Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. Doing Aggregates
     … These are the elements with which you’re doing concentration with right now. These are a lot of the activities the mind is always engaged in. We do the concentration so that we can get more sensitive to them. Then we see exactly where the suffering is, along with what we’re doing that’s doing the suffering. Again, notice that we’re not … 
  3. Truths of the Will
     … So when you’re sitting here, trying to get the mind concentrated, that’s what you’re doing: There is an effort that has to go into this so that the concentration will develop and grow. You don’t just watch states of concentration come and go, thinking that there’s wisdom in simply watching them come and go. The wisdom lies in figuring … 
  4. The Steps of Breath Meditation
     … In other words, as you get more and more used to the stages of concentration, you begin to gain a sense of which kind of concentration your awareness needs right now. If it seems unstable, what can you do to steady it? How do you change your perception of the breath or adjust your focus to make the mind more solid? When the meditation … 
  5. The Sport of Wise People
     … Also, have respect for other people’s concentration. That chant we recited just now about respect for concentration means two things: respecting other people’s efforts at concentration, and respecting your own center that you work hard to create and then all too often just throw away. It’s as if it’s something placed in your lap while you’re sitting here meditating … 
  6. Descartes’ Error
     … As we were pointing out this afternoon, the kind of concentration you want is a concentration that has a large solid frame of reference: the whole body. If your concentration is just one-pointed, it has its uses from time to time. When you really want to get precise about pain for instance, you want a very focused concentration. But you want that in … 
  7. The Purpose of Empathetic Joy
    When the Buddha lists the brahmaviharas, he notes that if you use the different themes of the brahmaviharas as topics of meditation, as you go up the list you get to higher and higher levels of concentration. Compassion leads to a higher level of concentration than goodwill, perhaps because the desire to help those who are suffering, or those who are creating the causes … 
  8. A Well-thatched Roof
     … These are some ways in which right concentration can help you so that you can have what’s called a developed mind in a developed body. But the practice of right concentration also helps in other ways. You’re developing two qualities, tranquility and insight, at the same time. This is a point that’s often misunderstood. People equate right concentration with tranquility, and … 
  9. Active Truth
     … So this is why concentration is something you want to develop. Again, sometimes you hear that when you’re meditating, being mindful, and a good strong state of concentration comes along, you have to be wary of getting attached to the concentration, so just let it come, let it go. And somehow in that way you transcend the attachment. Well, that’s not what … 
  10. The Desire to End All Desires
     … concentration based on desire, concentration based on persistence, concentration based on intent, and concentration based on your powers of analysis. The brahman says, “That’s impossible. How can you use desire to get rid of desire?” And Ananda asks him, “Before you came to the park, did you have desire to come to the park?” “Well, yes.” “Now that you’re here, where is … 
  11. Protecting Yourself Against Yourself
     … This shows the direct connection between right resolve and right concentration. There’s another sutta Buddha talks about mundane right resolve and transcendent right resolve. Mundane right resolve is avoiding thoughts of sensuality, ill-will, and harmfulness. Transcendent right resolve is the factors of directed thought and evaluation that get you into concentration. So there has to be a motivation to do the concentration … 
  12. Taking Your Own Medicine
     … We want to use the powers of concentration and mindfulness and alertness that we develop when the mind is well concentrated so that we can start seeing into these things and putting an end to the suffering, putting an end to the harm and damage that the mind causes itself. That, of all the four uses of concentration, is the most important. The concentration … 
  13. Beyond Inter-eating
     … As you keep with this, the mindfulness turns into concentration. The Buddha never drew a sharp line between mindfulness meditation and concentration meditation. Mindfulness is the theme, the basic quality that helps you stay with something. And as it becomes firm, it turns into concentration, where the mind is centered but has a broad awareness that fills the whole body. And it’s there … 
  14. Steps in Concentration
    When the Buddha taught concentration, the how-to part of the instructions was in his description of right mindfulness. You’re focused on the body—for example, the breath—in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. So where’s your breath right now? Anything that’s not related to this breath at the … 
  15. Not Getting What You Want
     … concentration based on desire, concentration based on persistence, concentration based on intent, concentration based on analysis. The brahman says, “Then it’s an endless path. How can you use desire to get rid of desire?” Ananda asks him a question in return. He says, “You came to this park. Before you came here, did you have the desire to come here?” “Well yes.” “How … 
  16. When Nothing’s Happening
     … If you let go and find you go into a deeper level of concentration, that’s fine. Learn to settle in and get to know that level of concentration. But there will come a point where you realize that your concentration is as good as you can get it. If you hang on here, it’s something that has to be maintained. If you … 
  17. A Valuable Gift
     … The mind has its currents, and when they’re concentrated they can be strong. You want to use them in a good direction. This is why we talk about not just plain concentration but right concentration: right concentration that’s based on skillful intent—the intent not to harm, the intent not to pursue sensual desires. Because there is concentration that’s wrong, concentration … 
  18. Discernment in Concentration
     … This is the kind of concentration that gives rise to discernment—as you’re doing the concentration. But be prepared for the fact that there’s going to be more demanded of your discernment than just seeing how you do the concentration. You want to take that quality of being reflective and use it to deal with whatever issues come up in the mind … 
  19. A Questioning Attitude
     … There was still another way that he hadn’t tried yet, the practice of concentration. But the concentration in and of itself didn’t do the work. He had to start asking questions again, “Can I use this concentrated mind to learn things?” In particular, the main turning point was when he used his concentration to delve into this issue: Where is there suffering … 
  20. What’s Worth Doing?
     … And as we know, the author said, the Buddha said that a sense of self is bad, so you shouldn’t try to create concentration. Right concentration has to happen on its own, and right effort is basically the effort of no effort—an attitude that short-circuits the path entirely. Again, you’re letting go like a pauper. You don’t have concentration … 
  21. Hindrances Based on Delusion
     … Often the problem of sloth and torpor arises in what’s called access concentration. You’ve been able to drop the distractions that keep interfering with your concentration, and your moments of concentration get longer and longer and more and more continuous. Things get comfortable and then you want to drift off and go to sleep. That’s the way we’re programmed. Ever … 
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