Search results for: "Concentration"

  1. Page 34
  2. Learning How to Learn
     … Now, we can compare these instructions to the four bases of success, which are basically four ways of giving rise to concentration, but they apply to success in any activity. There’s concentration based on desire, concentration based on persistence, concentration based on intent, and concentration based on powers of analysis. Actually, all four of these things have to be present in any state … 
  3. When You’re Discouraged
     … In other words, whatever mindfulness you have, whatever concentration you have, you don’t throw it away. You don’t treat it with disrespect. You protect what you’ve got. And protecting what little concentration you have, what little mindfulness you have, it grows. After all, where does concentration happen? It happens right here, right where you’re aware of your nose, aware of … 
  4. Focus on the Precepts
     … These are the qualities you need to develop mindfulness and concentration. Of course, when you get the mind into concentration—the Thai translation of samadhi is “firm intent”—you’re firmly focusing your intention on one object, and you’ve been getting to know your intentions through following the precepts. One aspect of the precepts that’s not widely appreciated is that they are … 
  5. The Buddha’s Wisdom
     … The Buddha talks about the main obstacles to concentration as being the five hindrances: sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and anxiety, and doubt. The factors of right concentration, the first level of right concentration, are also five: directed thought, evaluation, singleness of preoccupation, rapture, pleasure. That’s the state you’re trying to create through right mindfulness. The texts talk about … 
  6. The Role of Attachment
     … I know some people who, when they go to meditation retreats and their minds get into good deep states of concentration, they’re afraid to tell the teacher for fear the teacher will tell them to let go of it—which, of course, aborts whatever they might get from the concentration. There’s a rhythm; there’s a season for letting go. But until … 
  7. Purifying Gold
    The Buddha gave several discourses where he compared training the mind, getting the mind into concentration, to refining gold. In the first step, you have to wash the gold. The gold has gravel, little bits of grit, and then tinier bits of grit. So first you have to get the really gross stuff out. That, the Buddha said, means getting rid of any misbehavior … 
  8. Delight
     … Sariputta goes through the states of concentration, and how aspects of a lower state of concentration become afflictive as you go into a higher state of concentration. So even the joy of concentration appears afflictive as you get better and better at it. This inclines the mind to something that’s totally unafflicted, which would be the deathless: totally free from change, totally free … 
  9. Working with Nature
     … Sometimes it may, by a fluke, get into concentration, but if you’re not paying careful attention, you’ll fluke out of it as well. So it’s a combination of knowing what to do and what not to do. The things to do are the causes. As Ajaan Lee points out, when you’re trying to get the mind into concentration, directed thought … 
  10. Renunciation
     … good, strong states of concentration. That’s your food inside. Some of the passages talk about feeding on rapture as food for the mind. There’s another sutta that compares the different factors of the path to different parts of a fortress, and the jhanas, good strong levels of concentration: Those are the stores of food. When you’re well fed inside like this … 
  11. A Clear Agenda
     … If your concentration has gotten to the level where it’s solid, then you’re ready for Ajaan Fuang’s third stage: putting your concentration to use. You can ask yourself, “What do I need clarified?” Follow Ajaan Lee’s example. You pose the question in your mind. Then you drop it and get into concentration to see if the stillness of the mind … 
  12. The Buddha’s Secret Weapon
     … Notice that his first intimation of the noble eightfold path was right concentration. And then, to turn that right concentration into the path to the end of suffering, he gathered the other seven factors as well. In one of the suttas he calls them the requisites or the aids to right concentration. Concentration is the heart of the path. The other factors make sure … 
  13. May You Forever Be Well
     … We’re working on the skills of concentration so that the mind can stay with one object with a sense of well-being, and issues of the world can be put off to the side. So wherever you go, you want to keep those skills of concentration in mind. Work with the breath, trying to breathe in a way that feels good all the … 
  14. Working Ourselves Free
     … Otherwise, you’ll have periods of concentration and periods when concentration disappears. Then, when it disappears, all kinds of things can come running into your mind. The next time you come to sit down and meditate, it’s as if it’s a different mind, with a whole new cast of characters. You have to sort them out again—to see which is the … 
  15. Start by Relaxing Your Hands
     … So in this case, even though we’re trying to get the mind into a state of concentration, don’t be concerned about whether it’s concentrated or not, just be concerned with staying focused on how the breath feels right now, in the context of the body. Make sure it’s got its hand and its feet relaxed, its arms and its legs … 
  16. Don’t Be a Traitor to Yourself
     … What can you do with these four properties of earth, wind, fire, and water? When is it good to have a good solid heavy sense of concentration and when do you want a lighter sense of concentration? Familiarize yourself with this territory. This is where you can grow your own crops. No one can take them away from you. And no one else has … 
  17. Looking in Three Directions
     … I don’t know how many people I’ve run into who say, “Well, I’m going to do a little concentration, and when the mind gets still, then I’m going to switch over to do insight practice”—the assumption being that you’ve got to leave concentration in order to do insight. But that’s not the case. As you’re working … 
  18. Finding Balance
     … So you use the insight to improve your concentration, and use your concentration to improve your insight. It’s like your left hand washing your right, and your right hand washing your left. That way, they both get clean.
  19. Other People
     … It’s made by a combination of developing concentration and also having some discernment. The concentration gives you a good place to stay, your own separate sense of energy, your own separate source of energy—like in the days when the Burmese attacked Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was able to withstand the siege for a long time because they had their own sources of water and … 
  20. Test Everything
     … And there’s another kind of patience, the patience that, when the mind does get into concentration, and you say, “Okay, what’s next, what’s the next step?” the patience requires that you stay with that state of concentration. This is what requires heedfulness, because sometimes it’s all too easy to say, “Well, the mind is rested enough for now. Now I … 
  21. The Karma of Self & Not-Self
     … There was a time when someone asked the Buddha, “What is virtue for?” “Virtue is for concentration.” “What is concentration for?” “Concentration is for the purpose of discernment.” “What is the purpose of discernment?” “The purpose of discernment is release.” “What is the purpose of release?” “Total unbinding, nibbāna.” Then the person asked “What is the purpose of nibbāna?” The Buddha said, “No, you … 
  22. Load next page...