Search results for: "Concentration"

  1. Page 26
  2. A Path of Skills
     … It’s in the course of getting the mind concentrated that you begin to see where your cravings are; what you’re holding on to; the things that you hold on to that prevent you from getting into concentration; the things you crave that disturb your concentration: You see them a lot more clearly because you’re aiming at this one focal point in … 
  3. Effort against the Hindrances
     … In other words, we want to make concentration arise and to provide the conditions for discernment. As for unskillful thoughts that get in the way of concentration, we want to make sure they don’t arise. If they do arise, we want to speed up their passing away. As a group, those thoughts are called hindrances, and there are five altogether: sensual desire, ill … 
  4. Whole-Hearted Concentration
    Whole-Hearted Concentration July 11, 2023 Samadhi, the word that we translate as concentration, is defined in the Canon as cittass’ekaggata: singleness of mind. It’s worth exploring the levels of meaning of that term. There’s the singleness: Eka means one. Agga is a controversial term. Some people translate it as “point,” to convey the idea that your awareness should be reduced … 
  5. The Strength of Conviction
     … Then as you stick with it long enough with a sense of conviction, mindfulness, and alertness, concentration does develop. But concentration can develop in many ways. We read about it in the texts, and it seems like a very simple ladder. You go through this stage and then to the next stage. You hit the first jhana. Then you let go of directed thought … 
  6. Wearing the Breath
     … Your concentration is the kind of concentration that can actually look at other things and not lose its center, not lose its foundation. If your concentration is one-pointed, then when you change the point, you’ve changed your concentration. But when your awareness is all-around like this, then thoughts can come into the framework, you can see them come in, you can … 
  7. Clear of Defilement
     … And a good, alert, mindful state of concentration is the best source for all your best cards. What this boils down to, of course, is the fact that you’ve got to keep working on your concentration in all situations. At the same time, be willing to use that concentration in all situations as well. In other words, you don’t just refuse to … 
  8. The Raft of Jhana
     … As the Buddha says, when the mind gets settled in and you get really good at this, you start analyzing the state of concentration in terms of the five aggregates. Now, we all know that the aggregates are inconstant, stressful, and not-self, but for the sake of the concentration you’re going to make them more constant, easeful, more under your control. They … 
  9. Balanced Concentration
    The practice of concentration is enough to get comfortable with the present moment, so that you can stay here for long periods of time. In fact, you can make this your home base. If you’re not comfortable here, you’re not going to stay. The mind will keep running off, running way. And when you do make it stay, it’s forced. There … 
  10. Open Door Meditation
     … In other words, you can’t take it for granted that once you’ve attained a state of concentration with your eyes closed, you can get up and it’ll maintain itself as you go through the day. Ajaan Fuang had a student, a laywoman who had very strong powers of concentration. But she was always complaining that when she left meditation, her anger … 
  11. Asalha Puja
     … This is how you get the mind into concentration. Concentration is part of the path. When you practice the path, that’s called paying homage through the practice—patipatti-puja—the kind of homage the Buddha preferred. Tonight’s Asalha Puja. We’re paying homage (puja) in the full moon in the month of Asalha to remember the day when the Buddha first set … 
  12. Timeless Dhamma
    When we’re practicing the Dhamma, observing the precepts, developing concentration and discernment, we’re following a path that was set out more the 2,500 years ago. The reason we’re still following it is because it addresses a problem that hasn’t changed. It’s not as if what was designed to deal with a particular problem that came up in one … 
  13. Established in Full
     … This is what we provide as we practice mindfulness leading to concentration. For some people the word concentration seems to evoke images of getting the mind in a very narrow focus. This is a different kind of concentration, though. The mind is centered, which is why we call it concentration, but your awareness fills the body the same way as when you look at … 
  14. Do Jhana
     … If it’s going to be curious, have it be curious about the concentration itself. What’s going on in your concentration? The Buddha gives an analogy of a person standing watching someone who’s sitting; or a person sitting watching someone who’s lying down. In other words, you’re slightly up and above what you’re observing. You’re observing the mind … 
  15. Working with Fabrication
     … And in the course of creating this sense of concentration, you become more sensitive to the processes of fabrication involved in concentration itself. You use these processes until they’ve done their service and, as with right view, you then learn how to take them apart. Then you’re free. But don’t be too quick to take them apart. A lot of people … 
  16. A Trained Observer
     … which level of concentration it’s going to happen in, and whether it’s going to happen in the concentration as you move from one level to another, or as you leave concentration. There are also stories in the Canon where people are washing their feet, they gain concentration, and then from the concentration they gain insight. So all kinds of things can spark … 
  17. Success with Breathing
    In one of the lists of teachings that the Buddha said was most important to remember, he listed four qualities for succeeding at concentration. There’s desire: You have to want to do it. There’s persistence: You put in effort. You do your best. There’s intentness, where you really give it your whole heart. You pay full attention, try your best. Then … 
  18. Accepting the Way Things Function
     … It’s simply a matter of learning how to bring your concentration and your discernment together, so that your discernment makes your concentration easier to attain, because you understand what’s going on in the mind, so that when there are obstacles you know your way around the obstacles. At the same time, your concentration makes your discernment more subtle, because the more still … 
  19. Mindfulness of Breathing: Four in One
     … right concentration, which the Buddha said is the heart of the path. The other factors, he said, are its requisites—things that help nurture right concentration—but the right concentration is the central factor. You can read about the Dhamma, and have all kinds of ideas about the Dhamma, but if the mind hasn’t gotten into good concentration, you don’t see clearly … 
  20. Appropriate Attention
     … What are the reasons for doing something that leads to stress? And if the stress is unnecessary, what can you do to stop? One of the things you can do is to get the mind in concentration. The teaching keeps coming back to concentration. Insight without concentration doesn’t work all that well. You can gain certain levels of insight into things, and develop … 
  21. The Message of Mindfulness
     … That’s why we practice concentration. The Buddha compares concentration to food. You’re a soldier in a fortress at the edge of a frontier. You need food in order to fight off the enemy—in other words, your defilements of greed, aversion, and delusion. Your mindfulness needs food, too. Your mindfulness is the gatekeeper of the fortress, watching whoever might want to try … 
  22. Load next page...