Search results for: "Concentration"
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- Karma-ism… We get the mind into concentration because good stable mental states are the easiest things for us to unravel, so that we can see what it means to act, where the intention is in the present moment, and exactly which parts of that intention make the suffering go on. Sometimes there’s the question of where the suffering came from in the past, but …
- The World Does Not Endure… As long as the pleasures in the world seem easy and the concentration seems hard, you’re going to sneak off to the easy pleasures. So, you’ve got to keep reminding yourself again and again and again that those easy pleasures come at a big price. Even though the concentration may seem onerous, don’t think of it as a burden. Think of …
- Duties in the Present… This is called developing your inner resources for the sake of alertness, for the sake of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. That’s one of our duties in the present moment. Actually there are four kinds of things you’re going to find in the present moment. The Buddha’s four noble truths are right here. We tend to think of the teaching four noble …
- Wise Choices… Focusing on the object, focusing on the sensations that can give rise to concentration: That’s a wise choice. because the pleasure of concentration goes a lot deeper than the pleasure that comes from sights and smells and sounds and tastes and tactile sensations, things outside, and people outside. So look at what you’ve got here. You’ve got the body sitting here …
- Asalha Puja… It provides a way that transcends that back-and-forth, precisely in the pleasure offered by the factor of right concentration. That was the factor that the Buddha discovered first of all the factors in the path. You know the story of when he was performing his austerities. Finally, after six years, he realized that the path of austerities was leading nowhere. He could …
- Lessons in Fabrication… When the Buddha defines the various levels of right concentration, he starts out with a feeling-tone: pleasure and refreshment or just pleasure or equanimity. Those are the things we’re working on. As you get more and more sensitive to how these processes put together a state of concentration, it gives you insight into how you create other states of becoming as you …
- Worthy of Trust… This is why we’re practicing not only mindfulness, but also concentration, the concentration that the Buddha calls the enlarged mind, are expanded mind, mahaggatam cittam, awareness filling the body, where thoughts can come and go, but that enlarged awareness is always there. It’s the arena in which they come and go, an arena with no walls, no curtains. This is what we …
- Four Determinations… As when you’re doing concentration practice: It’s not the case that you just sit here and wait for concentration to come, or hope that concentration will come— that somehow your past karma will do it for you. As the Buddha said, what you experience right now is the result of past karma together with present karma. And it’s the present karma …
- Respect Your Center… It’s an instinctive reaction we all have, and it’s something you have to unlearn if you want the concentration really to feel at home. So as you’re walking, try to see how the energy or the movement of the walking relates to the energy in the spot you’ve chosen. See if you can allow the energy to flow naturally from …
- Worldly Equanimity & Its Uses… Once you get the mind into concentration, how do you stay with it? How do you be patient with it so that it can have a good effect on the mind? We’re not jumping through jhana hoops here. You stay with your level of concentration however long is required for the mind to settle in, gain a sense of nourishment from it, and …
- Equanimity & Karma… These are among the reasons for why we practice concentration. As we’re working the breath, it gives us skill in handling any physical pain that comes up. At the very least, we know how to focus on another part of the body and get the breath energy in that part of the body running well so that it’s soothing, nourishing, and energizing …
- After the Fire… There’s calm, concentration, and equanimity. These are the states you have to hold on to when there’s nothing else to hold on to. Learn to be still, quiet. That stillness and quietude is an important refuge. But you need to get it balanced, because stillness without mindfulness can just become dull, sleepy, deluded, drifting off. There has to be an element of …
- Your Territory… This connects with the fact that we’re trying to get the mind into concentration, and that’s one of the first things you’ve got to put aside to get rightly concentrated: thoughts of sensuality. You want to be secluded from them. The same applies to right mindfulness. When teaching right mindfulness, the Buddha gave the example monkeys. They live in the Himalayas …
- Protection… So you have to work on the skillful qualities that take you to a place where you can rest for a while in concentration. That starts with mindfulness. Mindfulness doesn’t mean non-judging awareness, as we sometimes hear. It means keeping in mind what you need to do. Right now, you need to get focused on the breath, or as the Buddha calls …
- The Search for Happiness… Some people think that when start practicing concentration, they have to do something brand new call directed thought and evaluation. Actually it’s what the mind’s been doing all the time as it talks to itself: You direct your thoughts to a topic and then you pass an evaluation on it. When we practice concentration, we’re taking this habit of the mind …
- Your Inner Ally… In the chant we had just now, the Buddha talks about getting the mind into concentration. In the beginning it requires directed thought and evaluation. You keep directing your thought and your attention to the breath, and then you evaluate it. You’re evaluating both the breath and the quality of your attention, trying to figure out what kind of breathing and what kind …
- Three Weapons… We may know the drawbacks of sensual pleasures and the drawbacks of sensual thinking, but without an alternative source of pleasure, where we are going to go? We practice concentration to find a non-sensual pleasure there. That gives us that alternative. Instead of directing your thoughts to sensuality and evaluating different sensual plans, you direct your thoughts to your breath, you evaluate the …
- Grace & Dignity… You strengthen your mindfulness, strengthen your alertness, and strengthen your concentration. These are all good things because it’s from the mind that your actions spring. And if the mind is srengthened and in good shape, you’re more likely to do the right thing—to see what the right thing is and have the strength and willingness to do it. So all the …
- Specifics… Or if it feels like the breath is something you have to pull into the body or push out of the body, what happens to the meditation, what happens to your state of concentration, when you allow yourself to think that the breath is already there no matter what you do? It’s simply a matter of rearranging the furniture, playing with different aspects …
- You Can’t Relax Your Way to Awakening… In fact, he says one of the advantages of getting the mind into concentration with a sense of well-being is that it helps get you past some of the pain and hardships involved in developing skillful qualities. Unskillful qualities aren’t the only ones that involve pain. Sometimes skillful qualities do—or the act of trying to develop them is going to be …
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