Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. A Multilingual Mind
     … where the elements that lead to unskillfulness — lack of mindfulness, lack of discernment, lack of concentration — come in. You begin to catch them. It’s like learning another language. You don’t forget your original language, it’s just that you learn how to function on another level, in a new context. And people who become bilingual begin to notice that they have a … 
  3. Suffering is an Addiction
     … That’s what the path is for—the practice of mindfulness, concentration, the practice of virtue, learning to take some satisfaction in knowing that you’ve behaved in a skillful way. In the Buddha’s instructions on how to help yourself through helping others—treating other people with goodwill and with sympathy, with patience and equanimity—the Buddha says it’s immediately good for … 
  4. The Power to Transcend Suffering
     … It’s an extremely important skill, both for bringing the mind to a stronger state of concentration in the present moment, a sense of a good, solid foundation, and for sensitizing yourself to what’s going on. You’re going to need that sensitivity because the movements of the mind are much more subtle than the movements of the breath. First you have to … 
  5. Ajaan Suwat 100 Years
     … You really give yourself to the concentration. Give yourself to wanting to do this well. Think about the forest ajaans. Many of them came from a very poor background, and the practice was their only way out. So they gave themselves totally to the practice. We have lots of alternatives, and so we sometimes give ourselves fifty percent, forty percent, twenty, and hold on … 
  6. Where to Look in the Present
     … The Buddha describes right concentration as including rapture as well. So those are the things you’re aiming at. The question is learning how to aim skillfully. In other words, you’re learning how to keep your desired goal in mind and then actually work on the causes that’ll get you to that goal. That’s where your main intention has to be … 
  7. The Purity of Your Intentions
    The practice of concentration is an exercise in staying with one intention, sticking with it regardless. You make up your mind that you’re going to stay with the breath, and you immediately find there will be other intentions coming up in the mind to pull you away from your original intention. You have to say No to them. And you have to learn … 
  8. Swept Downstream
     … So where is your island? The Buddha says you try to establish your mindfulness—ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world—so that you can get the mind into concentration. This gives you an island that gets you out of the flood for a bit, but you’re still in the middle of the river. You haven … 
  9. Rewriting the Mind’s Song
     … That’s one of the reasons why we practice concentration in general: to get away from those ways of feeding, so that when you get back to them, you notice, “Oh. I’ve returned to that.” And it’s usually in the moment of returning that there will be a little bit of something to indicate why you want to go for it. Once … 
  10. No Slivers in the Heart
     … He gained strong states of concentration. He had all kinds of psychic knowledge: knowledge of his previous lives, knowledge of how beings are born in line with their kamma. But he didn’t stop there. He told himself, “There’s got to be something more.” There was still, as he said, an arrow in his heart and he wanted to pull that arrow out … 
  11. Carrying Your Duties Lightly
     … You really need practice with doing that, because otherwise the narratives come in and eat into your meditation, eat into the mind, and leave you with no concentration. Get in touch with that part of the mind they call “your face before you were born”: in other words, the part that has no knowledge of these narratives, doesn’t give them any reality. Learn … 
  12. The Search for Something of Substance
     … Here we are working on concentration, but you find that there are parts of the mind that don’t want to be bothered. You try to get the mind to settle down. You try to get the mind to be mindful and alert. There are parts of the mind that thrive on lack of mindfulness and lack of alertness. They’re going to push … 
  13. Free to Do the Right Thing
     … When you’re doing concentration practice, there are only a few things that really right for right now. Those are the thoughts to keep you focused on the breath, keep you focused on the present moment. As for other thoughts, no matter how true they may be, no matter how beneficial they maybe in other times, you’ve got to learn to put them … 
  14. The Four Bases of Success
     … If you’re sitting and anticipating, remember that right anticipation is not one of the factors of the path—it’s certainly not one of the factors of concentration. Just focus on what you’ve already got. And the next question is, “What would be a more pleasant breath?” Be sensitive. The more sensitive you are to how your breathing feels throughout the body … 
  15. Karma Storms
     … You read about all the stages of concentration you’d like to try out—the first jhana, second jhana, third, fourth, up through the formless ones—and yet you have trouble staying with the breath at all. Well, find a theme that you can stay with. If you can’t be with the whole body, find one small part of the body and stay … 
  16. Stop & Think
     … the directed thought and evaluation that eventually get you into right concentration. That’s undirected meditation. Directed, the type of meditation where you have to stop and think, is for times when the mind is entangled with concerns, worries, and responsibilities, and it can’t let them go easily. That’s when you have to think your way out of them before you can … 
  17. Rooted in Heedful Desire
     … The food that keeps the soldier going is concentration. What’s most interesting about the passage is where Ajaan Mun identifies the soldier. The soldier, he says, is the desire not to come back and be the laughingstock of the defilements ever again—in other words, not to be fooled by your own mind. Because if you let yourself get fooled, then you’re … 
  18. Four Mountains Moving In
     … So the Buddha asked him, “When Sariputta died, did he take virtue with him?” “No.” “Did he take concentration?” “No.” Discernment?” “No.” “Release?” “No.” All the good things in life are there. The good potentials in life are always here. So even where there’s loss and danger, there are still good things we can do. And it’s important that we stay focused … 
  19. How to Be Self-Centered
     … That is, you’re centered in right concentration where you’re coming from a position of strength and well-being, with a happiness that doesn’t take anything away from anyone else at all. When the time comes to let go of that self, you’re not letting go out of hatred or neurotic fear. You let go simply because you realize you don … 
  20. Like an Athlete in Training
     … You’re trying to strengthen the mind, so you strengthen the qualities that give rise to more conviction, more persistence, more mindfulness, more concentration, more discernment. Watch out for the food that would eat away at these things. In this way, you protect the Dhamma inside yourself, which is where it’s best protected. You look outside, and sometimes it’s hard to see … 
  21. A Position of Strength
     … conviction in the importance of maintaining a skillful state of mind, persistence in keeping it going, mindfulness, concentration, discernment. When these things are strong, when they’re in charge of your mind, then you can trust it. It becomes your refuge. You realize that your happiness doesn’t have to depend on things outside. It can depend on these qualities inside, and nothing outside … 
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