Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. The Beginnings of Wisdom
     … As you get in the more advanced stages of the practice, you look at the states of concentration that you can develop. Sometimes you don’t realize they’re states of concentration. The mind just gets really, really still—very expansive, very bright—and you might ask yourself, “Is this it? Is this what I’ve been practicing for?” Well, you pull out that … 
  3. Purity
     … As the mind gets into concentration, you discover that there are levels of concentration. In the beginning, you have to talk to yourself about staying with the breath and adjusting the breath, because you want the mind and the breath to fit together well—and you’re dealing with the parts of the mind that are not ready to settle down yet. In some … 
  4. Mental Balance
     … All the good things the Buddha has us practice—generosity, virtue, cultivating the sublime attitudes, getting the mind into good state of concentration, developing insight, gaining release: The primary focus is on what they do for your mind, but in each case, you’re not only helping yourself. The people around you benefit as well. With generosity, the dual benefit is obvious. One the … 
  5. Insight Is a Judgment Call
     … What’s the best thing that the mind can fabricate? There are some very subtle states of concentration, very strong, and as you develop them, you find yourself getting attached to them. But that’s okay, because that attachment allows you to let go of attachments, say, to sensuality, to unskillful thoughts, or even to weaker and less subtle states of concentration. You finally … 
  6. The Desire for Things to Be Different
     … After all, the desire to get better concentration, the desire to get rid of your defilements, to abandon unskillful qualities, develop skillful ones: Those desires are all part of the path. There may be some pain that goes along with that kind of desire. That would come under what the texts call renunciate pain—when you realize that there is a goal that can … 
  7. The Veils of Delusion
     … This is why insight requires such strong concentration. People talk about doing insight meditation without much power of concentration, yet the insights they get are these little fleeting things, little bits and pieces here and there, but there’s nothing continuous, there’s nothing solid. The context is missing. And the solidity of mind, the solidity of your focus that can keep you focused … 
  8. Skillful Selfing
    The Buddha’s instructions on right mindfulness are basically his directions for getting the mind into right concentration. You stay focused on the body in and of itself—and here, to do that, we’re going to take the breath as our object. You put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. In other words, anything that’s not related to the … 
  9. Watch What You’re Doing
     … You get into a good state of concentration and you begin to see, after you’ve been there for quite a while, that this concentration seems so still and so basic and so elemental, but it really does require lots of different decisions being made to keep it going. Again, it’s a matter of learning to detect what you’re doing and what … 
  10. Mindfulness: The Whole Formula
     … The purpose of mindfulness is to get the mind into concentration, to stay with one topic—say, the breath in and of itself—until you’re thoroughly immersed in it. There’s a sense of pleasure that comes from it, a sense of fullness, and you can allow that pleasure and fullness to spread through the body, so that it seems to run along … 
  11. Wild Horses
     … This is the pleasure of concentration. As you sit here focused on the breath, you can get the breath really comfortable as you explore how the breathing process feels in the body. That feeling of comfort, even though it can be very intense, is not counted as a sensual pleasure. Even though it’s related to the body, it’s not counted as a … 
  12. Right Action
     … This focuses you on the two big hindrances, to remind you that you don’t want to go there, because if you’re going to get the mind in a good solid state of concentration, then, as the texts say, you have to be secluded from sensual passion, be secluded from unskillful mental qualities. Sensual desire and ill will are the two big unskillful … 
  13. Mindful & Discerning 24/7
     … One of the reasons we do concentration practice is to give the mind some rest between the battles. But also, the process of getting the mind concentrated teaches you some important things about its workings. As the mind begins to settle in, you use directed thought and evaluation—verbal fabrication—to get the mind still. Ideally, you should get to a point where you … 
  14. Beneficial Thinking
     … Which is why, in the beginning of concentration, you don’t just order the mind not to think. You know it’s going to think. It has to have its reasons for doing things. So what you want to do is put its thinking to good use: Think about good reasons for not thinking. Make your thinking conducive to the mind’s settling down … 
  15. Meaningful Freedom
     … When the Buddha talks about the insights that come from concentration, the powers that come from concentration, he says that they come when there’s an opportunity, when there’s an opening. Tthe opening may be shaped by your past karma, but you want to be ready for it when it comes, especially for the opening for insight. That, too, is a possibility. The … 
  16. Up for the Challenge
     … Strength of conviction, strength of your persistence, strength of mindfulness, concentration, discernment: These are things you can keep working on. And you’re going to need them, too. Sometimes we like to think that as life reaches its end, things get easier. After all, we’re not as strong as we were, it’s time to rest. But actually some of our most difficult … 
  17. Conviction & Truth
     … How true are you in following the precepts? How true are you in developing concentration, discernment, and all the big and little qualities of the mind that go along with the path? You want to check yourself all-around to see if you are really following the path all-around. Are there some really big blind spots in your practice, or in yourself? You … 
  18. Character
     … They’re a necessary part of your meditation, in that you learn to develop in daily life the qualities you’re going to need as you try to bring the mind to concentration and then try to use that concentration to understand why the mind keeps creating unnecessary suffering for itself. Even though it wants well-being, well-being, well-being, what it actually … 
  19. Skills to Make a Difference
     … That’s the beginning of both concentration and discernment. As Ajaan Lee notices, the more refined your evaluation, the better the results are going to be. Try to be really sensitive to how the breath feels. He says it’s like sifting flour to make a cake or sifting sand to use to make clay tiles. If your sifter is coarse, you’re going … 
  20. Perplexity
     … You’ve got to develop all the factors of the path, from right view all the way down through right concentration. As for skillful thoughts, you encourage them. As the Buddha noticed, you can think some skillful things that are not involved in any sensual desire, not involved in ill will, not involved in harmfulness. But even then, sitting and thinking them for a … 
  21. Delight
     … You’re observing the precepts, finding pleasure in getting the mind concentrated, using your discernment to get past your defilements. You’re practicing non-affliction even as you’re headed toward the ultimate state of non-affliction. The same with non-objectification: Objectification is when you start with the idea, “I am the thinker,” and then from there you identify yourself as a being … 
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