Search results for: "Concentration"
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- The Lightning Bolt… If the path requires that you work on concentration, you work on concentration. If it requires that you give up certain things that you like, you say, “Well, I’ll try it. I’ll try giving them up and see what happens.” You don’t let your preferences get in the way. At the same time, learn how to talk yourself into wanting to …
- The Truth of Transcendence… She cited a text in the Canon where the Buddha starts out with dependent co-arising up through suffering and then from suffering talks about how suffering gives rise to conviction and conviction gives rise to effort and joy, concentration, discernment, all the way up to release. So her conclusion was that release, too, is caused; therefore, she said, nibbana is also a conditioned …
- The True Cause of Suffering… These are five qualities of mind that get in the way, that block the mind’s ability to settle down in concentration and to gain discernment, to gain insight, and to gain release. So you have to know the antidotes for them. The first big block is sensual passion, our desire for sensual pleasures, our fascination with sensual pleasures. It’s a block because …
- Breath Meditation: The Second Tetrad… Is it getting in the way of your concentration? Is it helping it? If you have a perception that the breath has to struggle in order to get in, that’s not a helpful perception. If we picture to ourselves that we only have two little holes—i.e., the nostrils—for the breath to come in and out of the body, what happens …
- See Yourself as Active Verbs… If you feel that you have to suck the air in from outside, the mind is going to panic, and that’ll destroy the concentration. But if you remind yourself that the breath energy is something that originates from inside, and when the mind is really still the brain uses very little oxygen, so the body will breathe only as much as it needs …
- Investment Strategies… It may take work to get the mind to settle down, but the pleasure of concentration, as the Buddha said, one, is harmless and, two, it’s not a form of intoxication. It’s a type of pleasure that’s actually clear-headed clear-sighted and can be used as a basis of discernment. The ability to settle down and be relaxed in your …
- To Begin the Day… For those to be maintained, the mind needs a good solid state of concentration. That’s what we’re working on here. So, now that you’ve established yourself here in the center, look into the center. What have you got here in this body that’s right next to the mind? You’ve got the body sitting here breathing. There may be pains …
- Training Your Selves… After all, directed thought and evaluation—the way you talk to yourself—is a factor of right concentration. So tend to it: how you talk to yourself, what standards you’re using to judge yourself with. All too often they’re standards you picked up from who knows where. Why don’t you try the Buddha’s standards? After all, his standards are compassionate …
- Habits of Perception… This is one of the reasons we put so much emphasis on concentration, for the levels of concentration are perception attainments. Can you hold onto a particular perception so that the mind can really settle there? See what it does to your experience. When you stick with the perception of the breath as filling the body, what does that do to the physical sense …
- The Karma of Ideas… right view, right resolve, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. These are all instances of karma. So when you let your mind dwell on something, ask yourself: What is the result of dwelling on this?” In other words, the question is not only, “Is this thought true?” but also, “Is this useful? Is it going to take you some place good? What’s …
- Strong Through Commitment… The suttas are what put things together and tell us, “This is how you breathe; this is how you talk to yourself; these are some useful perceptions to hold in mind.” This is how we get the mind into concentration to begin with. You breathe in a way that’s comfortable, that feels soothing inside. You take some time to allow the breath to …
- Not Getting What You Want… starting with right view and ending in right concentration. That’s the fourth noble truth. So, the Buddha’s not saying not to want. He’s basically saying to want these things—want to be free from aging, illness, and death—but learn how to act on those wants in a skillful way. Think of the young prince who became the Buddha: That was …
- Stay… And you’ve got to learn how to stick with the breath, not only in terms of obvious distractions like thoughts of the past, thoughts of the future, but also in terms of things that come up in the meditation that are sometimes the result of the concentration. States of pleasure, states of rapture, can arise. Visions can arise. You can take these as …
- Permission to Play… Every factor of the noble eightfold path, from right view through right concentration, is something put together. It’s a fabrication. It’s something you will through bodily fabrication, verbal fabrication, and mental fabrication: i.e., through the breath, through directed thought and evaluation, and through feeling and perception. But to will skillfully, you have to bring these fabrications together in a way that …
- Protection Through Mindfulness Practice… So ardency here also has to develop concentration, a sense of non-sensual well-being, working with the breath. We’ve talked for the last couple of days in the Q & A about different ways of working with the breath energy, and it’s important to take some time to explore this aspect of your relationship to your body. What kind of movement of …
- Indecision… Like the state of concentration we’re working on now: That’s actually a form of renunciation. We’re putting aside all thoughts about the food we might eat tomorrow or fix tomorrow or the other pleasures we might get when we leave the monastery. We put those aside and we’re just here with the breath coming in, going out. This is called …
- Less is More… That’s what the directed thought and evaluation at the beginning of right concentration are all about. If you find the mind slipping off the breath, you can get it back right away. If it slips off in another direction, you get it back right away. You keep regaining your balance no matter how much it wobbles. After a while, things finally settle down …
- Noble Happiness… It may not seem like much right now, but as you develop your skills in mindfulness, alertness, concentration, and discernment, you find that they lead to a really special kind of happiness. This is why we bow down to the Buddha, because he teaches us of this potential. He teaches us to respect within ourselves things that are really are worthy of respect. And …
- Happy for People You Don’t Like … What this means is that you should develop them with strong concentration and also use your discernment to analyze what you’re doing, to analyze what you’re wishing in a way that leads to dispassion. A good example is the development of empathetic joy. Of the brahmaviharas, it’s the one that gets discussed the least—and actually it’s one of the …
- Enlightenment is Not a Hot Dog… Ajaan Fuang, my teacher, had a student whose powers of concentration were very strong. She was a schoolteacher. And she complained to him that she didn’t see any effect in her life from the meditation. She’d get into meditation, the mind would settle down and be very still. And then she’d come out, and she’d go back to her old …
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