Search results for: "Attention"

  1. Attention & Intention
    Attention & Intention October 31, 2023 On the night of his awakening, the Buddha discovered that people’s lives, and particularly their experiences of pleasure and pain, were influenced by their acts of intention and acts of attention. The intentions, of course, were the intentions that drove their actions. These intentions, in turn, were influenced by what they paid attention to, and who they paid … 
  2. The Power of Attention
     … Pay attention to the fact that you’re already fabricating things in the present moment. The question is how to do it well. When the Buddha discusses appropriate attention and inappropriate attention, inappropriate attention has to do with paying attention to questions that are fairly abstract, like, “Do I exist? Do I not exist? What was I in the past? What will I be … 
  3. Strength of Discernment
     … You have to focus on where you should pay attention. Because we’re trying to give rise to discernment, and discernment lies in knowing which things are fit for attention and which things are not fit for attention. That’s the diversity of these things. You have to ask yourself: “What are my duties right now? Where am I responsible?” And you focus there … 
  4. Sensitivity All the Time
     … The point is being attentive, paying careful attention, being sensitive, all the time. This is a quality the Buddha calls citta: intentness, attentiveness, really giving yourself fully to what you’re doing right now. When you’re intent, insight comes not as a formula that allows you to be inattentive, but as a sensitivity to what’s going on right now so you can … 
  5. Heedful, Attentive, Mindful
     … This is where attention comes in. Attention is not just a matter of paying attention to something, anything, in general. It’s how you phrase your question. The Buddha talks about appropriate and inappropriate attention. Appropriate attention is when you ask the right questions, particularly, “Where is there suffering? What is the suffering? How is it caused? Can it be ended? And what is … 
  6. Bare Attention
    The Buddha never taught bare attention. He taught appropriate attention. This is an important distinction to bear in mind. If we think that the heart of the meditation is just simply bare attention, it causes all kinds of misunderstandings – such as the idea that meditation is simply a process of watching whatever comes up and not doing anything about it. Or even deeper, there … 
  7. Appropriate Attention Plus Admirable Friendship
    Bring your attention to the breath, and try to keep it here. Follow the breath in the same way that you’d follow a road: Just keep going, step, by step, by step, not wandering off to the forests and the fields on the left or the right, but staying right on the road. Because this is a road that goes someplace. Remember, this … 
  8. Appropriate Attention
     … Now, to think in these ways is called appropriate attention. In other words, the Buddha gives you a list of things that are appropriate to pay attention to in the present moment: Pay attention to your clinging, pay attention to your craving. Pay attention to the things you can do to put an end to the clinging and craving. And not only pay attention … 
  9. When Things Aren’t Going Well
     … Even if all you’ve got is just that simple ability to stay attentive, then stay attentive, and keep that attention appropriate, without getting entangled in the story lines, the narratives, and all the other crazy ideas that the mind keeps churning out for itself. So when things don’t look good, try to get some perspective by reminding yourself: What are the basics … 
  10. No Happiness without Restraint
     … So focus your attention on one spot and try to make that spot as comfortable as you can, as you breathe in, as you breathe out. Then from that spot you can spread both the breath and your attention. Sometimes the attention goes first. Your sense of awareness begins to expand, and then the breath and pleasure follow afterwards. Sometimes the breath itself seems … 
  11. Skills of the Dhamma Wheel
     … It’s how we should frame our attention to things. The Buddha never taught bare attention. He talked about only two kinds of attention: appropriate and inappropriate. When you attend to things, it’s not really bare. The fact that you’re noticing something, paying attention to something, means you have a purpose in mind. Even if you decide that you’re going to … 
  12. Appropriate Attention, Appropriate Intention
     … The two qualities go together – appropriate attention, appropriate intention – and they feed off each other. The intention turns into concentration, the attention is what develops your discernment. You need both. And they have to be appropriate. There’s no such thing as “bare” attention in the Buddha’s teachings. It’s all colored by your intention. So learn how to keep your intentions properly … 
  13. Full Attention
    Full Attention December 29, 2011 Ajaan Suwat used to call this place our quiet corner here. We’re literally at the end of the road. Our neighbors are mainly coyotes, bobcats, a few overly friendly dogs, and just a few other people. It’s a great place for physical seclusion. You sit out under the trees, you open your eyes, and there are no … 
  14. Attention with an Agenda
     … So you concentrate on the talk, and then finally you apply appropriate attention. Notice, that’s appropriate attention, not bare attention. The Buddha never talks about bare attention. He talks only about two kinds of attention: appropriate and inappropriate. Appropriate is when you take the lesson and you ask yourself, “How does this apply to the question of what is skillful, what is not … 
  15. How to Listen to the Dhamma
    The Buddha would often begin his Dhamma talks by saying, “Listen and pay careful attention.” By that he didn’t just mean, “Listen to every word.” He also meant, “Listen using appropriate attention.” He never taught bare attention. As far as he was concerned, there were only two types of attention—appropriate and inappropriate—and appropriate attention is what you want to bring to … 
  16. Present Kamma
     … The third quality the Buddha talks about is attention. Usually when he talks about attention, he’s talking about the questions you ask yourself. So the questions right now are, “Is the breath comfortable? Is it easy to stay with the breath? If it’s not easy to stay with the breath, what can you change?” You can change your focal point. Where is … 
  17. Little Things
     … Don’t slough over it, because paying attention to the little details is what brings you more and more into the present moment. If you’re sloughing over the details, you’re sloughing from the past into the future and skipping over the present. So pay close attention to each breath, to how the process of each breath feels in different parts of the … 
  18. The Little Things
    Pay close attention to the breath. Be right on top of it each time it comes in, each time it goes out. Don’t let the process get mechanical. Don’t put it on automatic pilot. Really pay attention. How does the breath feel when it comes in? Where do you feel it? Which parts of the body would really feel good if the … 
  19. A Simple Path Through a Complex Map
     … You learn how to pay attention to it: “What questions are you asking about it?” That’s a useful way to understand this, because now you can ask new questions. If the original questions were going to lead you to suffering, you can apply appropriate attention, asking questions related to the four noble truths. Then all of a sudden that feeling becomes part of … 
  20. Your Duty Lies Right Here
     … So you’ve got to realize that this moment of awareness and this breath deserve your full attention. And it’s not just bare attention. Bare attention is actually in many ways inappropriate attention. Whenever the Buddha talked about attention, he talked about only two kinds: appropriate or inappropriate. Appropriate is when you see things in terms of the four noble truths and their … 
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