Concentration - The 6th Factor Of Awakening

In mystical and spiritual literature throughout the ages, deep states of consciousness have been described as having been achieved through the art of concentration – which is exactly what we’re trying to cultivate in our meditation practice. As we learn to develop a more refined and skilled awareness, this, in turn, offers us access to even deeper levels of understanding and insight. Shell explores how we can use our practice to train our minds to become more focused, steady, and clear.

Transcript

I want to start out by sharing a story I've been working on for a long time.

I want to start out by sharing a story I once heard from the great Tibetan master,

Pachuk Rinpoche.

Apparently when he was a young teenage monk,

He had what seemed to him,

Quote,

An infinite capacity for anger and aggression.

Teenage boy.

And he was really struggling with this until one day he decided to be brave and make a confession about this to his teacher.

Now,

His teacher was the great master,

Noshul Ken Rinpoche,

And apparently he always seemed very happy and peaceful to everyone around him.

So this was really hard for this teenage monk to confess that he was so angry to his teacher,

But he did it.

And after this great master heard his young student's confession,

He told him very strongly,

Stop behaving like a dog.

He said behave like a lion instead.

Stop behaving like a dog.

Behave like a lion instead.

And so Pachuk Rinpoche was a little taken aback by this,

But the master continued.

And he asked him,

When you throw a stone at a dog,

What does it do?

And Pachuk answered,

The dog chases the stone.

Exactly,

The master said,

This is exactly what you're doing.

Acting like a dog,

Chasing every thought that comes to you.

So this teenage monk sat in silence for a while and he really contemplated this and he said,

Quote,

It was indeed true that when I had a thought,

For example,

That person pisses me off,

I would chase after it.

Without even noticing,

I would dwell on that thought,

Looping it over and over again,

Justifying it,

Coming up with all the reasons to be angry.

And in doing so,

I would become the thought.

So his teacher pointed out to him that he was chasing after his angry thoughts,

Just like a dog chases after the stone.

And then the master said this,

When you throw a stone at a lion,

The lion doesn't care about the stone at all.

Instead,

It immediately turns to see who is throwing the stone.

Now,

Think about it.

If someone is throwing stones at a lion,

What happens next when the lion turns to look?

And Pachuk said,

The person throwing the stone either runs away or gets eaten.

Bites,

The teacher said.

Either way,

No more stones.

So tonight,

I hope you can hold on to that teaching of learning to behave like a lion as we dive into this topic of concentration,

Which,

Again,

Is the six of the seven factors of awakening that we've been exploring in these past few months,

The seven treasures or the seven friends or the sect of Bojangas,

Those profound qualities of mind and heart that are said to lead us to awakening itself as we learn to cultivate these.

So concentration,

As we all know,

Is actually threaded through our entire practice.

So along with being one of the seven factors of awakening,

You might also recognize it as one of the spokes of the wheel of the Noble Eightfold Path.

Right concentration is one of the spokes and the wheel.

It's also one of the five spiritual faculties.

So really important.

It might be also helpful to know that the root meaning of the word Samadhi,

Just concentration,

Is to bring together,

To bring together.

So sometimes I like to think of this bringing together is similar to the way that we use the zoom lens on a camera.

Right.

So for instance,

Maybe we're out walking in the fields and we spot a caterpillar crawling along the edge of a leaf.

If we want to get a sharp and close image of it,

We're going to need to zoom our camera lens in and just focus on that that one thing.

So as we're zooming in on this caterpillar,

Which,

By the way,

Is still moving,

Right,

What we're doing is temporarily putting the rest of the landscape,

If you will,

Into the background.

And in my case,

Many of you may know I live out in the country on a farm and there's fields and trees and cows and lots of other noise in this farm in the background.

And so in our meditation practice,

We traditionally begin by doing almost the very same thing with our breath.

We rather zoom in on bring together our attention and practice keeping our focus on just that one thing,

Just like the caterpillar that's still moving.

The breath is also still moving.

Right.

It's in constant motion.

And we can become more and more interested in that.

And then the movement and all the variety of colors and different things,

The more we pay attention to it.

For instance,

Just as we're focusing our lens,

Our camera lens,

Or maybe our microscope,

If you will,

On that caterpillar,

Letting go of everything else that's sort of in the background.

We're also getting very fascinated by the caterpillar's colors and textures and different shapes and spots,

The way it moves,

All its little feet,

Maybe even its little delicate hairs.

We get that close to it,

Intimate with it.

And as we're doing this,

The rest of the landscape,

If you will,

Starts to fade into the background.

Now,

Of course,

We're still aware of it.

We're still aware of the background,

But it's not going to let us.

It's not going to distract us from that caterpillar.

And of course,

If we're sitting out in that field long enough,

We're going to become distracted by a lot of different things.

Maybe that annoying squirrel in the tree above us that will not stop squeaking,

Right,

Or throwing acorns at our heads,

Maybe trying to distract us,

Or the shadow of the hawk or the sound of the big lawn mower across the street,

Maybe,

Or in the fields.

Maybe the sound of the grumpy bull as it gets closer and closer.

That can be very distracting when I'm out in the field.

We live on a cow field,

So I'm always looking for that bull,

And he's very grumpy.

He's very,

Very grumpy.

So,

All of these things of course represent in our meditation practice our discursive thoughts,

All our stories and narratives,

All our fear,

All our wanting,

Not wanting,

All our pesky emotions,

You know,

That want to drag us away from the moment and back out into the landscape of our thought,

Away from what we're paying attention to.

Okay,

The breath,

The caterpillar.

And when this happens.

It's here that we can use our practice of mindfulness to notice that we've become distracted,

We notice that.

And then we very gently bring ourselves back again and again to the focus of our attention,

The tiny movements of the caterpillar,

The tiny movements of our breath and the body.

So in practice as we find that we can maintain more and more of our awareness on our breath.

It seems like it's just always the same,

You know,

But actually this is only perception,

And we can truly train ourselves to look closer,

It is possible.

So,

The teacher Jack Kornfeld said that when he was in India,

Many years ago studying his teacher,

Bless you,

His teacher asked him and all the other students to tell them every single day,

What they discovered was brand new with the breath for the whole year.

And every day,

It couldn't be the same as yesterday had to be something different.

So think about that every single day what's different,

Tell me something new that you discovered about the breath.

Can you imagine that?

That could be good practice,

You could try that yourself,

Right?

Write it down,

Keep a little notebook about that.

What's different today about the breath?

So,

With this practice of Samadhi,

We are working to establish a kind of calm and patient attention.

We're being asked to get super curious about the simple act of our body breathing,

Until we realize that actually it's not a simple process at all,

It's definitely not boring.

But of course,

This takes time and patience and effort,

Which is why it's a practice,

Right?

And you know,

Anything that you give time and patient effort to,

Just a practice becomes more and more interesting,

Doesn't it?

If you really give it your attention,

Which is why I encourage people not to give up right away when they think they can't concentrate.

We all can do it,

Don't give up,

You know.

So for instance,

In the beginning,

When we first start to follow and feel the breath in the body,

It might only seem like one small movement maybe.

Like,

We may only be able to feel the sensations on the outside of our nose,

Or maybe,

You know,

Right at the upper lip,

Maybe just that simple thing.

And we may only be able to do this for one second before we're dragged into thought again,

Right?

And then we try again,

Over and over and over,

And over and over.

And after a while,

Maybe we start to sense the subtle changes in temperature,

The coolness and the warmth,

And when it changes,

Maybe,

From cool to warm.

You notice that?

When's that there's a shift,

Right?

Maybe with each breath,

There's a shift.

Can you notice the gentle shift?

Notice the flow.

Is it always the same flow?

Or is it deep or shallow?

Or the different textures of the breath.

Sometimes it can feel like corduroy,

Sometimes it can feel like silk.

What's the texture of the breath?

What's the duration of the breath feel like?

Where's the pause in the breath?

What does that feel like?

So,

As we continue to practice and hone our concentration,

We might start to feel a hundred different things about the breath.

All the subtle sensations,

And vibrations,

And swirls,

And movements,

And flow of the breath.

So,

As an example of this,

When we're reading a book,

And I'm hopeful many of us still do this,

And read an actual book,

We're usually caught up in the story of what's being told,

The big picture,

Rather than focusing on each individual sentence or word.

But if we really start to slow the process down,

We can suddenly become aware,

Maybe,

Of each tiny letter,

Each tiny loop,

And swirl of the font of each letter.

The same way we can start to notice each tiny movement of our experience,

As we really start to slow it down.

And,

By the way,

I want to mention here that our concentration practice can also be an awareness of sound,

If the breath is not a good place for your attention to land.

Sometimes we have difficulty breathing.

So,

We can do the same thing and get curious about all the different vibrations and sensations of sound that occur in the body,

As we're listening to sound,

And the nuance of sound also arise and then pass.

When we're focused on sound,

It still keeps us focused on the present moment in our bodies,

Noticing the different sensations of sound,

And the effects that sound has on our bodies,

Also,

Again,

As it arises and passes.

So,

Either with breath or sound,

As our concentration develops even more,

We start to be able to do this with all of our bodily sensations,

And then,

By the way,

With our minds,

And all the subtlety of the mind.

We start with the breath.

We venture out to the body,

And then we go to the mind.

So,

We can start to experience more and more the moment-by-moment process of the mind just doing its thing.

So,

The Buddha was once asked if he could give an example of a moment of mind,

And he said he couldn't do it.

He said it's impossible to describe how fast this is.

Suppose,

However,

He said that there's a tiny and delicate spiderweb.

Suppose you bring a candle to burn it.

How long would it take to burn the spiderweb?

You could hardly bring the candle close to the web before it burns.

Imagine that.

He said that within such a short period of time,

Thousands and thousands of mind moments arise and mature and pass away that quick.

So,

In our practice,

We're being asked to really slow the process down by first honing in on all the subtle changes in our breath,

Or maybe again with sound,

And then in the body and the mind.

As we become even more curious,

What happens is that our capacity to sense into our body and our breath deepens even more,

And even new layers of sensation continue to open up for us.

It just continues to open and open and open as we become more and more curious.

As we deepen our attention even further,

What eventually happens is that we experience our breath,

As well as our entire body,

As less solid,

Less static,

And we start to open up to just pure presence and sensation,

Just simply experiencing the whole flow of it.

And sometimes,

Interestingly,

What happens is that the breath and even the sense of the body can seem to disappear,

But you experience that,

It just goes away.

Don't worry about this,

You know,

We haven't gone anywhere,

We still have a body,

We're not out of body,

We're still sensing everything and present for all of it.

Sometimes we can go away,

And that can feel like,

Oh,

I lost my breath in my body,

But if you've gone away,

You're just sleeping.

You're dreaming.

But if you're fully present and awake,

And you lose it,

That's something different.

We're aware of the flow,

We're just not attached to a sense of this body or my body,

We're not identified with whatever we're experiencing,

We are simply experiencing the flow of it without identifying with it.

The late John Dadeo Loury Roshi Soto Zen teacher said this.

Samadhi is a state of consciousness that lies beyond waking,

Dreaming,

Or deep sleep.

It is a slowing down of our mental activity through single pointed concentration.

So again,

It's not dreaming or deep sleep,

It's beyond that.

So our concentration practice brings us to this wonderful state of just being right here,

Completely present,

Right,

Without all the clouds that are obscuring this beautiful blue sky of the mind,

If you will.

And this concentration,

This deep presence is said to bring us great happiness when it is done in a way that is considered wholesome.

And if you recall wholesome in the Buddhist tradition means free of what are called the hindrances that block us obstruct us from our practice,

From our presence,

Which is you may recall include greed,

Aversion,

Restlessness,

Lust,

Right.

Greed,

Aversion,

Lust,

Restlessness and worry,

Right.

Sloth and torpor.

What's the last one?

Thank you.

Doubt.

Yeah,

Doubt.

And I don't have time to go into all of these tonight but here we are asked to direct our attention in a very specific way with the intention of cultivating a heart and mind that is filled with kindness and compassion,

Free from thoughts that are attempting to protect or defend or prop up a sense of self.

So,

Just as a for instance if we're concentrating on something with a sort of evil intent,

Maybe like a cat concentrates on pouncing on a mouse.

It's not going to bring us much happiness in the end.

If we have evil intent when we're concentrating.

And again the Buddha tells us,

Pay attention to the mind.

It is subtle and difficult to perceive thoughts wander wherever they please the mind well directed will bring happiness.

Mind well directed will bring happiness.

And maybe to encourage you even more along this line,

As we continue our concentration practice can often help us to start entering what are called the Jhanas,

Or the bliss states that lead to even more insight.

And I won't go into all of those tonight,

It's a little complicated,

But I just want to mention the bliss states to encourage you to practice concentration,

Right.

All of that being said,

As we've all experienced trying to concentrate when we're meditating can be incredibly frustrating,

Especially in the beginning,

But also of course it just,

You know,

Frustration comes with the territory of practicing.

And in fact nothing in our culture or in our schooling has taught us to study and calm our attention,

Has it?

You remember that in school?

Anything about that?

One psychologist has called us a society of attentional spastics,

Especially with,

You know,

The internet these days,

Really hard.

We're training our minds to not concentrate,

Aren't we?

So basically not being able to concentrate for long periods is completely normal,

Especially as we start out,

But sometimes even after a few decades there are days that we just have busy mind.

There's stuff that happens,

Makes it really difficult to practice and concentrate.

When I was teaching many years ago the mindfulness-based stress reduction workshops,

I would try to encourage my students by telling them that in the beginning the program was often called the stress production program.

And that's really true because,

You know,

As we start to focus on the breath and the body,

Some space starts to open up for us to really take a peek,

Right,

Into the nature of our minds when we slow down finally and take a look into the nature of our minds.

And what happens is that we discover what our minds have been doing all along,

Mostly without our noticing what our minds are doing,

And we start to see that there's a lot of talking,

Maybe even a lot of arguing in there,

Right?

And it can be like a very loud party in there,

In the mind,

And most of it just seems totally disjointed,

Just one thought on top of another,

On top of another,

On top of another.

Oftentimes when we slow down what happens is that we also start to see how fast we've been going,

How fast the mind has been going,

And how addicted we are to going fast,

Right?

How our minds just want to go and go and go and scroll maybe some more.

We can also tend to start feeling all the accumulated tension and stress in our bodies,

Which of course is created by the fast thinking,

And all the pain and achiness and tiredness that we've mainly been ignoring,

But maybe assuming is just normal.

It's just how I live,

Right?

We can also sometimes become very alarmed at how we're talking to ourselves.

We start to really see it,

Right?

What we've been saying to ourselves,

Which isn't always necessarily very kind.

A lot of fear in there.

We really start to slow down.

And then we try to take all of this chaos and we try to control it.

And the mind won't have anything to do with it,

Right?

Tends to just wander all over the place.

We don't want to be controlled.

The great monk,

Many of you in here know Bhante Gunaratana Bhanteji,

Describes our untrained minds this way.

Somewhere in this meditation process,

You will come face to face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy.

Your mind is a shrieking,

Gibbering madhouse on wheels,

Barreling peltmel down the hill,

Utterly out of control and hopeless.

No problem,

Says.

You are not crazier than you were yesterday.

It has always been this way.

And you just never noticed.

So here you might recall that I asked you to hold on to that image of being like a lion,

Right?

Training ourselves to be like lions.

And I'd like to remind us that none of us start out as lions,

Do we?

We all start out as cubs or maybe as puppies,

If you can look at it that way.

Has anybody in here ever trained a puppy?

Anybody?

Everybody?

Who hasn't trained a puppy?

Maybe that's a better question.

Yeah.

So when you set the puppy down and say,

Stay,

Does the puppy listen?

Does it?

No.

It jumps out of your hands and it runs all over the house and knocks things down and it goes over to your walls maybe and pees on it,

Right?

Or does other things that are really unpleasant in the house.

So when we're training a puppy,

We have to start over and over and over and over again.

And sometimes,

Of course,

Can feel like that puppy will just never get it.

It's hopeless or we think it's going to just take too long.

But eventually,

Amazingly,

The puppy does learn how to sit.

It's kind of amazing.

And maybe it learned some other tricks as well.

So it's a very same way,

Of course,

With our meditation practice.

And it's important to note here,

Just like we're training the puppy,

We have to consider very carefully how we are training our minds to concentrate.

How are we doing this?

So if when we're working to train the mind to focus,

When we try to yank our concentration back with maybe irritation and self judgment,

It's just not going to do us a lot of good.

This doesn't work.

St.

Francis de Sales explains how we train the mind with kindness and patience this way.

It says,

Bring yourself back to the point quite gently.

And even if you do nothing during the whole of your hour,

Or bring your heart back a thousand times,

Though it went away every time you brought it back,

Your hour would be very well employed.

So,

The kindness and the compassion actually is more important than you getting the concentration.

It's the more important practice.

So,

In the same way,

It's important to remember we don't beat the puppy.

And we don't beat up on ourselves when we're practicing.

Concentration practice involves effort and discipline,

But is actually never a matter of force.

We simply pick that puppy back up again and again.

We return and reconnect with the present moment again and again and again.

No matter how long it takes.

It's going to take years sometimes,

Right?

Doesn't matter.

What's important is that beating ourselves into a kind of submission is never ever going to lead us to any kind of happiness.

Okay?

When we're trying to beat ourselves into submission,

It's not going to work.

The Buddhist nun Pema Shodran once offered a teaching that has stuck with me for a really long time.

She said that whenever we notice that the mind has wandered away into the past or the future,

When we've been hijacked,

If you will,

By our thoughts,

Instead of beating ourselves up for this and saying something like,

Ah,

Crap,

Right?

Instead,

We could try congratulating ourselves every time we come back.

Because what brought us back?

What brought us back?

Our mindfulness practice,

Our concentration practice is what brought us back out of the dream of thought.

So we might say,

Yay,

Me,

Right?

Woo,

I came back.

Instead of saying,

Oh,

Shit,

We say,

Yay,

Me.

So you could try that.

After congratulating ourselves,

Then we re-relax the body and we spend as much time as we can when we've come back to really get to know the feeling of presence.

Instead of getting frustrated,

We could say,

OK,

Now I'm back.

Let me be awake and present right here for as long as I can so I can memorize this before we're drawn away again.

Because we will be.

And this is how we train the mind.

Kind of like giving the puppy a cookie.

Right?

We let the puppy enjoy the cookie and remember what it feels like.

It's positive reinforcement.

And again,

For many of us,

Returning to the breath a thousand or ten thousand times might seem boring or maybe even of questionable importance to do this.

But you might consider how many times during our days are we distracted from the reality of our actual lives,

The ones we're actually living?

How often are we lost and are losing our lives to the dream of thinking?

And remember that.

You start thinking being present and noticing the breath is boring.

You're training yourselves to live more and more and more moments of your life.

And so what we're doing in the formal practice then is training the mind to concentrate and focus on the present moment right now,

However it is.

We are learning,

If you will,

To sit and to stay in the present moment.

However it is,

Again,

Without becoming distracted or beating ourselves up or running away and peeing on the wall.

And again,

This requires an ocean of patience because our habit of wanting to be somewhere else is so strong.

Right?

We don't want to be in the present moment actually.

Think about it.

How often do you want to be somewhere else?

The great question you can ask yourself.

Gosh,

I'm wanting to be somewhere else right now.

I'm wanting it to not be like this.

And many of us,

Most of us have distracted ourselves from the present so many moments and for so many years it's really become a very strong habit.

And this practice is how we're trying to change that.

Change that habit of wanting to be not where we are.

You might notice too that as we're learning concentration it can sometimes feel like we're always starting over.

We're always losing our focus.

But you might just consider when this happens asking yourself,

Where have I actually gone?

Right?

So we might recognize that it's only a mood,

It's only a thought or a doubt that is swept through just like a wave.

You really haven't gone anywhere if we're just paying attention to that.

And as soon as we recognize it,

We can just let go and settle back again into the next moment and then the next realizing more and more that we are that wave,

That constant flow.

Right?

We are the ocean,

If you will,

And we can always and forever begin again.

Always.

The teacher Jack Kornfeld talks about this as the mind producing waves.

And so with our practice we can simply acknowledge,

Surfs up,

Right?

Here's a wave of memories from when I was three years old,

You know,

Or here's the planning wave or here's the anger or outrage wave or here's the fear wave.

And then it's time to simply reconnect with the ocean and follow the rhythm of the breath.

The teacher Sharon Salzberg tells us this.

The heart of skillful meditation is the ability to let go and begin again over and over.

There is no distance to diverse and recollecting our attention.

As soon as we realize we have been lost in discursive thought or have lost touch with the chosen contemplation,

Right in that moment,

We can begin again.

Nothing has been ruined.

And there is no such thing as failing.

There is nowhere the attention can wander to and no duration of distraction from which we cannot completely let go in a moment and begin again.

Really encourage encouraging.

Nothing has been ruined.

And there is no such thing as failing.

Yeah.

All right,

So we have just a little time,

So I'm going to invite you into a short practice with me.

So as you ready,

Just letting the eyes gently close.

Body settle back.

You might right away bring a smile,

Slight smile to the corner of the eyes and the lips as a way of bringing meta kindness here.

Remembering that the root meaning of meta is friend and gentle.

We bring a sense of kindness and gentleness.

And then bring that puppy maybe treat yourself as that puppy.

So you're ready.

Taking a nice drink of air into the body filling the body.

And then a slow exhale,

Letting go.

You need a couple of rounds of these on your own to connect with your breath.

Notice the breath zooming that lens of your camera in on the flow of the breath.

You might start to notice right at the nostrils maybe the temperature of the breath.

And how this is constantly changing.

You might notice the inhale is cooler.

The exhale is warmer.

Did you even notice when it changes?

Can you pay that close attention?

Each exhale let the shoulders drop.

And the body as you notice watch the breath,

Experience the breath.

It would be possible to notice the length of each breath.

Each inhale,

Each exhale.

Notice if the inhale is longer or the exhale is longer.

Notice the texture of the breath on each inhale and exhale.

It's like a piece of fabric maybe.

And does it change from the inhale and the exhale?

Is it thick or wispy?

Are there swirls of breath,

Tingles,

Echoes?

And you notice the pause between the breath.

Is there a pause?

Or what feels like a pause?

What's the experience of the pause?

How does the breath feel?

It's just starting.

It might be just ending.

You might even consider how might the breath right now be a reflection of your mood?

Is it deep or shallow?

Just notice,

No judgment.

Noticing the quality of the mind.

Focus your attention on the breath.

And you notice the pause.

With the eyes still closed,

Listening to these words from Danusha Lemeres.

What am I doing here in a yurt on the side of a hill at the ragged edge of the tree line sheltered by conifer and bay,

Watching the wind lift softly the dry leaves of bamboo?

I lie on the floor and let the sun fall across my back as I have been for the past hour,

Listening to the distant traffic,

To the calls of birds I cannot name.

Once I had so much I wanted to accomplish.

Now all I know is that I want to get closer to it,

To the rocky slope,

The orange petals of the nasturium adorning the fence,

The wind's sudden breath.

Close enough that I can almost feel at night the slight pressure of the stars against my skin.

Isn't this what the mystics meant when they spoke of forsaking the world?

Not to turn our backs to it,

Only to its elaborate plots,

Its complicated pleasures,

In favor of the pine's long shadow,

The slow song of the grass.

I am always forgetting and remembering and forgetting.

I want to leave something here in the rough dirt,

A twig,

A small stone,

Perhaps this poem,

A reminder to begin again by listening carefully with the body's rapt attention.

Remember to this,

To this.

I hope you enjoyed this talk.

These talks are always offered freely so that no one is ever denied access to these teachings and your support really makes a difference.

Donna is an ancient Pali word meaning spontaneous generosity of heart.

If you feel inspired to offer Donna,

You can do so by visiting my website at www.

Mindfulvalley.

Com.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Reviews

Excellent talk about concentration and how it relates to how we live our lives. Fun presentation using training a puppy as an analogy.

Absolutely amazing! I enjoyed every word of this talk! May Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha bless you! Sadhu 🙏🌸

🙏🏼thank you for such a beautiful reminder to be gentle with ourselves❤️🌞

Thank u
Blessings of gratitude and abundance 🙏

Love your laughter along with your lessons. Thank you!