Search results for: "Concentration"
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- The Power of Action… Are you becoming concentrated? Okay, good. Are you becoming clearer? That’s good. If you’re not, are you working at becoming concentrated and clearer? If yes, that’s good, too. That way, if the Buddha were to come and ask you, you’d be able to give him an answer you’d be proud to give. That kind of pride is not a …
- Joyous Discernment… That way, your concentration really does become an effective way of seeing what’s going on in the mind, rather than something that simply blankets over what’s going on there. If it’s a blanketing kind of concentration, all it does is keep things still and under control for a while, but it never uproots anything. In fact, it’s like the kind …
- The Buddha’s Safe Space… One, in the practice of mindfulness and concentration. Those two practices are connected. They’re not separate. The description of mindfulness that we chanted just now—staying focused on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world—describes what you’re doing as you’re trying to get the mind into concentration …
- Step Outside the World… These are the topics of concentration. As I said this morning, the Buddha didn’t draw a clear line between mindfulness practice and concentration practice. They shade into each other. The four establishings of mindfulness are the themes of concentration. And as I said, the qualities that establish mindfulness include not only mindfulness itself but also alertness—knowing what you’re doing, knowing the …
- Choices in the Present… That’s why you have to develop mindfulness, alertness, and concentration, because as concentration comes, it gives a sense of well-being. We sit here with the breath. The breath feels good coming in, feels good going out. You can make it feel better and better and better coming in, better going out, and you take that sense of well-being and allow it …
- Calm… It moves more and more into concentration. Calm is basically a quality of ease and well-being. Concentration is being really focused. Things are very solidly centered right here, and they’re going to be centered well because you’ve created a good place to stay—through the way you breathe, through the feelings you focus on, and the feelings you create, and the …
- Meditation as a Skill… You are bringing the mind to states of becoming in the concentration and you want to think about the elements that go into that. The first, of course, is desire. All states of becoming are based on desire. Your concentration is going to be based on desire, too. But as the Buddha said, you have to fine-tune your desire. You have to balance …
- Training like an Adult… You try to develop right view, right resolve, all the way down to right concentration. There’s right concentration and wrong concentration, just as there are right view and wrong view, right mindfulness and wrong mindfulness. The right and wrong here are defined specifically by what works and what doesn’t. So when you’re meditating, certain things will work and other things won …
- Desires Have Their Reasons… You’ve got to get rid of it.” Concentration enables you to see that. And because you’re well fed with the concentration, you can reason with your less skillful desires. It’s because they have their reasons that you can reason with them. There was that old split in ancient philosophy. Plato taught that desires had no reason at all. They were pure …
- Contemplating the World You Create… In the same way, you’re trying to manipulate the mind, trying to get it into a state of concentration. And all the things that the mind does to shape its experience have to enter into the concentration. For instance, you need to have a perception of the breath and to figure out which perceptions are most skillful, which ones are the most helpful …
- Perceptions & Potentials… As the Buddha said, every state of concentration up through the dimension of nothingness is a perception attainment. That picture you hold in mind—that’s your perception at the center of your concentration. As you get to know the breath, you begin to notice how much your perception of the breath has an impact on how you actually feel the breathing—and also …
- Customs of the Noble Ones… You want to overcome any of the hindrances, overcome any of the things that are getting in the way of clear, mindful, alert, steady concentration. And it’s perfectly fine to want as much as you can in that direction, just as long as you do it skillfully. As for desires outside that would pull you away from the concentration—no matter how much …
- The Buddha Respects Your Potential… The ability to get the mind concentrated can do an awful lot for the mind, for your life, and for the people around you, so bring an attitude of respect to what we’re doing here—respect for concentration, as we said in the chant just now. It seems such a little thing—the mind, still. We think that most of the great things …
- Equanimity in Heart & Mind… It’s in this way that you ultimately get to a more stable state of concentration, a more stable state of equanimity. Then, when the mind has reached equanimity, either through concentration or through insight, you can use that state of mind to look into your emotions. This is where you bring the mind and the heart together. Look for where there’s a …
- When Ill Will Is in Fashion… Here’s where he says, “you develop this concentration.” Mindfulness here is a concentration practice. This is one of the passages in the Canon that makes that point really explicit. You develop it with directed thought and evaluation, with no directed thought and a modicum of evaluation, with no directed thought and no evaluation, with rapture, without rapture, with enjoyment, with equanimity. Then you …
- Putting out the Flame… That’s the recipe for getting the mind into right concentration, but it’s also the recipe for learning how to see things in a way that goes beyond concentration. We’re trying to take apart this craving for further becoming, so we look at these events in the mind, events in the body, that we would ordinarily use to create our narratives, create …
- Nuts & Bolts… For the person who has passed away, one of the best things you can do is to get the mind into good concentration and think thoughts of goodwill toward that person, because the mind, when it’s steady, is sending off a good energy. When it’s concentrated like this, it’s a good gift to be sending out. You think of Shōtai: Wherever …
- Visakha Puja – Shaking the Earth… And then you see if you can stay with the breath for long periods of time, because you’re trying to develop concentration. As the Buddha once said, that’s the heart of the path. All the other elements he awakened to in the path serve as its requisites, serve as its supports. The concentration itself is getting the mind to focus on one …
- Ekaggata… This is how you ride herd on your mind as you’re trying to get it to settle down, so that it develops a sense of expansiveness, which is one of the really enjoyable parts of right concentration. It also has the clarity of a very sharp focus. You’re going to need both if you want your concentration to form a good foundation …
- Strategic Wisdom… This is precisely what mindfulness, alertness, all the qualities that lead to concentration, and of course concentration itself: This is what they provide. You keep thorough watch on the mind to see when its desires are getting out of line, when its desires are actually counterproductive. Know again, as I said, that there are some members of the committee who don’t want that …
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