Search results for: "Concentration"

  1. Page 75
  2. Abandoning & Developing
     … You base your concentration on your breath, and then you notice: Do you have the qualities of mind that help you stay with the breath? ** The two main sets of qualities that the Buddha teaches in that context are the hindrances on the one hand, and the factors for awakening on the other. They’re a paired set. Often you see them together in … 
  3. 1. The Entertaining Breath
     … Right concentration has among its factors the ease from concentration, the rapture that can arise from concentration, the ability to experience pleasure through the body. You can induce that ease and rapture by getting more interested in what this potential is that you have here. This is one of the basic messages of the Buddha’s teaching on kamma, that the present moment is … 
  4. Mindfulness, Discernment, & Peace of Mind
     … Sometimes people think that you do concentration first and then, when your concentration is really good, you’re going to get to discernment. But actually, you gain your discernment as you’re getting the mind into concentration and keeping it there, because you’ve got to figure out how to sidestep the problems, all the distractions that have been running through the mind all … 
  5. Look After Yourself with Ease
     … When you see the suffering there, when you see the stress, then you need to ask yourself: “Is it worth it?” There will be voices in the mind that say, “Of course, it’s worth it! What else is there in life?” So again, this is why we have the concentration: to give you an alternative, to give you something else in life. Because … 
  6. As They’ve Come to Be
     … So, we have to learn how to change our allegiance here, which is one of the reasons why we have to get the mind into concentration. Not only does the stillness of concentration allow you to see these processes, but the sense of well-being also allows you to look at them with a lessened sense of interest. You’ve got something better; why … 
  7. Perceptions of the Breath
     … That’s because all the states of concentration up to the dimension of nothingness are called perception attainments. You need a perception to stay concentrated on them. As you work with the breath, you find that different perceptions work at different times. You’ll also find that some are useful and some are actually obstacles to getting the mind to settle down. A few … 
  8. Respect for Heedfulness
     … If you search around in the Noble Truths you find happiness—pleasure and rapture—tucked away under the fourth Noble Truth, in Right Concentration. That’s the kind of happiness you can learn from, the happiness that comes together with mindfulness and real clarity. Because on the one hand it puts the mind in a state where it can see suffering and not be … 
  9. A Willingness to Learn
     … There are passages where the Buddha talks about getting the mind into strong states of concentration and then staying there long enough, not being in a hurry to jump onto the next stage. Otherwise, you get lost in between and then can’t get back to where you started out from. But there are also passages where he talks about an ability to step … 
  10. The Buddha’s Map
     … For instance, the Buddha teaches us how to put virtue, concentration, and discernment together. These are all things that we have to put together. Our intention to observe the precepts is something we put together. The precepts themselves are sketches. But they’re very useful sketches. If they were too complex, too detailed, they’d be hard to hold to, because they’d be … 
  11. Energy
     … Again, you realize the pleasure comes from the mind’s being focused, from its pulling itself out from all its ordinary concerns or by being concentrated on the breath. So you maintain that concentration. Whatever pleasure fills the body, it’ll do whatever work it needs to do. Sometimes we’re afraid that if we don’t wring every little last bit of intensity … 
  12. The Saints Don’t Grieve
     … He describes progress through stages of concentration as stage-by-stage release. Simply getting the mind to stay consistently with the breath, you’re released from unskillful mental states, released from sensual desires. That’s a state of freedom, but there’s a part of the mind that doesn’t see it that way. And that part of the mind gets a lot of … 
  13. For the Cessation of Dukkha
     … right concentration. In other words, he followed right concentration to the point where he understood the four noble truths and fully developed right view. That’s when the path was complete. As I said earlier, that’s where the Dhamma really began. So when we’re here, we’re right on the way. We’re in the right spot so that we can develop … 
  14. Groundwork
     … Evaluation together with directed thought here are the discernment factors of concentration practice. The Buddha identifies them with a high level of what he calls right resolve. In ordinary right resolve, you resolve not to indulge in thoughts of sensual pleasures, not to indulge in thoughts of ill will, not to indulge in thoughts of harmfulness. Then as the mind begins to settle down … 
  15. Self-Correct
    The Buddha’s instructions for getting the mind into concentration are found in his description of right mindfulness. You start by keeping the body in and of itself in focus. The “body in and of itself” means just taking the body in its own terms—your direct experience of the body right here, right now, without reference to how it looks to other people … 
  16. Perfecting the Mind in an Imperfect World
     … At that point, the most skillful thing is to find a way of bringing the mind into right concentration. Now, all of this involves actively cultivating certain mind states and actively trying to check other ones. In other words, we’re not here just to watch things come and go. I was actually reading a book a while back that made a distinction between … 
  17. Get Out of the Way
     … But she later said that she was exhausted at the end of the treatment because she had been using her powers of concentration just to focus, focus, focus, and not allow herself to have any reaction to the pain. Afterwards, Ajaan Fuang went to visit her and asked her how it went. She explained, and he told her, “You can’t use just your … 
  18. Training the Mind to Train the Mind
     … This doesn’t settle those issues once and for all, but it does enable you to clear some space in the mind where you can develop some skill in concentration. As your concentration gets stronger, your discernment gets more refined. The more still you can make the concentration, the subtler the things you’ll be able to see. And if you’re tempted to … 
  19. Why We Train the Mind
     … One is looking at the drawbacks of not having a concentrated mind, of not being mindful, of not being alert. As the Buddha said, we’re a slave to craving, and craving is a huge blind monster that thrashes around. When we’re a slave to craving, we get pulled along wherever the craving goes, as it fastens on this object as being desirable … 
  20. No Happiness without Restraint
     … What suffering are you causing for yourself? So learn to bring the mind into concentration. That’s allow you to focus on this issue—and by focusing here, you can solve the problem. And when this problem is solved, then there’s nothing else to be a problem. All of this comes from learning how to restrain the mind and keep it focused on … 
  21. Just Events
     … He said, “You’re just using concentration. You’ve got to use your discernment, too. Using concentration in a case like that takes a lot of energy. But if you use your discernment and say, ‘Okay, the awareness is one thing, the pain is something else, the body is something else,’ then you can hold that perception in mind. Then there’s a lot … 
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