Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 98
  2. The Inner Monitor
     … Here the intention is to keep the breath in mind and to keep it comfortable, to keep the mind at ease and keep it focused. Now, to maintain this intention requires three other mental qualities. The first is mindfulness, the ability keep something in mind. Then there’s alertness which watches over what you’re doing. And then there’s ardency, which is the … 
  3. Rebirth is Relevant
     … It was something you did, so he focused on how we do it. Most of us do it very unskillfully, and as a result, we suffer, again and again. But he showed that if you focus not on what gets reborn—something for which you’re not responsible—but on how it happens—something for which you are responsible—you can learn to handle … 
  4. Restraint
     … In this case the Buddha says the stake is mindfulness immersed in the body—as when you’re focused on the breath. You breathe in and out in a way that gives rise to rapture, gives rise to pleasure, that gladdens the mind, concentrates the mind. You can breathe with a sense of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. This … 
  5. Why We Meditate
     … It’s how the mind talks to itself, how it focuses on things, how it observes things, what it learns, the skills it has in dealing with itself and with events around it. That’s where the secret to happiness lies. This is why we meditate, and it’s good to keep this in mind at all times, because there will be a tendency … 
  6. But Not Sick in Mind
     … Then there’s the question of whether your mind can stay focused, or is it pulling off in other directions? If so, why is it pulling there? Look into it. When they talk about acceptance as a part of the practice, what it means is that you accept the situation as it is in the present moment so that you can figure out what … 
  7. Mindful of the Buddha’s Shoulds
     … This is the path we’re on right now—focusing on the body, just the body in and of itself, as it breathes in, as it breathes out, ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. We keep this frame of reference in mind so that we don’t get entangled in the greed and distress that come with … 
  8. Do Jhana
     … This is why his meditation instructions are not just about how to get focused, say, on the breath, but also how to think about your distractions so that you don’t get entangled with them. There’s a sutta where Rahula, the Buddha’s son, comes to ask him how to do breath meditation. The Buddha doesn’t start right in with his instructions … 
  9. Stay Principled
    When we practice concentration or mindfulness, we tend spend a lot of time focusing on the technique: where to focus the mind, how to stay with the point of your focus or the theme of the meditation; how to work with it so that the mind can begin to settle down and stay settled down. There are even skills techniques how to leave meditation … 
  10. Acceptance Without Suffering
     … You’re focusing on how bad it was, how outrageous it was, how they shouldn’t have done that. Maybe you want to see them suffer. That’s when your anger turns into ill-will. When you see this happening, you can tell yourself, “Okay, this kind of thinking is not helping. There are other ways I can look at the situation.” You can … 
  11. Kindfulness
    Kindfulness May 1, 2010 As you train the mind, focusing on the breath, allowing the breath to be comfortable, trying to become friends with the breath, it’s a very direct way of showing goodwill to yourself and to the people around you. Goodwill for yourself in the sense that you learn how to develop a source of happiness that comes from within. Your … 
  12. Toward Release
     … So we start developing those powers and functions of the mind in the right direction by focusing them on something direct and immediate: the process of breathing. When the Buddha talks about the factors for awakening, there are two processes or two exercises that he says are really helpful: one is to develop appropriate attention, the ability to ask the right questions; and the … 
  13. May I Look After Myself with Ease
     … In the meantime, people who spend all their time focusing on how much they want to straighten out the world, straighten out other people, end up getting frazzled, all pulled out of shape, and generally miserable. This is not to say that we shouldn’t try to make the world a good place, simply that that task comes secondary in importance. Of first importance … 
  14. Days Fly Past
     … What are you doing with what you’ve got right now? His teaching focuses on doing, on action. Everything we know is an action or the result of an action. Even theories are actions. Ideas are actions. Concepts are actions. They’re part of a casual chain. Where are they taking us? Even when you’re meditating, sitting here trying to do absolutely nothing … 
  15. Kamma & Rebirth—A Handful of Leaves
     … In that way, he wasn’t focused just on his own problems. He took a larger perspective. And this larger perspective is what makes the pains of your past kamma much less. The Buddha compares it to a river. You’ve got a lump of salt, and if you throw it in the river, you can still drink the water because the river is … 
  16. Vitakka & Vicara
     … A lot of things that the mind focuses on and gets obsessed with are just like that. You see the consequences but you don’t care. You say, “I’m much more attracted to the taste of northern Thai food. I can put up with the diarrhea.” That’s what you think. So in this case you have to really think about the consequences … 
  17. Ask the Right Questions
     … So stay focused right here as much you can, and as you ask the right questions of what’s right here, you’ll find the happiness you’re looking for. And you reach the point where you can put those questions aside.
  18. Jhāna & Discernment
     … Then find a place in the midst of the body where it feels good to stay, where it’s easy to stay focused, and then stay right there, allowing your awareness to spread through the whole body. The breathing fills the body. The awareness fills the body. Everything feels good together. This is how you get into what’s called jhāna, absorption. It’s … 
  19. Mind Control
     … You’re sitting here focusing on the breath and suddenly find yourself thinking about tomorrow’s meal. Bring your mind back to the breath. That’s it. Remind yourself, “That’s not why we’re here for. We’re not here to think about meals. We’re here to think about the breath.” Sometimes just that is enough. In other words, what has happened … 
  20. Abusing Pleasure & Pain
     … the pain that comes from focusing down too hard, from sitting in an unbalanced posture, or from closing off certain energies in the body to focus more strongly on the spot you want to highlight. You can avoid those problems by thinking “whole body” all from the very beginning, all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out. That in … 
  21. Complexities of the Mind
     … What did you do? How did you focus on the breath? Where were you focused? What feelings surrounded the mind as it began to settle down? To what extent can you recreate that? The next time around, you want to try that. See if you can recreate it. Ask yourself, what did it feel like? What were the steps going in? You want to … 
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