Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. Stop Shooting Yourself
     … As the mind gets more still, as its concentration and discernment gets stronger, you really begin to see that the physical pain doesn’t have to invade the mind. We pull it in—to use another image—or we use the perception of the pain to shoot ourselves. Part of the problem is that we’re used to feeding on these things. So to … 
  3. A Home for the Mind
     … You can maintain that as a steady goal only if the mind is well trained, if you’re mindful, alert, concentrated, discerning. These are the qualities that we develop as we meditate. Then there’s that reflection on the requisites: the food, clothing, shelter, medicine that we use. Why do we use these things? Because we have to look after the body. It’s … 
  4. The Path Is and Isn’t the Goal
     … In other words, you’ve got the five aggregates right here in your state of right concentration. So there’s still the possibility of clinging right here as well. In fact, in the beginning, this is what you’re doing: learning how to cling to the aggregates in a new way as you turn them into the path. But then, ultimately, even that has … 
  5. The Skill of Renunciation
    The Buddha’s description of concentration is that you seclude your mind from sensuality and unskillful thoughts. For most of us, when we hear that you’re going to drop sensuality, it sounds like a deprivation. But actually it’s not. You’re going to be trading one form of happiness for another: the sense of well-being that comes when the mind can … 
  6. Factions in the Mind
     … You develop mindfulness, you develop concentration, the mind gains a sense of inner peace when the concentration gets strong. You develop alertness: You begin to see your own actions a lot more clearly, and you sense the importance of their consequences. This is important, as it’s the basis for heedfulness. And heedfulness is so important that it was the topic of the Buddha … 
  7. Living Honorably
     … This is why we’re meditating, to gain the strength of mind that comes from mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. These are the things that give you the strength to deal with these problems. As long as the mindfulness and concentration are not yet strong, you need other forms of strength, such as conviction and persistence. You’re convinced that this has got to be … 
  8. How Completion is Found
     … In terms of the concentration practice, there are those seven steps in Ajaan Lee’s “Method 2.” And those are a very useful way of reviewing how things are going in the meditation. Ajaan Fuang once noted that when people came to him with problems in their meditation, he’d found the solution some place in those seven steps. One of those steps was … 
  9. Control
     … If you gain a sense of peace in the concentration and you say, “I want this to last. I don’t want anything else ever to come,” that doesn’t happen. Ultimately, these things do lie outside our control. But on a less than ultimate level, we do have some control over them. For a certain period of life, if you want to raise … 
  10. Worldly Effort
     … Take the practice of concentration. They say not only does it bring peace to the mind right here and now, but if you die, if you’ve attained any of the levels of jhana, that’s where you go—the Brahma worlds corresponding to the jhānas, and you stay there. They talk in the Canon about Brahmās who think that their worlds are totally … 
  11. Bless Yourself
     … That’s the kind of mindfulness that gives you a good solid foundation and gets the mind into concentration. So wherever you go, make sure that you maintain these two qualities: virtue, right view. And the fortunate thing is that nobody can take them away from you. Someone once asked Ajaan Mun, “Can you separate a person’s virtue from his or her mind … 
  12. Furnishing Your Home for the Mind
     … Look at the description of right concentration: pleasure and rapture born of seclusion. Seclusion here partially means physical seclusion when you get away from all the concerns of your daily life, all your responsibilities. That right there gives a sense of relief. But the relief is even greater when you develop what’s called mental seclusion. Even though you may have carried a lot … 
  13. Think
     … But there’s a state of non-perception that’s actually wrong concentration. No discernment gets developed there. Remember, the path requires not only right concentration but also discernment, right view, which means you have to learn how to talk to yourself in new ways, develop new types of perceptions. First you want to see what perceptions you have around the pain. How do … 
  14. Random Word Generators
     … In fact, that’s the level of energy that can get you into deeper concentration. That’s one way of dealing with these other thoughts. You just get really interested in what’s going on in the body and changing your perceptions of what’s going on with the breath. But if you find it really hard to pull yourself out of all that … 
  15. Acceptance
     … You learn how to get the mind into concentration, how you get the mind to become more mindful, more discerning: all these skills that we work on as we meditate. So when we find that the mind is not getting concentrated, we don’t just sit there and accept it. We say, “Okay, what’s wrong?” We try to figure things out. If the … 
  16. The Reality of Emotions
     … This is part of the duty of the path, learning how to develop the factors of right concentration: the ease and wellbeing, even the sense of rapture, that can come from the way you breathe, from the way you focus on the different elements in the body. Even uncomfortable feelings can have their uses. The Buddha gives an analysis of the different emotions that … 
  17. Self-hatred
     … Non-returners have to develop a full mastery of concentration in order to be non-returners. How do they do that? They have: passion for form, the form of the body as you feel it from within as you’re practicing concentration; passion for formlessness, the formless states—the dimensions of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness; restlessness, wanting to make progress; and conceit, the … 
  18. Gaining the Dhamma Eye
     … The same with the practice of concentration, the practice of discernment: We try to bring our minds in line with the instructions to see what happens. In other words, you really put the Buddha’s teachings to the test. That’s one meaning of practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. The other meaning is that you practice for the sake of disenchantment … 
  19. Breath Energies
     … So learn how to re-imagine the body so that it can become a vehicle for right concentration, and from right concentration on to right discernment. The potentials are all here. You simply have to expand your imagination to make the best use of them.
  20. Kamma & Rebirth—A Handful of Leaves
     … Because that would undercut your concentration, and the foundation for the pleasure would fall away. Either that or you’d just drift off into a pleasant spot where you’re not quite sure if you’re awake or asleep. So as you develop your powers of concentration, this is one of the skills you’ve got to learn: how to be with pleasure but … 
  21. The Armored Car
     … You want to have that centered quality to your concentration, so that you can carry it out into the world. If you’re sitting around talking all the time, you have to ask yourself, “Where is my concentration right now?” You’ve lost your axle, so try to reestablish it. We establish it as we sit here with our eyes closed, but then we … 
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