Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. Pull Yourself Up by Your Fetters
     … You push against them by developing the path, getting the mind into concentration. And it’s something you hold on to while you’re developing it. While you’re sitting here, hold on to the breath. The image that they give in the Forest tradition is of a red ant. They have these big red ants in Thailand that live up in mango trees … 
  3. A Skillful Attitude
     … There’s a tendency to regard concentration practice and discernment practice as two different things, but ideally they should come together. And what are the four noble truths aside from a way of looking at your experience from the point of view of someone who wants to be skillful? You see where there’s discomfort or dis-ease—i.e., where there’s something … 
  4. A Noble Path
     … This is one of the reasons why we practice concentration and try to get really good at it: so that we can sense the subtle things going on in the mind and see where they drive us; what they do—and then what we’re going to do about them, how we want to handle them, which things we want to hold onto, which … 
  5. Feel-Good Religion
     … After all, the establishings of mindfulness are the themes of concentration. It’s not as if you have mindfulness meditation and then concentration meditation. The two have to come together. In this way, you create a good place for the mind to stay in the present moment, and you’re not weighing yourself down with all that greed and distress with reference to the … 
  6. Glad to Be Here
    The Buddha’s instructions on how to get the mind in concentration start, on the one hand, with the reminder that you have to get past sensuality—your fascination with thinking thoughts about sensual pleasures. You can’t let the mind wander off in those areas. The Buddha says you should have a definite sense of the dangers of those places. That’s why … 
  7. The Best of a Bad Situation
     … She kept using the power of her concentration to fend off any reaction to the pain. She was able to get through the treatment, but she came out exhausted. Ajaan Fuang visited her the next day in the hospital and she told him what had happened. He said, “If you use just the power of concentration, it’s going to wear you out. You … 
  8. Working Hypotheses
     … In the same way, the Buddha says the footprints of the elephant stand for right concentration. The scratch marks stand for the psychic powers that come from concentration. Even people who get strongly concentrated minds and psychic powers still don’t know for sure that what the Buddha taught was true. It’s when they’ve had their first taste of awakening—stream entry … 
  9. Refuge & Strength
     … It’s in this way that you strengthen your concentration through strengthening your discernment. So even though there’s a list—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—and it’s explained in ways that make it sound like you go from the first to the second to the third, fourth, fifth, there are also other ways in which their relationship is explained. For instance, the … 
  10. Caring Enough to Doubt
     … The stronger you can make your concentration, the stronger your mindfulness, then the better position you’ll be in to judge things. Was the Buddha right when he said that there is a deathless happiness that doesn’t depend on any conditions at all? To know that, you’ve got to make yourself a reliable judge. That’s why you need more concentration. You … 
  11. Ironies
     … This is why we develop these practices of mindfulness and alertness leading to concentration, because concentration does give us a sense of ease, a sense of solidity and stability that makes it easier for us to be enduring and patient. We’re trying to develop a sense of well-being that we can tap into when we need it that helps us to endure … 
  12. The Desire to Be Free from Desire
     … Ananda, who was one of the Buddha’s disciples, and asks, “This path that you follow, what are its goals?” Ananda says, “One of the goals is to free the mind from desire.” And then the brahman asks, “How do you do that?” Ananda says, “One of the ways of doing it is to develop concentration based on desire and the development of right … 
  13. The Missing Fabrication
     … As you’re trying to get the mind to settle down in concentration, you’ve got to talk to yourself about your object—adjust it and adjust the mind so that they can fit snuggly together. This is all verbal fabrication. And even though as you get into the second jhana you drop verbal fabrication, there’s a trace of it that hovers around … 
  14. Mindworms
     … And I can see for myself that it’s going to get me into trouble if I follow those things.” So, use both your concentration and your discernment to step back. The concentration and the breath give you another place to stand, another place to stay, a few different members of the committee that simply through force of will can resist. Then you bring … 
  15. Effortlessness Through Effort
     … And you’ve gained the strength to do this from the concentration. Without the concentration, this practice gets very wearisome after a while. The mind wants happiness, wants pleasure, and as the Buddha said, if you don’t have the pleasure of jhana or something better, then no matter how much you see the drawbacks of sensuality, you’re still going to go back … 
  16. Heedfulness
     … In the beginning, we use them to create a good state of concentration. Then, when the concentration is solid, we can begin to let them go. As you can see, there’s a lot to be interested in here. There’s a lot going on. Even as you try to get the mind as still as possible, there are different things happening with the … 
  17. Refuge for All Beings
     … He says, if you have an unlimited mind, if you train yourself in virtue, train yourself in discernment, train yourself not to be overcome by pleasure or pain—which are issues of concentration and discernment—then when results come from past bad karma, they’re going to be a lot less. He gives the example of the lump of salt. If you put the … 
  18. Three Types of Equanimity
     … Another kind of equanimity occurs in the context of the Buddha’s teachings on concentration practice. It’s there in the fourth jhana and it’s one of the seven factors for awakening. There it’s related to the Buddha’s instructions to Rahula when he first started meditating. He said, “Make your mind like earth. Nice things and disgusting things are thrown on … 
  19. All-around Knowing
    When the Buddha describes jhana, or right concentration, he makes a few observations, but leaves a lot of empty spaces. For instance, he says there’s going to be a sense of pleasure, but he doesn’t say much about how to create that sense of pleasure. He simply notes that when you get rid of the hindrances, there’s a sense of ease … 
  20. Treasure Island
     … But when you try to do this well, when you do it in a way that would give rise to concentration, that’s the function of ardency, and that’s what makes the other two skillful. You’re mindful for the purpose of right concentration. You’re alert for the purpose of right concentration. So you remember what needs to be done. You put … 
  21. Not-self as a Raft
     … Right now as you’re practicing concentration, you’re the one doing it. You’re the one who’s going to benefit. Any thoughts that come up that are not related to your concentration, that would destroy your concentration, you can label as not-self, remembering that both “self” and “not-self” are perceptions. You want to learn how to use them well, so … 
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