Search results for: "Concentration"

  1. Page 88
  2. A Clear Sense of Priorities
     … This is why when the Buddha set out the factors of the path, it wasn’t just right concentration or right view. It was a whole series of factors including right speech, right action, and right livelihood. And then he set the path in a larger context as well, your social context: the people you associate with, the way you associate with them—all … 
  3. Breathaholic
    When you’re practicing concentration, you try to make it right concentration—in other words, you try to get it to fall in line with the Buddha’s description of jhana. We usually translate the word jhana as absorption, and if you’re going to be absorbed in the breath, it really has to be interesting, pleasurable. This is why it’s important that … 
  4. The Dhamma Is in the Method
     … When he finally got the mind in right concentration, he wanted to know the skillful use of his concentration. So he used it to gain the three knowledges, and in each case, he asked himself, once he had gained that knowledge, “What’s the skillful use of this knowledge?” In terms of the first two knowledges, there were people who had attained those before … 
  5. Sunrise, Sunset
     … What kind of thinking does the mind like to settle down in? When you’re trying to meditate and part of the mind wants to get into concentration, while another part says, “Not for the time being. Let me wander around a little bit first,” what are those thoughts? Do you like wandering around in thoughts of lust? You can excuse yourself in all … 
  6. Between Either & Or
     … You pursue certain pleasures—the pleasures of jhana, the pleasures that come from mastering virtue and concentration, generosity—so that you can use them. Use the pleasure of concentration to put the mind in the proper mood and the proper frame of mind, making it stable enough so it can really see things in a balanced way. And often this requires a lot of … 
  7. To Discern Suffering
     … I need it to hold the banana and not let it mush in my fingers.” It’s the same with the concentration. You hold on to it as it’s developing, out of the desire to create a path. You don’t want the concentration to turn into mush in your mind. Desire is not a bad thing. All too many people think that … 
  8. Endurance
     … The same with concentration practice: If you try to focus on one thing but can’t endure anything else that’s happening or coming into your range of awareness, you’ll never settle down. So no matter how uncomfortable or irritating things may be, you have to learn how to put them aside and choose what to focus on. Then make up your mind … 
  9. The Five Strengths
     … There’s concentration, the ability to stay with the breath consistently, with this sense of ease and fullness of the body. And there’s discernment as you begin to see cause and effect, exactly what you do that creates unnecessary stress, and what you can do to stop that. You see the real causes are right there in the mind. Your craving and clinging … 
  10. One Hand Clapping
     … The problem is that many of us think that when we’re getting the mind into concentration, there shouldn’t be any other thoughts, anything else aside from that one object. In the very high levels of concentration, that does happen, but as you’re getting started out, you’re bound to have other thoughts coming up in the mind. It’s simply a … 
  11. Determination
     … Of course, that would be the practice of right concentration. The description of right concentration starts out by saying that you’re “secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mind states.” You focus the mind in on one topic, like the breath. Stay with the breath. As for other thoughts that would come in right now, just let them go. Stay apart from them. Try … 
  12. Ways to Think
     … The practice of concentration and developing concentration, developing discernment: These are precisely the skills you’re going to need as death occurs. So remind yourself that no matter what happens in life, no matter how bad things get, there’s always a skillful response—and that you benefit and the people around you benefit as you try to find that response and act on … 
  13. Why the Breath
     … If your concentration is totally limited to one focal point, then as soon as anything disturbs it at all, then you’re gone. You’ve lost the concentration. But if your concentration encompasses that background, then even though there may be a little bit of wavering in the focal point, you’ve still got the background in place. Your foundation is still there. So … 
  14. A Self Rightly Directed
     … You want to go in the direction of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, and not let yourself get waylaid by petty affairs. That’s when you can say that you have some real appreciation for the goodness you’ve done in the past to get you to where you are now. Then you direct your attention inward, to the good you can do inside. Now … 
  15. The Real Thing
     … But if your mind is in a good solid state of concentration, it’s not deflected by those things. It just keeps looking in, looking in. Once the mind is in good concentration, there’s a strong sense of well-being and a willingness to look in deeper and really get to the root of what is all this going on right here. And … 
  16. A Sucker for Random Memories
     … And even though many of the tools that you need at that time are the tools you do develop as you get the mind into concentration, you also need the tools of insight. Knowing that you face difficulties that are going to be a lot more difficult than, say, a pain that you have to endure while you meditate, requires you to be stricter … 
  17. Right Exertion at Play
     … We’re working on concentration, and concentration includes rapture and pleasure. You get to think about things in the body and mind, to figure them out. In other words, you keep the mind occupied with something that can be entertaining and educational at the same time. It’s like giving a child a toy car to play with. The child can play with the … 
  18. Dhamma Medicine
     … For example, when people are starting out with concentration practice, you don’t tell them, “Concentration is not-self. It’s going to be beyond your control,” because the problem at that point, of course, is that it really is beyond their control. That’s not the medicine they need. And also it’s not timely. They need to be taught what they can … 
  19. Sucked into the Tube
     … Even in very strong levels of concentration, there will still be a little level of stress, a little bit of activity. And it’s very easy when you first hit strong levels of concentration not to see it. Everything seems soothing, silent, and totally still. But that’s because your mindfulness and alertness are not yet ripe. Stay there for a while, and as … 
  20. A Strong Sense of Self
     … Based on mindfulness and persistence, you get the mind into concentration, and the concentration becomes a new source of strength. Based on that, you develop discernment. When you see the ways you’re acting that lead to suffering and you realize, “I don’t have to do that,” that takes a huge burden off the mind. So we develop these strengths inside. This is … 
  21. Compassion for People on Fire
     … In the beginning, that’s why we focus on concentration. Instead of focusing on desires for sensuality, we focus on desires related to form, inhabiting the form of the body. It lifts the mind. You’re looking for a happiness in a place where you don’t have to fight anybody else off. No one’s going to come in and try to push … 
  22. Load next page...