Tag: concentration

Guiding Mental Factors

We have been talking about our mind for the last few sessions. We looked at three types of minds and then we dived into mental factors that identify the object. Today, let’s continue down this rabbit hole if you will and discuss mental factors that guide us to an object.

There are five mental factors in this category, aspiration, firm apprehension, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. Let’s look at each one.

Aspiration is a mental factor that takes an interest in an object. We are all here for meditation tonight. If you did not have an aspiration to calm your mind or make progress on your spiritual journey, you would not be here. The main function of aspiration is to induce effort. Think about it. If we don’t have a wish to meditate, we would not put an effort to be here. You could have a million excuses, its Diwali time, or it’s dinner time, or whatever. But you have a wish to meditate and that is why you made an effort to be here.

There are four types of aspirations. Wishing to meet an object, wishing not to be separated from an object, wishing to obtain an object and wishing to be released from an object. Let’s take an example. Your kids are coming home for holidays. You wish to meet them. That is wishing to meet an object. You don’t want them to leave. That is wishing not to be separated from an object. You want to get a promotion, or make a lot of money, that is wishing to obtain an object. You want to remove your self-cherishing mind that is wishing to be released from an object. Depending upon our motivation each one of them could be virtuous, non-virtuous, or neutral. Wishing to steal would be an example of non-virtuous aspiration as opposed to wishing to meditate would be a virtuous aspiration.

Next let’s look at firm apprehension. It is a mental factor that allows our primary mind to apprehend the object firmly. It is also a foundation for mindfulness and concentration. You see, unless we understand an object clearly, we will not be able to keep our mind on it for long. Take this topic for example. These teachings come from a book called “How To Understand The Mind.”  When I first read this book, I would put it down after a couple of pages. It was too complex. Then, I started to break it down in relatable examples and that helped me continue to read the book in a way that I could explain it to someone else. Without firm apprehension, our mind is like a leaf floating in the air. It has no direction and it cannot stay at one place for long.

Next mental factor is mindfulness. It is a mental factor that allows us not to forget an object that is realized by our primary mind. Mindfulness can only focus on an object once it is realized. If an object is not present, you cannot have mindfulness about that object. Mindfulness maintains continuum of the object by not forgetting. What does that mean? When we do our empty sky meditation for example. Once we realize that our mind has this empty sky like nature and we keep our focus on the clarity of our mind, mindfulness helps us keep it there. We will continue to observe the clarity of our mind without distractions. If our primary mind lacks mindfulness, it will forget the object. The function of mindfulness is to prevent distractions. The more stable our mindfulness, fewer distracting thoughts we will have. We need to make continuous efforts to improve our mindfulness.

The next mental factor is concentration. Concentration helps us keep our primary mind on the object single-pointedly. It can develop only when an object is held firmly by mindfulness. There are three types of concentration. When we are meditating, we have virtuous concentration. When we are driving, we have neutral concentration. And when we are thinking about our enemies, we have non-virtuous concentration. Concentration is very important for our spiritual progress. Listening to teachings, reciting mantras, contemplating teachings, meditating, all are only effective when we have a mind that is concentrating. Buddha said that prayers, mantras, spiritual readings are of no use if the mind is distracted elsewhere. The main function of virtuous concentration is to make our mind peaceful. When our mind is free from distractions, it becomes calm and peaceful. When our mind is peaceful and happy, craving for external pleasure declines and we become content. Pure concentration also helps our body and mind become comfortable.

The next mental factor is wisdom. It is a virtuous, intelligent mind that makes primary mind realize meaningful object. What are these meaningful objects you may ask? They are also known as universal truths. Some of the meaningful objects are cycle of life and birth, existence of past and future lives, laws of karma, and emptiness. There is a monumental difference between intelligence and wisdom that I want to bring out here. An intelligent person is not necessarily a wise person. Let’s take an example. Scientists who develop weapons of war are intelligent but I am sure we can question their wisdom in doing so. Or wolves on wall street who pray on investors are certainly intelligent but you would not call them wise. Function of wisdom is to eliminate doubts and misunderstandings and to dispel ignorance. If we understand the benefits of wisdom, we will strive to achieve it. Opponent of wisdom is ignorance. Nothing harms us more than ignorance. Ignorance makes us create negative karma. Wisdom can arise from listening or reading spiritual teachings; it can arise from contemplating on those teachings; and it can arise from meditating on those teachings.

As you can see our mind is a fascinating subject and hopefully, we are peeling the layers to understand how it functions.

Mental Stabilization

We have been discussing the six perfections for the past four weeks. Someone sent an email asking me what the purpose of six perfections was. The function of these six perfections is to make our lives smoother and with less friction. Today we will continue with this series and look at mental stabilization also known as concentration. What is concentration? Concentration is a mind whose nature is to single-pointedly focus on a virtuous object and whose function is to prevent distractions.

To understand this, it is important to look at what it is not. Concentration is not an act of will to force ourselves to focus on something or another. It is not like we say let’s focus on this pen. It is actually to eliminate that which does not belong. Here is a perfect example. I am sure you all have tried concentrated orange juice. It is simply the removal of water from the juice. Meaning removing water from the juice.

So there are several components of concentration. The first one is the stability of mental capacity. We have talked about this before the human mind is incapable of multitasking. What we call multitasking is rapidly switching from one task to another but it is not multitasking. Just like when we see a fan moving, the blades can seem like one because they are moving so fast. Similarly, multitasking is an illusion. Anything other than what you should be doing is a distraction such as texting and driving.

Part of concentration is not about narrowing our focus. Because when we narrow our focus we lose the context. So an aspect of concentration is actually to zoom out. When you talk about someone who is not with you and someone mentions a bad quality of the person who is not with them, the mind zooms in as to why that person is no good, and all of a sudden, that person becomes the worst person in the world in our mind. When we like or dislike something, we tend to justify it. When we try a new thing, a lot of times, we judge before we even try it. So it is not the object that is good or bad but our feeling towards it makes it good or bad. Once our feeling is set, we will follow the feeling as opposed to keeping the context.

A perfect example is when one falls in love. The person can do no wrong. They are not looking at context but just their feeling. Sometimes goes by and now they have a few arguments. All of a sudden the feeling towards the person changes and they can do no right! Everything they do annoys the person. Again, no context at all. No person is all good or bad. But it is the lack of context that makes things difficult.

Another element is to keep an eye on important vs urgent. We respond to emails all day long without regard to whether it is important or not. Urgent tends to distract your concentration from important. We have discussed this before as well and often we get hung up on urgent matters of the moment rather than keeping our focus on the larger goal.

Another aspect of concentration is stability for personal benefit.

Relaxation is very important for our personal benefit. Tension is distracting. When there is tension in any part of your body, it requires your attention. For example, if there is pain, our mind keeps going to that part of the body as opposed to being here and now. It is important to relax. Relaxation includes relaxation of the body and relaxation of the mind. When we are tense, we would trigger a flight, fight or freeze response within ourselves. We need to make decisions consciously rather than make reactive decisions. A reactive decision tends to be a mistake. Always perform a check to see if you are relaxed. We as a society don’t value relaxation but that is very important for our long-term health.

Interest is another quality that is needed for concentration. When we look at something, we don’t value differences between experiences. Sometimes we think we have already done something or experienced something, but there are always subtle differences. If we think it is the same, we are not paying attention and if we are not paying attention, we are not concentrating. So if we cultivate interest, it will increase our concentration. Because interest prevents us from being distracted. We need to develop a beginner’s mind towards everything that we are doing right now. Because a beginner’s mind is always interested. That means you are mentally present as opposed to in the past or the future.

Confidence is another quality for the development of concentration. Confidence in the certainty of one’s path. If not, you will not be putting in your full effort and lose concentration. Once you chose to take a path, remove all self-doubt. Every action is beneficial; you either accomplish what you wanted to or learn from the experience.  Don’t let outsiders influence your decision and break your confidence.

As you can see, concentration is one of the important perfections and if we understand and apply it correctly, it is of great benefit.

Concentration

We started looking at six perfections last week. Why are we looking at these six perfections you might ask? The function of these six perfections is to make our lives smoother and with less friction. Today we will continue with this series and look at concentration. What is concentration? Before we look at that let’s look at what it is not. Concentration is not an act of will to force ourselves to focus on something or another. It is not like we say let’s focus on this pen. It is actually to eliminate that which does not belong. Here is a perfect example. I am sure you all have tried concentrated orange juice. All it is the removal of water from the juice. Meaning removing water from the juice.

So there are several components of concentration. The first one is the stability for mental capacity. We have talked about this before that the human mind is incapable of multitasking. What we call multitasking is rapidly switching from one task to another but it is not multitasking. Just like when we see a fan moving, the blades can seem like one because they are moving so fast. Similarly, multitasking is an illusion. Anything other than what you should be doing is a distraction such as texting and driving.

Part of concentration is not about narrowing our focus. Because when we narrow our focus we lose the context. So an aspect of concentration is actually to zoom out. When you talk about someone who is not with you and someone mentions a bad quality of the person who is not with them, the mind zooms in as to why that person is no good, and all of a sudden, that person becomes the worst person in the world in our mind. When we like or dislike something, we tend to justify it. When we try a new thing, a lot of times, we judge before we even try it. So it is not the object that is good or bad but our feeling towards it makes it good or bad. Once our feeling is set, we will follow the feeling as opposed to keeping the context.

A perfect example is when one falls in love. The person can do no wrong. They are not looking at context but just their feeling. Sometimes goes by and now they have a few arguments. All of a sudden the feeling towards the person changes and they can do no right! Everything they do annoys the person. Again, no context at all. No person is all good or bad. But it is the lack of context that makes things difficult.

Another element is to keep an eye on important vs urgent. We respond to emails all day long without regard to whether it is important or not. Urgent tends to distract your concentration from important. We have discussed this before as well that often we get hung up on urgent matters of the moment rather than keeping our focus on the larger goal.

Another aspect of concentration is stability for personal benefit.

Relaxation is very important for our personal benefit. Tension is distracting. When there is tension in any part of your body, it requires your attention. For example, if there is pain, our mind keeps going to that part of the body as opposed to being here and now. It is important to relax. Relaxation includes relaxation of the body and relaxation of the mind. When we are tense, we would trigger a flight, fight or freeze response within ourselves. We need to make decisions consciously rather than make reactive decisions. A reactive decision tends to be a mistake. Always perform a check to see if you are relaxed. We as a society don’t value relaxation but that is very important for our long-term health.

Interest is another quality that is needed for concentration. When we look at something, we don’t value differences between experiences. Sometimes we think we have already done something or experienced something, but there are always subtle differences. If we think it is the same, we are not paying attention and if we are not paying attention, we are not concentrating. So if we cultivate interest, it will increase our concentration. Because interest prevents us from distraction. We need to develop a beginner’s mind towards everything that we are doing right now. Because a beginner’s mind is always interested. That means you are mentally present as opposed to in the past or the future.

Confidence is another quality for the development of concentration. Confidence in the certainty of one’s path. If not, you will not be putting in your full effort and lose concentration. Once you chose to take a path, remove all self-doubt. Every action is beneficial; you either accomplish what you wanted to or learn from the experience.  Don’t let outsiders influence your decision and break your confidence.

As you can see, concentration is one of the important perfections and if we understand and apply it correctly, it is of great benefit.

In today’s meditation, we will use a technique called black and white meditation. We have done this meditation in the past that helps us relieve stress from our life.  At first, we will settle down in our hearts as always. Then we will imagine that all of our stress is gathered at our heart in the form of thick smoke. We will breathe in light and breathe out this thick smoke of stress.

Q: When I meditate, before I can even label the thought, the next one comes in. So there is this constant flow of thoughts that does not allow me to concentrate.

A: This happens when our mind is agitated and we have not settled down in our hearts. The best way to approach this is to stop and go back to the sensation of our breath. If your mind is muddled for some reason, spend more time on breath sensations. This will allow the mind to settle down. Just like when you have a muddy water glass, you need to let it sit for the soil to settle down at the bottom and the glass to be clear.

Can I look at a picture to clear my mind?

When we look at a picture our sense organ is active. Our eyes cannot visualize anything without the involvement of our mind. So when we are looking at a picture, we are engaging our mind. As a temporary solution, it is better than having our mind go in 10 different direction. However, ultimately, we want to train our mind to be quiet. Our mind should take instructions from us – which is not happening right now. So this whole exercise is about training the mind.