Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. Take Your Time
     … You’re also working on that phrase that’s at the beginning of the description of right concentration: “secluded from unskillful qualities,” *vivicce’va akusalehi dhammehi. *You’re putting up a protection against the things that would pull you out of the concentration. What are those unskillful qualities? They start with wrong view and go through wrong resolve, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood … 
  3. Delight in the Breath
     … A major part of the path is right concentration. It’s ironic: In a lot of Western Dhamma circles in particular, people are warned off from concentration. They say, “Watch out. You’re going to get stuck on concentration and you won’t gain any insight.” But as the Buddha said, if you’re not stuck on concentration, you’re going to the go … 
  4. The Self-correcting Mind
     … If you just stay with the concentration, you’re going to fall into laziness. If you just stay with trying to energize yourself, you get restless and worked up. If you just stay with equanimity you never really get into the proper concentration that would count as right concentration. Things just arise and pass away, and they just arise and pass away. That’s … 
  5. The Middle Way
     … What would lie in the middle? He remembered a time when he was young and he had spontaneously entered in a strong state of concentration while sitting under a tree. The question arose in his mind, “Could that be the path?” And the answer came, “Yes.” “Then why am I afraid of that pleasure that comes with that state of concentration? There’s nothing … 
  6. Changing Your Mind
     … So even though it requires work and you see all too clearly that your concentration is inconstant, that doesn’t mean you just give it up and say, “Well, that’s my insight—concentration is inconstant.” You’ve got to fight it. It’s like the student of the Zen master in Minneapolis. The student was going to come out to Hollywood to make … 
  7. Mind Reading
     … How do you make sure that you don’t get distracted by the little nibbling thoughts? And secondly, how do you learn how to analyze your concentration? Because as you get deeper into concentration, it’s not simply a matter of just using more force. You have to understand, “What is it that I’m holding on to in this level of concentration that … 
  8. Tenacity
     … This is why the Buddha stressed the principle of respect for concentration, having some trust in your concentration—not that everything that pops into your mind as you sit here meditating is going to be reliable, but at the very least, when you’re mindful and centered, you’re a lot more likely to get good responses, good inspirations out of the mind than … 
  9. Asalha Puja – Completeness
     … This is what we’re trying to practice right now, working on right mindfulness, right effort, right concentration, to see if we can bring out some completeness to our minds as well. Ajaan Maha Boowa once said that the fact that we’re suffering shows that there’s a lack someplace in our understanding, in our concentration, in our mindfulness. So as we practice … 
  10. Make a Difference
     … And those are exemplified by getting the mind into concentration. There’s a very clear and direct connection here between right resolve and right concentration. One, in the Buddha’s analysis of what counts as mundane right resolve and transcendent right resolve, transcendent right resolve is any directed thought and evaluation that helps get the mind to settle down. Two, the definition of right … 
  11. No One Size Fits All
     … This applies both to concentration and to insight. Although it is true that the Buddha recommended breath meditation as generally the best meditation topic, he recognized that not everyone could get his or her mind to settle down with the breath. There were some people who needed to focus on the unattractiveness of the body; others, on recollecting the Buddha or the brahmaviharas. Concentration … 
  12. The Power of Intention
    An essential part of concentration practice is setting a firm intention. In fact, that’s the Thai translation for the Pali word samadhi: tâng jai mân, which means your intent is firm. In this case, you make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath—each breath coming in, each breath pouring out—and you do your best to stick with … 
  13. A Refuge from the Winds of the World
    The Thai translation for concentration is “to have the mind firmly established.” Right concentration, of course, means have it established firmly in the right way. When you think of concentration in that way, then it’s obvious that it’s a quality you want to have all the time. As Ajaan Suwat once noted, when you define concentration that way, it covers all aspects … 
  14. Five Strengths
     … The strength of your mind lies its conviction in the importance of its own actions, its ability to stick with what it knows is skillful; its qualities of mindfulness, concentration and discernment. These are the qualities of mind that determine how you’re going to deal with issues in life as they come up. The more mindful you are, the stronger your concentration, the … 
  15. Feelings Not of the Flesh
     … This applies both to meditation techniques that focus on developing mindfulness and insight, and those that focus on developing strong concentration. There’re some that say, “Well, just sit with whatever comes up, and the concentration will come on its own. You won’t be doing anything.” That’s making you blind. If you don’t admit what you’re doing, how can you … 
  16. Trust in the Power of the Mind
     … There was a British academic a while back who was saying that “When they talk about concentration in the Canon, you have to realize that back in those days they didn’t read, so they didn’t have the powers of concentration that we have now. So when they’re talking about concentration, it’s nothing amazing, nothing beyond what we already know.” Which … 
  17. The Wisdom of Dualities
     … You get the mind into a state of concentration, then you get it into another state of concentration, and you can compare the two. Or when you come out of concentration and you see the mind going for something, you can ask yourself, “Well, which is better? The mind when it was concentrated, or the mind when it’s running around?” The fact that … 
  18. A Connoisseur of Happiness
     … In fact, you need the stillness of jhana to look objectively at the pleasures you’ve been attached to so far in your life, to see that they’re no match for the pleasures of concentration. Only then are you encouraged to ask yourself: Are there any drawbacks to this state of concentration? Is there something better than this? That reflection becomes a solvent … 
  19. For Your Benefit Here & Now
     … Your concentration leads to discernment and your discernment leads to more concentration. They work together. Just be careful, though, when you’re going for the pleasure, that you don’t abandon the breath. This is something that’s all too easy, especially when there are people out there telling you that that’s what you’ve got to do. I was talking to someone … 
  20. A Master of Your Thoughts
    Ajaan Fuang used to say there are three important parts to concentration practice. The first is learning how to do it; the second is how to maintain it; and the third is how to use it. The “doing it” is a simple matter of bringing the mind to the breath—or if you want, to buddho, to the parts of the body, or to … 
  21. Reflect
     … This gives you training in mindfulness and alertness, which are the skills you’re going to need for concentration. When you practice concentration, you have to keep one object in mind, like the breath. And then you have to observe how it’s going. Is it comfortable? Is it not? How can you breathe in a way that gives rise to a sense of … 
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