Search results for: "Concentration"

1. Page 138
2. Play AudioStrength of Conviction
    … That’s when the mind is really strong, and it goes beyond even the strength of conviction and the strength of persistence, of mindfulness and concentration and discernment. It finally arrives at a strength that’s totally independent, where it’s not just conviction. It’s knowledge that keeps you going, for you’ve confirmed it in yourself. You’ve developed that strength within … 
3. Play AudioGenerosity & Virtue as Skills
    … You do want the focus of your concentration to be strong and steady, but you don’t want it to be so heavy that it becomes constricting. Ehis is a matter of watching yourself, learning how to step back from what you’re doing and judge it with a certain amount of equanimity and patience. There was a famous teacher in Thailand who had … 
4. Play AudioReading Your Meditation
    … Which of the steps is missing? You don’t have think of them so much as sequential steps, but as elements that should be present in a good solid state of concentration: your ability to stay with the breath, to have a center, to experiment with long breathing, short breathing, or long in, short out; short in, long out;being able to spread the … 
5. Play AudioThe Culture of the Practice
    … As the Buddha said, if you’re not generous, if you’re stingy with your belongings, stingy with your Dhamma, you can’t even get into right concentration, much less gain awakening. The fourth quality is discernment. It’s defined as penetrative knowledge of arising and passing away. Now, you’re not just watching things coming and going and accepting them. The knowledge has … 
6. Play AudioRespect
    … Simply on the level of concentration, that’s quite a lot right there. Because this enlarged, open awareness is very healing for the mind, healing for the body. In terms of insight, it allows us to see all kinds of things that we would have missed otherwise. And this Janus-like awareness that goes forward and back—in other words, looking at the breath … 
7. Play AudioDon’t Clap Hands with Pain
    … This is why we work with the breath to get the mind to settle down, so that the mind can have a state of concentration with a sense of well-being inside. That’s where you can hold on, at least for now. You’ve got a spot where you can stand so that you can look at these things. Otherwise, it’s like … 
8. Play AudioStand Your Ground
    … We start with the skills dealing with the breath, the skills in developing mindfulness and concentration, trying to develop a spot in the breath energy in the body where the breath feels good going in, feels good going out. The quality of the breath energy in the body feels good—everything is flowing smoothly. As you get to know the energy in the body … 
9. Play AudioAn Examined Life
    … This is called using discernment to foster concentration. Some people find it easy for the mind to settle down; other people don’t. It’s like different types of trees. If a tree is out the middle of the field, with no other trees are around, it’s very easy to cut it down, because it’s not entangled with anything else. But if … 
10. Play AudioBecomings
     … In this case, we’re trying to develop qualities of mindfulness, alertness, and ardency, to get the mind into concentration. You’re mindful of the breath coming in going out. You keep remembering to stay here. Try your best not to go someplace else. And then you’re alert. On the one hand, you’re alert to the breath itself: what it’s doing … 
11. Play AudioPutting Aside the World
     … That’s how you develop your mindfulness and concentration together. As the formula says, you remain focused on the body in and of itself—that’s the breath—ardent, alert, and mindful. Mindful means you keep remembering to stay here. Alert means you watch what’s going on. And ardent means that you want to handle this well, you want to handle this with … 
12. Play AudioUnderstanding Happiness
     … But if you look inside, you being to realize, “Okay, if I develop concentration, if I develop discernment, these qualities enable me to live in the world in a way that minimizes the suffering: less suffering for myself, less suffering for the people around me.” At the same time, you begin to find a source of happiness inside that’s special, that’s something … 
13. Play AudioA Decent Education
     … They’re tucked in the noble eightfold path under Right Concentration. And as part of the path, they have to be developed and maintained. As the Buddha said, this pleasure is blameless. It’s also useful because you can use it to examine any pain that may be in other parts of the body. When you sit here it’s sometimes difficult to get … 
14. Play AudioThe Swinging Balance
     … Then, when you can maintain that, you’ve really mastered concentration. That’s the way it is with any balance: Think about those old-fashioned balances that swing back-and-forth. They go to the left, they go to the right, and it sometimes takes a while for them to reach equilibrium. Accept that that’s part of the process of things settling down … 
15. Play AudioLarge-hearted Goodness
     … But if you provide the mind with the food that comes from concentration, the food that comes with discernment, the heart will achieve a state of satisfaction, a sense of enough that the world can never supply. So this is where we look: We look within. And we try to maintain this quality of the heart. Don’t let the world come in and … 
16. Play AudioThe Fetter of Perceptions
     … This is one of the reasons why we have to get the mind into concentration, to get it really still, so that we can see things that are really subtle going on inside. When things are really still, you can see an individual perception arise. You catch it at the moment when it arises and you can see, “Oh, as soon as that perception … 
17. Play AudioSense Restraint
     … As the Buddha says, you’re secluded or withdrawn from sensuality; you pull out of those thoughts—and only then can you can get into right concentration. So an important part of the practice is how you go through the day and how you manage your senses. It’s one of the reasons why we have the eight precepts. Ajaan Suwat made the comment … 
18. Play AudioHeedful of Death
     … In this way, you develop mindfulness, your alertness, and your concentration. You develop your discernment so that you can bring all these qualities not only to issues of the breath, but also to other issues in life as well. This is one of the advantages of getting the mind still like this, balanced in the present moment. It’s in a more impartial space … 
19. Play AudioThe Buddha’s Revolution
     … Of course, you have to rest in concentration, but you rest and then you do work, and then you rest and then do more work. But he wouldn’t let himself be satisfied saying, “This should be good enough. I’ll just content myself here.” And we read about how, even after his awakening, he checked his awakening from many, many angles to make … 
20. Play AudioMonotasking
     … I knew a retired schoolteacher in Thailand whose technique for getting into concentration was to, as she said, “Think of hooking up a battery to two spots.” One spot was in her head; the other spot was in her tailbone. And it was as if there was an electric cord connecting the two. As soon as the battery was hooked up to both poles … 
21. Play AudioTraining Your Inner Critic
     … Breathe in a way that makes you sensitive to rapture, sensitive to pleasure; breathe in a way where you’re aware of the whole body; breathe in a way where you gladden the mind; concentrate the mind; liberate the mind. He gives you perceptions to hold in mind: Think of the pleasure going through the whole body. Perceive it as something that can happen … 
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