Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. Limitless Compassion, Limited Resources
     … Is it entangling? Because the more you get entangled with other people, the less time you have to practice concentration, discernment, the direct training of the mind. So this is one of the quandaries: How do you help without getting entangled? You learn from other people’s example. And you realize that the best help you can give to other people is to teach … 
  3. The Real World
     … You think getting the mind in concentration is good? Well, the insight that leads to total freedom, that’s even better. The Buddha always has better things to promise, all the way up to total release. That’s the real world. And if we live in that world, we can find real happiness. It’s a happiness that spreads around, which makes it even … 
  4. A Rare Gift
     … But on the other hand, what is the path? The heart of the path is concentration, mental stillness, mental ease. So it’s a matter of learning how to balance those two. Use the ease to make a difference in the mind —not just as a place to hang out or to be comfortable—but use this sense of ease that you can develop … 
  5. Settling In
    Another way of translating the word for concentration—samadhi—can also be “settling.” And it’s good to think of this as a process of settling in. All too often we can think of concentrationi as an activity in which we strive to go higher and higher up the ladder, and sometimes that can create misunderstandings. We try to keep pushing on to what … 
  6. Cutting Roads
     … To some extent, we’re focusing on things that are already there, but as you focus on them, in the words of the texts, they get “provoked.” So as you provoke the different elements, the question is, which ones are going to be helpful to your concentration, and which ones are going to get in the way. Ajaan Lee makes a comparison. When you … 
  7. Ask the Right Questions
     … Learn how to read the mind for when it’s getting ready to leave the breath, so you know when to comfort it, when to be stern with it, when to use the breath, when to use other reflections to keep the mind solidly in the present moment so that its concentration develops and has a chance to grow, deepen, become more solid. When … 
  8. Monologue on the Breath
     … In this way, you take the part of the mind that tends to cause so much trouble—its constant chatter—and you train it to be a help, because the directed thought eventually turns into concentration, the evaluation turns into discernment. The two of them working together, focused on this one topic, get stronger and stronger, more and more sensitive, until they lead to … 
  9. Interdependence
     … The effort here is the effort we put into our meditation, the effort we put into virtue, concentration, and discernment. We use the things we’ve got and we try to use them skillfully, which means that as we’re practicing, we’re still interdependent. We’re still in an unstable position—but, at least, it’s better than not practicing. I know a … 
  10. Pleasure & Pain
     … If you approach pleasure the right way, you can use it as a foundation for stronger and stronger powers of concentration and more and more stillness. The greater the stillness, the more sensitivity you can bring to discerning pleasure and the pain. So in both cases you’re trying to learn how to deal with pleasure and pain and not be overwhelmed by them … 
  11. Strength of Conviction: 1
     … conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. Of the five, conviction is the most basic. All the rest depend on it. One of the Thai ajaans once said that we tend to think that discernment comes from reading a lot, from having a lot of ideas and developing our thoughts, but it actually comes from conviction. Because what kind of discernment are we looking for … 
  12. More than Ordinary Heedfulness
     … But the Buddha’s saying that if, after you’ve gained rest from concentration, you simply allow the mind to go back to its old habits, you’re being heedless. Areas where other people didn’t see dangers, he saw dangers. Areas where other people didn’t see a way out, he saw a way out. Take, for instance, our attachment to the body … 
  13. Fighting off Ignorance
     … You develop the powers of concentration. All these things work together to create an area of awareness in the present moment. And in that area, you can begin to fabricate in a way that causes less suffering. When you fabricate with awareness rather than ignorance, it all turns into the path. We start with the breath, being aware of the breath coming in, going … 
  14. The Will to Awaken
     … You need to develop more mindfulness, more alertness, more concentration. And part of that quest for the end of suffering involves goodwill—goodwill for yourself, goodwill for the people around you—because you realize that if your happiness depends on their suffering, it’s not going to happen. They’re going to try to block it or undo it. So you have to find … 
  15. Living Forward, Understanding Backward
     … Even more so as you develop more concentration and discernment: You began to separate the mind from its objects. In other words, when pain arises, you’re aware of the pain, but you don’t have to identify with the pain, or with the perception that says, “my pain.” You can cut right through it and you find that letting it drop makes a … 
  16. Judgmental vs. Judicious
     … You can’t wait until concentration comes on its own to you. You’ve got to approach them through trial and error—or as the Buddha would say, through commitment and reflection. You commit to doing it as best you can, and then you reflect on the results. Where you did it well, you pat yourself on the back. But you don’t rest … 
  17. Truths That Are Noble
     … That’s one of the reasons why we’re practicing concentration: to give ourselves a pleasure that’s not as blind and intoxicated as sensuality. Clinging to our ideas of how things should be done: That’s a huge suffering right there. You have to learn how to give that up, too. For a lot of people, that’s one of the hardest. Our … 
  18. A Room of Your Own
     … This is one of the reasons why concentration can lead to insight. The mind senses more stillness, so it can see ephemeral things more quickly, see subtle things more easily, because its own movement is not disturbing your field of vision. At the same time, the sense of comfort allows you to deal with uncomfortable things and yet not feel a sense of being … 
  19. A Refuge in Quiescence
     … Your conviction becomes solid, your persistence, your mindfulness, your concentration all become solid. You’ve got this place where you can ride out the storm. Think of those verses in the Theragāthā: A monk is in his hut and he says, “The hut is well sealed, the roof has no leaks, so if the rain god wants to rain, go ahead and rain.” In … 
  20. A Cure for the Sluggish Mind
     … Or you’ll drift off into delusion concentration, where the mind is still, but there’s not much alertness, not much awareness—which is not what you want. So energize the body. Then look at the mind: Is it too energetic, or is it too sluggish? From that, figure out what needs to be done. If it’s too sluggish, think of the Buddha … 
  21. Patience & Hope
     … We’re developing the skills of mindfulness, alertness, and ardency; the skills of concentration and discernment, that will allow us not to be overcome by the results of past actions, and to see our way clear—that regardless of what situation we find ourselves in, we can choose the skillful way out. As the Buddha says, some of us are born in darkness, some … 
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