Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. The Gift of Discernment
     … And to see that clearly, you’ve got to get the mind concentrated so that it can see the subtle movements inside and, at the same time, not have such an overriding sense of hunger all the time. Try to feed off virtue. Try to feed off concentration. Feed off all the factors of the path—concentration in particular. That’s where you can … 
  3. A Graduated Discourse
     … There’s that phrase we had just now in the chant, “respect in welcoming guests.” It relates to the fact that the Buddha said if you’re stingy with the Dhamma, there’s no way you’re going to get into right concentration. So when people come here, we’re happy to share the Dhamma with them as a way of opening our own … 
  4. A Message for the Universe
     … You can get great states of concentration, but they need to chip away at your solid attitudes if they’re going to make a difference. Ajaan Fuang had a student who was very talented in concentration. She could settle down, get her mind quiet really quickly, very firmly, but it was concentration without discernment. She actually needed somebody there to remind her to come … 
  5. A Seeker’s Habits
     … You want to develop conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment. You work on these, and as you work on these, they begin to make a difference. The one thing he asked you to believe was in the principle of karma: that what you do makes a difference. So as you’re sitting here meditating, it’s not that you’re sitting here waiting for something … 
  6. The Wounded Warrior
     … For the time being, I’m not going to go anywhere else.” When you do this, you put the mind into concentration. After all, what they call the foundations of mindfulness, the establishings of mindfulness, or the four frames of reference: These are the themes of Right Concentration. If you stay here consistently enough, it turns into concentration in the mind. Then you can … 
  7. How We Cling
     … When you create your state of concentration, it’s as if you’re dealing directly with the atoms and chemicals, although in this case, the atoms and chemicals are activities. Then you begin to reflect: This state of concentration is probably the best state of becoming you can find, but it, too, has to be maintained. You have to keep working at it. It … 
  8. Up for the Challenge
     … Give me some instant gratification.” This is one of the reasons why we practice concentration—to get a sense of well-being inside right here and now. But that also requires that we come to the concentration with a sense of well-being, which is why the practice is not just sitting with your eyes closed. It also involves generosity and virtue. Here again … 
  9. The Power of Your Actions
     … This is why he says that you want to bring the mind into concentration. That’s where we get the third of the strengths, which is mindfulness. What the Buddha calls the establishings of mindfulness are not exercises in simply being aware of what’s happening or being non-judgmental or accepting about what’s happening. You’re keeping something in mind, a frame … 
  10. The Path Requires Effort
     … Sometimes you hear people say, “I’ve done a little concentration. I know what it’s like and I want to go beyond it. I don’t want to be attached to it.” You’ve got to be attached. You’ve got to have a desire for the concentration. You’ve got to respect for concentration if you really want to get results out … 
  11. Adjusting the Flame
    There are three factors in the path that deal with the topic of right concentration—right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration itself—and all three are necessary to get the mind to settle down. Right effort is generating the desire to get rid of unskillful qualities and to develop skillful ones, and that gets parsed out: If unskillful qualities have not yet arisen … 
  12. Learning Right Speech
    There’s a tendency to think of practicing the Dhamma as meaning what you do when you sit here with your eyes closed, trying to get the mind into concentration, trying to develop discernment. But we have to remember that the path to awakening is not a one-fold path or a two-fold path. It’s a noble eightfold path. And each of … 
  13. A Positive-Sum Game
     … When you’ve gained the concentration, the mindfulness, and the discernment to see through these things, those will be really good habits no matter where you go. No matter what your situation in life, they’re going to be useful. So that’s what we’re working on here, right now: the mindfulness to keep reminding yourself, “Stay with the breath”; the concentration that … 
  14. Energy & Efficiency
     … And the Buddha then said, “In the same way, you should tune your energy to the point where it’s just right and then tune the rest of the strings of your practice.” In other words, conviction, mindfulness, concentration, discernment: Tune those to the level of your energy. In that way the practice will come out right. So keep this in mind as you … 
  15. What Is One
     … And concentration is the prime food we use. Otherwise, if we don’t have this food, we’re going to go off nibbling on all kinds of other things. All the different members in the committee of your mind have their ideas about what would be good dinner tonight, what the food should be, how it should be fixed. And a lot of the … 
  16. Appreciating Dispassion
     … Someone once asked the Buddha, “What is virtue for?” “Virtue,” he says, “is for the sake of concentration.” “What’s concentration for?” “Concentration is for the sake of discernment.” “What’s discernment for?” “For the sake of release.” “What’s release for?” “For the sake of nibbāna.” “What is nibbāna for?” That’s when the Buddha said, “You can’t keep going with these … 
  17. Lessons of Distraction
    One of the more frustrating parts of concentration practice is when you find that your mind won’t stay where you tell it to. You could leave that as a lesson in not-self and just let it keep happening, but that wouldn’t really accomplish much. The important thing is not to get frustrated, and to realize that you’re going to be … 
  18. In Harmlessness Is Strength
     … It’s in this way that the Buddha said when he was practicing austerities, he didn’t let the pain of the austerities overcome his mind, but when he found the pleasure of concentration, he didn’t let the pleasure overcome his mind, either. That didn’t mean he stopped doing the concentration—he continued doing it and got deeper and deeper into it … 
  19. Lessons from Stilling the Mind
     … That sense of gladness, the Buddha said, is good for getting the mind into concentration. When you get the mind into concentration, he changes the word from gladness to sukha. Pamojja is gladness; sukha is the pleasure of concentration. He talks about spreading that sukha—that sense of ease, well-being, pleasure— throughout the body. This means that we’re going to transform a … 
  20. Audacious & Undaunted
     … It leads to persistence, it leads to mindfulness, concentration, discernment. This is relevant to us, because the Buddha’s message was that he found it and we can find it too. On the night of his awakening, he learned some important insights. After getting the mind into solid concentration, he turned the power of that concentration to the question, “Is death the end, or … 
  21. A Path of Aggregates
     … This, of course, is the happiness of getting the mind concentrated, the happiness of bringing the mind to stillness. But here, too, you have the aggregates—they’re part of the path. When the Buddha describes the four noble truths, the fourth noble truth ends in right concentration. And of the different factors of the path, this is the one the Buddha most often … 
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