Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. When Your Will Is Ill
     … Something’s wrong with your intention, and it’s going to get in the way of your concentration. That’s what all these hindrances are: They’re obstacles to your concentration, they obscure your discernment, they obscure your awareness. So you’ve got to get past them. The first step in each case in trying to get past is to see that they’re … 
  16. Tranquility & Insight Through Jhāna
     … There’s no place where the Buddha says, “Go, do samatha,” or, “Go, do vipassanā,” but he does say, “Go, do jhāna.” It’s in the practice of right concentration that you develop* *both tranquility and insight. You need some tranquility and some insight in order to get into jhāna, and then, as the jhāna deepens—as you get more skilled at it—the … 
  17. A Post by the Ocean
     … When you’ve let go of things outside your concentration, then you can turn and look at the concentration itself. You realize that your concentration and discernment have taken the mind this far, but they can take it no further. The only thing that’s keeping you from going further is the fact that you’re holding on. That’s when you let go … 
  18. Shelter
     … The desire has to be motivated by a sense of heedfulness and a sense of pride in your skill, a sense of appreciation—the quality they call “respect for concentration.” The Buddha had to emphasize that twice. In the passage we recite, he talks about having respect for the Triple Training, and goes back again and mentions respect for concentration. Concentration is already there … 
  19. Dwelling in Emptiness
     … And that’s the kind of concentration that all the ajaans teach: You get the mind really, really still, and then you pull out a little bit. Watch the mind in its stillness and ask yourself: What disturbance is still there? As you’re getting the mind into concentration, the first thing you’re letting go of is unskillful mental states. There’s a … 
  20. Beyond Duality
    Practicing concentration is a process of making the mind one. You focus on a single object, and the longer you stay with it, the more the object and the mind seem to blend into one. Take the breath for example. When you begin, it seems that you’re in one part of the body watching the breath in another part of the body. But … 
  21. Bad Stuff Happens
     … It’ll complain, but if you develop some solidity in your concentration, you’re not going to be swayed by the complaint. It’s when the concentration’s not strong and it’s not giving you a sense of well-being: That’s when it’s very easy to say, “Well, this is getting boring,” or “Nothing’s happening,” or “I need some entertainment … 
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