So,
We're on the sixth talk of the seven factors of awakening and the factor today is the factor of Samadhi,
Often translated as concentration.
And if you're interested in any of the previous talks,
They're available on Insight Timer.
You can go and look those up.
I think it's important to notice that Samadhi is preceded by practices or states of developing mindfulness,
Of investigation,
Of effort,
Joy and tranquility.
There's a kind of understanding that the support for the seven factors of awakening,
All of these conditions are in place that sort of support the arising of concentration,
The arising of Samadhi.
And why that's important to say is that there are people who associate concentration with sort of the be all end all of meditation.
A person who may be a beginner,
They read about meditation and they hear about being concentrated and so they're kind of huffing and puffing,
Sort of like,
Am I there yet?
Which doesn't produce anything other than quitting.
But rather concentration practice is a byproduct of doing the practice of just being here,
Of settling in and being open to what is here and being relaxed and saying yes to this irritation or restlessness or sleepiness or desire or saying yes.
And that creates a sense of well being of like,
Okay,
So I can be with all of this.
I'm a gardener so I like farming analogies and it's like a farmer preparing the soil.
You know,
To have a robust harvest you have to till the soil and fertilize the soil that the seed of concentration in this case can germinate and arise.
So the previous factors are the preparation of the soil.
They're the fertilizer and the seeds of concentration arise out of the preparation.
So concentration really is not about so much this one pointedness,
It's about coming into harmony with things.
So we're just unifying and collecting the mind.
And it's easy to see how fragmented we can become.
We can even be directing our attention to one place,
You know,
To the breath or to the body and our mind or our whole system is concerned about something else.
I think most people who sit down to meditate will have this experience at some point.
Maybe you just did.
You know,
You'll be in harmony or you'll,
That's the intent and then you're just everywhere.
Sometimes there are many different types of fragmentation going on at the same time.
You know,
Our body has experiences of a lifetime that can be so strong.
You know,
The tension,
The resistance,
The restlessness,
All these different parts of us that are kind of vying for our attention.
So we can have multiple concerns at the same time going on and the mind is just jumping,
Jumping around all of them.
And even if there's an overall sense of well-being and you're relaxed,
You're steady,
You're connected,
There's some contentment.
Sometimes there's something in the background like a little hint of anxiety or concern.
Maybe I forgot to do something,
You know,
There's that in the background or I better write this down,
You know.
There could be a little bit of fear.
So the mind,
Whenever there's something in the background,
The mind has a harder time to settle.
There's no opportunity for it to settle.
So Samadhi is this gathering together of the different faculties of attention and that really happens through simplification.
You know,
Classically we just simplify it to bring it right to the breath.
You know,
Just simply breathing.
A helpful image is how during like the time of drought,
Which we've all experienced here in our valley,
When there's drought,
The ground is parched for a long time.
The mountainsides are dry,
The creek beds are dry and then when it starts to rain,
The water starts to flow down the hillside.
It flows into creeks,
It flows into streams and into the river and all the water is gathering together and it's gathering in our rivers,
You know,
One of our three rivers around us and it's kind of a one-pointedness,
The flowing of the stream of the river,
The current of the river.
It's like it's all just here.
It becomes unified and gathered together.
So this image of the water on a slope,
You know,
It's kind of a natural process,
You know.
It starts as a trickle.
Our attention starts as a trickle and then there's this natural gravitational pull in us being human towards concentration.
But we have to get out of the way a little bit of all of the thinking and ideas.
So there are two different types of practices associated with concentration that support it.
And the first practice is returning the attention to the object of concentration,
The object of attention.
So if in meditation the object of our attention is our breathing,
You know,
The mind will wander and we just keep on bringing it back.
You know,
Sometimes the mind is constantly wandering and the practice is to return,
Redirecting the attention,
Applying the attention back to the breathing.
So returning,
Returning,
Coming back into awareness.
So rather than us going back to the breath,
We return to the breath.
It returns to us.
So it's more like an opening.
A lot of meditation practice has to do with starting over.
And so one of the great skills in meditation is to learn the art of starting over.
To do it in a way that's not discouraging,
It's not annoying,
You're not irritated by it.
It's just sort of like,
Okay,
Let's start again.
The second activity that supports concentration is that sustaining the attention.
Kind of hanging in there with it.
You know,
Hanging in there with what's going on.
Really hanging in there and being with the experience so that the attention stays in the present moment with what we're focusing on.
And just do it as long as you can.
You know,
Okay,
Here I am,
Let's stay with this experience of breathing.
And then you do a couple of breaths and then you wander off.
And then you're like,
Okay,
Let's come back.
Let's come back,
Returning to the breath,
Sustaining it a little longer,
Resting with experience longer,
Connecting with it longer.
And the combination of these two of starting over,
Starting again,
And sustaining.
That's concentration.
The word that I like,
I've been associating simple words to remember with these seven factors and the word that I like for concentration is steady.
Steady.
You might say to yourself,
Just stay steady.
Just let yourself be steady.
You know,
Steady in the body,
Steady in the mind,
Steady in attention.
Keep it steady.
And the mind wanders off and you return to the breath.
So here we are again.
And the words that I've given,
These short words through each of these seven factors,
You know,
Starting again.
So you start here,
The first factor here,
Mindfulness.
The second,
What's here,
What's here,
Investigation.
The third factor,
Effort.
How am I going to be here?
You know,
The fourth factor,
Joy.
Yes,
Joy is yes.
I'm here with this.
Tranquility,
Easy.
Take it easy with this.
And now the sixth factor,
Concentration.
Steady,
Steady.
So I hope those short words are helpful.
And I thank you.
I thank you for your kind attention this morning and your practice.
I'm going to open it up now for any questions or comments.
Again,
It's lovely,
Lovely to see you.
There's a question in the chat by Kurt is concentration one of the energizing factors or the calming factors?
In my experience,
It's more of a calming factor.
But I think it can be both.
I don't think it's so one pointed that it's either or.
I think that there is some energy associated with it.
