Search results for: "Concentration"

  1. Page 117
  2. The Heightened Mind
     … But to do that, you need the daily practice of sitting here with nothing else to do, no other responsibilities, no other duties—just the duties of the four noble truths, one of which is to develop concentration, to develop discernment, to develop your mindfulness, all the factors of the path that things you need right here. In this part of your awareness that … 
  3. Born for the Perfections
     … And then renunciation again would come under right mindfulness and right concentration, because in both cases you’re trying to get away from sensuality to find well-being inside. Think of the image of the monkeys straying out, away from their ancestral territory, and getting caught. But if they stay inside their ancestral territory, they’re safe. Inside the territory is the territory of … 
  4. Only One Person
     … You want be a generator of virtue, you want to be a generator of generosity, a generator of concentration and wisdom. That’s how these things come out into the world. You’ve got the source right here. So grant yourself that dignity: that you’re going to create a good source in every possible opportunity. Now, generosity has its limitations. You can have … 
  5. Guardian Meditations
     … The same with virtue, concentration, discernment: These are things we all have to some extent. It’s simply a matter of learning how to make them all-around. So when you’re tempted to go for the quick but short happiness, remind yourself, “The Buddha says that true happiness is possible, and that it can be gained through human effort.” Do you want to … 
  6. The Value of Refuge
     … As he developed right concentration, he learned that other factors were needed as well, but they all circle around this question of how to find true happiness. The qualities that the Buddha developed in terms of wisdom, compassion, and purity came from answering that question. Wisdom, of course, starts with the question, “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare … 
  7. Right Speech, Inside & Out
     … Other times, when the mind is settling down, there’s a part of the mind that’s afraid of concentration so it tries to break things up. That’s divisive speech. Harsh speech, of course, is when you tell yourself you’re a miserable meditator who can’t even get the mind to settle down with one or two breaths. And then there’s … 
  8. Resistance
     … In the meantime, you’re alerted that you have to work on your tools — mindfulness, concentration, discernment — so that eventually you can dig out those boulders. Then they’ll no longer be in the way.
  9. Control
     … After all, even concentration is something fabricated. It, too, will have its subtle ups and downs. But it’s good enough to get you across, good enough to get you to safety. So you work with form, the form of the body, in other words the breath. Learn how to relate to the form of your body so that you can have a good … 
  10. A Clear, Calm Lake
     … It goes together with concentration: You try to calm the mind. When the mind is full of worry and anxiety, you basically turn off or block off a lot of the things that would be helpful. You suddenly can’t remember the good lessons from the past. So you try to calm it down. Ajaan Lee’s image is of the ocean: When the … 
  11. Wisdom for Dummies
     … In other words, even though the qualities you develop in terms of virtue, concentration, discernment are not ultimately what you’re looking for, they do help you find what you’re looking for. When you’re looking at the results of your actions, you want to have some way of separating the gold from the gravel and dross, so you need the pan. It … 
  12. Ups & Downs
     … getting the mind into stillness, into concentration, and in using your discernment to let go of your defilements. In both cases, you’ve got to learn how to develop a certain stamina, learn how to keep the mind on an even keel, and not be either excited by things going up or upset by things going down. Remind yourself: This is normal. This is … 
  13. Basics
     … And you can’t work on craving until you’re really mindful and alert, and have the steady concentration that allows you to look at it calmly to see it in action. So those are the qualities we’re developing as we meditate: mindfulness, alertness, concentration, the ability to see things clearly as the mind grows more still. So even though we haven’t … 
  14. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … practicing generosity, practicing virtue, developing concentration, developing your discernment. He gives very clear instructions on how to do these things. So you want to clear away all the encumbrances that get in the way of really focusing where the problem is: your own clinging, your own feeding, things you hold very dear. If you can’t let the things you hold very dear be … 
  15. A Post for the Heart
     … This is what we try to develop as we develop the mind in concentration and also with the practice of virtue and generosity—a good solid post in the mind. If the mind isn’t firmly planted like this, it’s like a post that’s just lying there on the beach. The water rises, and the post gets washed up with the water … 
  16. Nurturing Your Inner Adult
     … the faculties of conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. The word for faculty, indriya, is related to Indra, the king of the gods, the dominant deva. The implication is that you want these faculties to be dominant in your mind, you want them to have power. They’re your inner adults. So you use the breath to put them on top, to keep them … 
  17. The Dhamma Points Inside
     … One of the reasons why we practice concentration is to cultivate some territory inside that’s really ours, where there doesn’t have to be any conflict. You focus on the breath: You don’t have to push anyone out of the way who’s already trying to look at your breath. It’s totally yours to look at. Your sense of the body … 
  18. Choosing to Believe in Your Choices
     … Here we’re choosing to develop concentration, to develop mindfulness, alertness, and a quality called ardency. We try to do this well. If you couldn’t choose to do these things, there’d be little purpose in meditating. The fact of choice is central to the Buddha’s teaching. The very first two verses of the Dhammapada say that the mind is the forerunner … 
  19. Mundane Right View
     … This is why the mundane level of right view is important for reaching the transcendent level, because it takes a lot of juice to get the mind to a good state of concentration where you can really look at things in terms of four noble truths. In other words, instead of worrying about whether it’s me or not me, or whether things really … 
  20. Samvegic Ironies
     … Wherever your thoughts could go that would pull you away from your object of concentration, you have to realize they’re taking you to a place that’s unreliable. The only way to make yourself reliable is through the practice. That’s what your breath offers. It may not seem like much—just in and out, in and out—but the way you develop … 
  21. Endurance Training
     … Through the well-being of your concentration and through your discernment in learning how to depersonalize things, chop up the stories into little bits. When those little bits start connecting, that’s when they turn into trouble. As you develop these skills, you’re developing mindfulness and alertness, the strengths you need so that you don’t have to keep feeding on the desire … 
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