Search results for: "Concentration"
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- Grounded in the Elements… That tends to be in one spot or you can make it in several spots at once or you can train it to be fully throughout the body—which is one of the things we’re trying to do here as we’re trying to get the mind into a really solid state of concentration, in a way that breath permeates everything. Think of …
- The Conditions for Goodwill… So learn how to give the mind the nourishment it needs with your concentration so it has the strength to keep working at this continually and doesn’t run out.
- Who’s in Charge Here?… Who are you going to put in charge inside? When the Buddha talks about the faculties of conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, that word “faculty” basically means who’s in charge in the mind. So do your best to put someone good in charge and make them powerful so that they can keep control over everything inside. That’s how your practice develops …
- Metta & Merit… You may say, “Well, my concentration is not that strong,” but still it’s good to spread thoughts of goodwill when you can. The world has so much ill will. The mental atmosphere, the emotional atmosphere of the world is very negative right now. So it’s good to spread some thoughts of goodwill to make it a little bit more positive, or as …
- Five Precepts, Five Virtues… In this case, you develop the sense of well-being that comes from concentration: Simply by sitting here breathing—the breath coming in, going out comfortably—you don’t require any sensual pleasures at all to make you happy. That’s what you learn when you meditate: You’ve got the resources inside that allow you to breathe in a way that feels really …
- Ignorance… Mindfulness is something you want to develop, concentration: all the factors of the path. Don’t simply watch them come and go. If you see that mindfulness has arisen, you want to maintain it, you want to develop it. If it’s lapsed, you do what you can to reestablish it. Keep working at this, bring it into being. This is a form of …
- Unfabricated Happiness… The more sensitive you become as you fabricate a good path here—in other words, a good state of concentration, mindful, alert, ardent—the more you can develop a sense of ease that you can spread through the body. You get a sense of refreshment you can spread through the body. You spread your awareness through the body. Your sensitivity develops and grows. Things …
- Hold on to Right View… Choose to bring the mind to a state of concentration, realize how things are fabricated, and then calm the processes of fabrication—like the Buddha explains in his instructions on breath meditation. That’s how things begin to get put together right.
- Bring the Right Attitude… This is what keeps the concentration work from getting too tight, too unpleasant, too confining. When there’s a sense of ease in the breath, think of that sense of ease spreading throughout the body. Survey the body to see if there are any areas where the comfortable breath energy doesn’t seem to reach. There’s usually going to a tension or tightness …
- A Safe Home… But if you can learn to associate mindfulness, alertness, concentration, all these good qualities with a sense of fullness and ease in the body, then the skillful side gets the upper hand, because it offers not only immediate pleasure of a more refined time, but also a long-lasting pressure. That way, the desire to always do the most skillful thing gets more and …
- Why Now… And then, from mindfulness they lead the mind into concentration. You’re mindful, i.e., you keep something in mind. In this case, you keep in mind the fact that you’re trying to stay with the breath. You’re alert to what the breath is doing, and you’re alert to whether the mind is with the breath comfortably or not. And then …
- Ingenuity… He realized that maybe the state of concentration he’d fallen into as a child—rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation—might be the path. So he tried it. But remember, there was still a question mark there, built into the word, “might.” Could this be the path? And even though there was that conviction that it could …
- Potentials for Good… As you focus on establishing mindfulness and getting the mind concentrated, you’re protecting yourself and, in doing that, you’re helping other people at the same time. Remember the Buddha’s image of the acrobats. If you can maintain your balance, it’s easier for the other people standing on your shoulder, or whose shoulders you’re standing on, to maintain their balance …
- Single-minded… This is why concentration is the heart of the path. You focus on one object and you make your mind one as well. In the beginning, it’s simply a matter of being one in your intent. You’re going to spend as much time, devote as much energy as you skillfully can, to getting it to settle down. As Ajaan Fuang used to …
- From Inconstancy to Dispassion… And it’s not the case that you wait to the very end of your meditation, after your concentration powers have been fully developed, that you start thinking in these terms. You’ve got things interfering with your practice all the time that you’ve got to learn how to look at and get some dispassion for. You start out by seeing how inconstant …
- Name & Form… Try to sensitize yourself to the way the breath feels, and to what you can do with your different perceptions of the breath to give rise to a sense of well-being, because this is the purpose of the concentration practice: to give you a sense of well-being at the same time sensitizing you to what you’re doing in the present moment …
- Values of the Noble Ones… Then the path he gives, from right view through right concentration, probably wouldn’t have occurred to you if you hadn’t heard it from him. So, look at your clingings as a form of addiction, and look at the problem of addiction as a failure of the imagination. One way to improve your imagination is to step back from situations and ask yourself …
- Meaning & Becoming… That’s right concentration—part of the path. In terms of the qualities called the perfections, that list I gave you just now, this comes under renunciation: looking for happiness in a way that’s not involved with sensuality. Each of the factors of the noble path will involve some form of fabrication. So you take these processes: When you hold on to them …
- A Conglomeration of Germs… If you use it to meditate—to give rise to concentration, to give rise to discernment—or as a means for generosity and virtue, that’s a sign that you really know how to use your body. Take advantage of this conglomerate of old kamma that you’ve got, and while you can hold it together, learn how to use it well.
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