Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. Meditating When You’re Sick
     … I’m developing goodwill for all beings.” That’s a good exercise, so that you’re not concentrating on your own pain or concentrating on the limitations that the illness is placing on you. Spread thoughts of goodwill to all beings. Let your awareness expand out so that it’s not confined just to the body. “May all beings be happy. May all beings … 
  3. To Be Worthy of the Dhamma
     … Then you concentrate it, steady it. That calms it down. Then you release it stage by stage. You release it from gross perceptions to more refined ones, from gross feelings to more refined ones. When the mind is released in this way, it reaches an even deeper level of calm. Again the pattern is to be sensitive to fabrication, and the to calm it … 
  4. Ready for Death
     … This is for the sake of your concentration right now, and you’re going to need concentration at that moment, too. As the Buddha said, our rebirth is determined by our cravings. If we can crave a life where we can practice the Dhamma, that’s a good craving to have. But if you allow vagrant thoughts to come wandering in and pull your … 
  5. True, Beneficial, Timely
     … It’s actually one of the factors of the first jhana, getting into right concentration. You have to talk to yourself about what? You talk to yourself about the breath, because if you’re going to settle down with the breath, the breath has to be comfortable. It has to feel right in the body right now. It has to be clear enough for … 
  6. Determination
     … This is why we hold on to the practice of concentration. That’s our alternative pleasure. And we adopt views that are helpful on the path. Here again, there are a lot of things we hold dearly in terms of our ideas of right and our ideas of wrong, but if they get in the way, what’s their value? There’s a certain … 
  7. The Language of the Breath
     … As Ajaan Lee notes, the evaluation factor in concentration practice grows out of alertness in mindfulness practice—in other words, your ability to be sensitive to what you’re doing and to the results of what you’re doing. The act of evaluation builds on that as you learn how to adjust, to see what’s working, see what’s not working, first as … 
  8. The Larger Picture
     … We read about levels of concentration, levels of mindfulness, and we look at our mind, and it’s there for one breath and two breaths, then it’s gone. We compare ourselves to what we’ve read, we compare ourselves to what we would like to be, and we don’t like the comparison. It makes us impatient. A lot of our problems are … 
  9. There Is This
     … We get stages of concentration and we can develop a sense of self around that. Sometimes the sense of self is very pronounced; other times, it’s lurking inside something else. So here again, you have to have a matter-of-fact attitude as you spy on these things. When you’ve had a good insight, Ajaan Lee recommends thinking: “To what extent is … 
  10. Not Pained by Pain
     … Now, his explanation here is focused on how to give rise to a sense of pleasure, and then refine that pleasure in the course of getting the mind concentrated. Give rise to a sense of energy, and then refine the energy to have a calming effect on the mind—to get the mind into good strong concentration. But you can also use the same … 
  11. Right Here, Right Now
     … Stay right here and develop mindfulness right here, develop alertness right here, concentration, discernment: all right here: right here in the heart; right here in the present moment. Because everything we’re going to have to learn is right here. All the things we have to come to understand are right here. The Buddha talked about sankharas, fabrications, as being the main focus of … 
  12. The Buddha’s Questions
     … When you learn how to read your mind in this way, developing both that sense of heedfulness and greater skill in how you manage your practice of virtue, concentration, and discernment, then you finally get to those questions that he asked the five brethren: “Is form constant?” They say, “It’s inconstant.” “If it’s inconstant, is it pleasant or stressful?” “Well, if you … 
  13. Meditate Because You Have To
     … You can stay with the breath, or whatever your topic of concentration is. And instead of trying to keep one eye on what landmarks you’re passing, or whether the goal seems to be coming into sight, or whether it seems to be receding away, you just focus on what you’re doing. This is the best way to interpret that statement that the … 
  14. Four Virtues
     … All of this develops good qualities in the mind, qualities that are important in developing concentration and discernment. There’s a continuity, the same theme all the way through. As one of the forest ajaans once said, Dhamma is one thing clear through, starting with generosity and going up all the way to the noble attainments. So as you’re working on your precepts … 
  15. Selves with Skills
     … They describe how we succeed in putting a state of concentration together, based on desire, persistence, intent, and your powers of analysis. And just as we tend to identify with whatever skills we already have and tend to use, the Buddha wants to teach you how to create a state of concentration—and it doesn’t matter that you create a sense of identity … 
  16. Correcting, Fostering, Cutting Away
    Ajaan Lee says there are three tasks in concentration practice, and they apply to giving rise to insight as well. The three are correcting, fostering, and cutting away. For example, you focus on the breath, but the mind is not settling down with the breath. The question is, what can you correct? Is the problem with the mind, or is the problem with the … 
  17. Feeding on the Breath
     … everything from right view all the way through right concentration. They provide good food for the mind—particularly right concentration. It’s a sense of well-being that gives us genuine nourishment. As we get the mind to settle down, we learn about the mind. We begin to see its feeding habits a lot more clearly. So start looking at the breath as your … 
  18. The Demands of Goodwill
     … Then, as I pointed out, you can bring the mind to fairly deep states of concentration with the practice of goodwill, even deeper states with equanimity—and then you have to analyze them. One, use the power of your concentration to look at your fascination with sensual pleasures. See why it is that you go for those things. See what the allure is, see … 
  19. Count Yourself Lucky
     … It’s learning to focus on them and to make the most of them that makes it easier and easier to stay here, to develop stronger powers of concentration, to develop the path. When obstacles come up, learn how to recognize them as obstacles. All too often we tend to identify with them, “This is the real me, this is how I really think … 
  20. Homage Through the Practice
     … Then, in maintaining it there, the next step is concentration. Concentration actually means keeping the mind centered so that it’s stable. When the mind is centered and stable, there’s a sense of well-being. And even though it’s dependent on conditions, this well-being is very, very useful. This center inside is very useful. The more you can develop this center … 
  21. Speech for the Sake of Stillness
     … So he inclined his mind into concentration. That thoughts inclining his mind into concentration were a kind of internal speech, but speech leading in the right direction. So you want your speech to be speech that leads to stillness, speech that leads to harmony, speech that leads to peace, both inside and out. That’s the right use of our human ability to talk … 
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