Search results for: "Concentration"
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- Mastering Causality… This is why concentration is so important, getting the mind really still so that it can see these things very precisely. For instance, when pain arises we tend to miss the fact that the mind is constantly labeling it, “Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain.” And in addition to the label of “pain” we sometimes paint a picture of it to ourselves. That act of …
- Cross-questioning… He said, “In the same way, I tell people to follow the practice of virtue, concentration, and discernment. Some people follow it and they get the results. Some people don’t follow it and they don’t get the results. I’m just the one who points out the way.” What the Buddha is doing here is giving the man an analogy to make …
- The Freedom to Give… This is why we practice concentration to establish a firm intention of the mind and then watch it, to see what happens when other intentions come in, and we make the choice to stick with our original intention, again and again and again. There is an element of freedom in there, and that’s what we’re trying to catch sight of, because it …
- Into the Light of Consciousness… So if you have standards of judgment that allow you to see these things clearly and not go into denial, if you get the stillness and clarity of concentration so you can see them when they’re still small, then you’re better positioned to use this knowledge of fabrications—both on the micro-level and on the macro-level—to lead to your …
- The Stages of Meditation… When you stop getting engaged in those patterns, you find a sense of happiness, a sense of wellbeing that lies deeper still, even deeper than the sense of concentration. This gets you closer and closer to the kind of happiness that the Buddha was talking about, a happiness that doesn’t depend on conditions. There will come a point in the meditation when things …
- Oneness… Generosity was like a very shallow well, virtue a deeper well, whereas concentration was a well down to the water table. Afterwards he told me that the Dhamma talk had been too interesting. It was distracting people from their meditation. So don’t listen to me. Focus on your breath. The talk is here in the background to catch you if you wander away …
- Breath Teaches the Bramaviharas… You realize that some parts of the body won’t change no matter how well you breathe, no matter where you focus, no matter how strong your concentration—but you can work around them. You don’t have to let them be obstacles. You just do your best in spite of them. And this is how you have to deal with people outside. There …
- Multi-Dimensional Dhamma… When we learn how to let go of our passion for sensual obsessions, and then on a deeper level our passion for experiences of forms or formless phenomena in strong concentration, only then are we truly free. In following this program, the way you practice is going to have an impact on other people. You’ve got to take that into consideration, along with …
- The Questions of Suffering… The higher level of equanimity is when you bring the mind into concentration. This is where you begin to see that there is an element of intention even in your feelings. Just stay with your breath for a while. Stay with it continually and you find that the breath smooths out. It gets more comfortable. That right there shows you’re not just dealing …
- Exercising Discernment… When it’s working, you don’t want to bother it too much while you’re doing it, but when you come out of concentration, stop and reflect for a while: “What did I do just now? How did I focus the mind? How did I stick with the object? What results did I get?” There are other times when you want to analyze …
- Parsing Out Suffering… They say that when people first arrived in concentration camps, the men were separated from the women, and they talked about sex for a couple of days. Then they stopped. Everybody was too hungry. Then from that point on all they could talk about was food: the different recipes their mothers used to make, their wives used to make. We get a real charge …
- Disconnecting… If you don’t have a generous mind, you can’t get into right concentration—and forget about genuine discernment. So generosity is something that you can do well. This is how you create good interconnections. Instead of feeding and taking in, you’re giving, distributing out. It’s the opposite. The same with the precepts: There are some grubby ways you can feed …
- The Fangs of Conceit… Before he focused in on analyzing the present moment, first he got his mind into a state of concentration. He started wondering about his past. And he saw that it stretched way back—lots of narratives. You think you’ve got a lot of narratives coming here today. The Buddha had eons of narratives that he could have focused on. But instead of focusing …
- Poison Your Fantasies… So we give it concentration as better food, something better to nourish it. Find someplace, such as the breath, where you can stay with a sense of well-being. And when the question is: “What to do next? What to do next?” the answer is always, at least for the time being: “Just stay right here. Stay right here. Stay right here.” In the …
- The Art of Right Speech… So this is one of the reasons why the Buddha put right speech before right mindfulness and right concentration. It gives you practice in how to talk to others and how to talk to yourself. That way, when you’re talking to yourself about the breath, it’s the same sort of thing. Is the breath going well? Is your mind settling down with …
- The Limits of Old Kamma… And that’s just a concentration practice. But the potential for experiencing infinite space or the potential for experiencing infinite consciousness is all right here. You learn how to ferret it out and make the most of it. So this is how we live with our past karma: Accept whatever limitations there are, but also look for the areas that are not limited, to …
- Mindfulness of Death… In other words, if you’re able to get the mind into deep concentration at that point, you realize that these states, too, are dependent on the body. The pleasure of jhana, the equanimity of jhana: They, too, are things you have to let go. If you can do this, the Buddha says, then you can be free of any aversion-obsession with regard …
- Sensitive to the Breath… As you get deeper into concentration, this sense of rapture or refreshment will grow stronger. In the beginning it may be very light. But in every case there’s a sense that you don’t really feel the need to go anywhere else. That’s what you’re looking for. As I said, in some cases, as Ajaan Lee recommends that you start small …
- Balanced Meditation… As the Buddha said at one point, both insight and tranquility are needed to get the mind into right concentration. Of the two qualities, the insight is what gives the deeper calm. It’s also the quality that’s harder to develop. But different people find that their minds tend to go in different directions. With some people, all you need to do is …
- Help Others, Help Your Mind… And based on that, there’s a sense of refreshment leading to calm, concentration, and equanimity. So there you’ve got equanimity conjoined with the qualities you develop in meditation. **But you develop these qualities in other contexts as well. When you’re living by the Vinaya, you have to be mindful of the rules. You have to analyze your mind states, because an …
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