Search results for: "Concentration"

  1. Page 91
  2. The Economy of Goodness
     … Finally, there’s discernment, where you see clearly how suffering is caused from inside the mind and you also see what you’ll have to do to put an end to that cause by developing the path—the path of virtue, concentration, discernment. Like what we’re doing right now: trying to get the mind still so it can see itself clearly—still with … 
  3. Worldly Narratives
     … When you get more and more firmly established in the state of concentration, then you can use your perceptions and thought-constructs to start taking even that apart, to see what attachment there is to this state of quiet, this state of calm, this open, spacious state that comes with the concentration. Start taking that apart as well. Then you finally get to a … 
  4. Potentials for Rapture
     … And you don’t have to wait until your concentration is really good in order to gain some sense of this. In fact, you have to shape your experience here in order to get the mind into concentration. Notice where the potentials are. And keep coming back, coming back, coming back. If you haven’t figured things out tonight, well, try again tomorrow, try … 
  5. Step Back
     … Learn how to step out of your concentration sometimes to see what’s going on and exactly what you’re doing. This is how wisdom and discernment arise in the practice: through your ability to step back. And along with this, you want to develop the ability to laugh at yourself, because that’s what stepping back often leads to. You suddenly see how … 
  6. Life Well Lived
     … virtue, concentration, discernment. Qualities we can develop in ourselves. One of the hardest ones is concentration, because it’s so easy for the mind to wander off. Catching the mind is like trying to catch a bead of mercury: You put a little pressure on it, it scoots off; put a little pressure on this side, it scoots someplace else, scatters all over the … 
  7. A Load Off the Mind
     … So even though we have the path laid out to some extent—we know that virtue, concentration, and discernment are important and we know the breath is a good place to stay—still, there’s a lot that we’ve got to learn about how we breathe and how we approach the meditation. Sometimes you find that as soon as you sit down to … 
  8. Strength of Discernment
     … Of course, the path to the cessation requires all of the elements of the path, everything from right view down to right concentration. So the discernment of acting, knowing what to do, requires a lot more than simply watching. You have to evaluate. You have to make value judgments. Especially in a time like this, where a lot of choices are presenting them to … 
  9. Giving Weight
    One of the terms for concentration is adhicitta, which means a heightened mind—not heightened in the sense that you’re physically above something else, heightened in the sense of heightened importance. You try to be very clear about where your awareness is focused. You make that focal point the really important issue. Normally, you focus on one thing but then something pulls you … 
  10. Fence Me In
    One of the Thai ajahans has spoken of virtue as a fence for your actions and concentration practice as a fence for the mind, something that keeps you within bounds. And of course, here in America, we don’t like fences. The old song, “Don’t Fence Me In,” seems to typify most of our attitudes. But the purpose of having that fence is … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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