Guest guest Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Bhikkhu Samahita What is Right Concentration ... ??? Friends: What is this Sublime & Profound Right Concentration ?The Noble Eightfold Way, leading to Nibbāna, is simply this: Right View, Right Motivation, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Awareness, & Right Concentration. But what is Right Concentration ? The 4-fold Definition & Characterization of Right Concentration: Jhāna!Having eliminated the 5 mental hindrances, mental defects that obstruct understanding, quite secluded from sensual desires, protected from any detrimental mental state, one enters & dwells in the 1st jhana; full of joy & pleasure born of solitude, joined with directed & sustained thought. One makes this joy & pleasure born of seclusion drench, saturate, soak, and suffuse the body, so that no part of the entire body is unperfused by this joy & pleasure! Just as a skilled bath-man puts soap powder in a copper basin & sprinkling it gradually with water, whips it until the water soaks & pervades all the soap powder, yet without dripping, so too, do the friend make the joy & pleasure born of solitude permeate & pervade the entire body.Again, friends, with the stilling of directed & sustained thought, one enters & dwells in the 2nd jhana, calmed assurance & unification of mind with joy & pleasure now born of concentration, devoid of any thought! One makes the joy & pleasure born of concentration drench, saturate, soak, and suffuse the body, so no part of the whole body is unperfused by this joy & pleasure: Just as a lake whose waters welled up from below within it itself, & it had no other sources neither by showers of rain, then this cool fount of water welling up from within would suffuse, fill, & pervade the entire lake, so doone make this joy & pleasure born of concentration infuse this entire body! Again, friends, with the fading away of joy, the friend dwells in equanimity, aware & clearly comprehending, still feeling pleasure in the body, one enters upon & remains in the 3rd jhana, regarding which the Noble Ones declare: 'In aware equanimity one dwells in pleasure!' One makes the pleasure apart from of joy flood, saturate, soak, and suffuse the body, so that there is no part of one's whole body unperfused by this pleasure divested of joy. Just as in a lotus pond some lotuses are born, grow & thrive immersed under the water & the cool water soaks them from their roots to their tips, so too, do a friend make the pleasure divested of joy drench, fill, flood and pervade this entire body.Again, friends, with the leaving behind of both pleasure and pain, & with the priordisappearance of both joy & sorrow, one enters & dwells in the 4th jhana; a stilled mental state of awareness, purified by an equanimity of neither-pain-nor-pleasure. One sits illuminating the body internally with this pure bright mind, so that there is no part of one's whole body not illuminated by this pure bright mind! Just as a man were sitting covered from the head down with a white cloth, so that no part of his whole body was uncovered by this white textile; so one sits encompassingthis entire body with a pure bright radiant mind, so that there is no part of one's whole body not illuminated by this pure bright and luminous mind... No trivial worldly pleasure surpasses such sublime bliss! The Function of Right Concentration & it's associates:Knowing right & wrong concentration as right & wrong concentration, is right view.Exchanging wrong concentration with right concentration is right effort.Right concentration has the function of a drill: focusing, unifying, and penetrating! Further study of Buddhist Right Concentration (Samma-Samādhi):Root texts by the Buddha:http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/samma-samadhi.htmlhttp://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/jhana.htmlBuddha-Direct/message/6087The Jhanas In Theravada Buddhist Meditation:http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel351.htmlComplete Meditation Manual on Absorption: The Path of Purification:http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=771100 ______ PS: Please include the word Samahita in any request, since then will my automatic mail filters pick it up and I will see it & respond! Bhikkhu Samāhita, Sri Lanka. Friendship is the Greatest ... Let there be Calm Free Bliss !!! Buddha-Direct Dhamma-Questions sent to my email are quite Welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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