with anything else that … 
  10. Calm & Insight into Pain
    Focus on your breath. Notice where you feel the breathing process in the body. It’s good at the beginning of the meditation to breathe in a way that feels energizing, because you’re going to be calming things down, and if you start out already calm and a little sluggish, calm breathing just makes you more sluggish. So deep in-breaths can energize … 
  11. Brahmaviharas at the Breath
     … Can you switch your focus to see where it emanates from, and to make sure that it doesn’t run into any restrictions as it spreads through the body? And how are you relating to the breath? Breath instructions often begin by saying, “Watch the breath.” But that can create some problems. Tell yourself, “Don’t watch the breath. Feel it. Wear it. Bathe … 
  12. To Gladden the Mind
     … In that case, you drop the breath and focus on an inspiring theme to give rise to a feeling of joy, which will have a good effect on the mind. In his breath meditation instructions, he says a similar thing: First you get sensitive to the state of the mind, and then if you need to gladden it, that’s what you do. Give … 
  13. The Core of Experience
     … In other words, you focus on “What does this action lead to?” The treasure of compunction is something the Buddha encourages us to develop within us so that we can find the happiness he found in the same way that he found it: by looking inside and seeing that there is a core in here—not something you would say is you or yours … 
  14. Confident, Steadfast, Resolute
     … The more confident you are in just staying with whatever sensation seems like breath, staying with whatever focus you have on the breath, the more you open up possibilities. It’s in this way that you can settle in and become steadfast. You stay right here. And then be resolute in pushing through. In other words, any other obstacles that come up, just push … 
  15. Universal Truths
     … Or if you find it difficult to sit and focus on stress, then you might want to develop some of the qualities that go into making up the path. So these are the duties of right view. The Buddha doesn’t impose them on anyone. He doesn’t force anyone to carry out these duties—but the stress and suffering that we suffer from … 
  16. Caring Enough to Doubt
     … Do you really care about happiness? Are you serious about it? Not serious in the sense of being grim, but have you had enough of false happiness, happiness that’s let you down? If you decide you’ve had enough, okay then, focus on the practice. One of the ways to you get yourself motivated to practice, the Buddha said, is to have the … 
  17. Disenchantment
     … These are the basic elements the Buddha has us focus on as we concentrate. First, of course, we learn how to dress them up in a new way. In other words, bring the directed thought and evaluation to the breath, to create feelings of comfort. You use your perceptions to maintain that sense of comfort. So these elements—the fabrication and intention that we … 
  18. Circumspection
     … When you’re focusing on the breath, how strong is your focus? When you’re holding a concept of the breath in mind, what is the concept? The best way to ferret these things out is to experiment. You look at the various ways Ajaan Lee has of explaining the breath energy in the body. Those all come from his experimentation, and part of … 
  19. Exercising the Mind
    Focus on your breath. Breathe in deep. Let the breath go out on its own. Now keep watch over the mind to stay with the breath. The breath is happening all the time. What’s going to make a difference is the consistency with which you watch it. Try to stay steadily right here. I remember the first time I read a book talking … 
  20. The Desire to Be Free from Desire
     … You have to want to focus on the breath and to put aside any thoughts that would pull you away. The Buddha recommends three qualities to help with this. One is mindfulness, the ability to keep something in mind. Then there’s alertness, the ability to know what you’re doing while you’re doing it. And then ardency: Ardency is basically right effort … 
  21. Determination
     … What’s good about the Buddha’s teachings is that they give you something to live for, something to focus on even though there are social forces beyond your control. You develop the perfections of the mind in an imperfect world because it’s the qualities of the mind that really count. In another one of the Buddha’s teachings, he calls those your … 
  22. Load next page...