The Practice of Concentration

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正面呼吸的功能


I. Take care of our Body 身

1) To recognize in breath as in breath and out breath as out breath 出入

2) To follow in breath and out breath all the way through 短/长

3) To be aware of our body 身行觉

4) Release tension in our body 身行息


II. Take care of Feelings of Emotions 受

5. To produce the feelings of joy 喜觉

6. To produce feelings of happiness 乐觉

7. To recognize the painful feelings 心行觉

8. To release the tension in the painful feelings 心行息


III. To recognize and deal with Mental Formation 心行 （51）

9. To recognize any mental formation that arise from consciousness 心觉 and call it by its true name, eg. hatred, love, anger, fear. Our mind is like a river and a drop of water is a mental formation. The succession of all mental formation forms a stream call mind.

10. To make the mind happy 心悦. There are many good seeds in us, eg. seed of love, compassion, understanding, faith, joy and we should be able to invite them to grow up in order to make them beautiful in the landscape of our mind. And keep it to be manifested as long as possible.

A good practitioner is able to invite the good seed in them and manifest for her own happiness and also to help others to their happiness

11. To practise our focus our attention our mental formation that we want to develop and transform 心定

With concentration, we can help joy, peace, happiness. We can also look deeply our pain and sorrow in order to transform.

12. To liberate mind from painful mental formation because concentration has the power to burn away and liberate 心解脱


Realm of Object of Perception 法 (the object of mind). Supposed I look at a flower, the flower is the object of my mind. Mind is always of mind of something...When you are angry, you must be angry at somebody or something, when you love, you love something or somebody; when you think, you think of somebody and something. There cannot be mind without object of mind. Mind and object of mind manifest at the same time. It is wrong view to see the mind and object of mind is separated. Scientists are still caught is still in the view that the consciousness is something distinct from reality outside.

In Buddhism, there are 2 kinds of grasping. Double grasping...it means you caught by the idea that subject of consciousness is one thing and object of consciousness is something totally different and that connects with outside of consciousness.



13. Practice of a kind Concentration--Impermenance 观无常

It is an idea. You can understand and explain impermanence very well but you still behave as if things are permanent.

That's why we have to distinguish the theory of impermanence and impermanance as a notion. The insight of impermanence, we have to maintain alive and nourish it so that it can last...and that way we can call it concentration- 等持 (maintain it on the same level). So that you have somebody of impermanence to get in touch with the flower, cloud, person, you are able to see the nature of impermanence on them right away.

The notion of impermanence can't liberate you...only concentration of impermanence can liberate you.

14. To focus and to contemplate the nature of your craving 观无欲

You might be craving for wealth, sex, fame....buddha invite you to look deeply on your craving. And when you see the danger of the object, you will turn away from it. There are some of us who run towards our craving and it ultimately hurt us.

(like the bread covering the hook...fish doesn't know there is hook in the bread but bread is very attractive, fish can get into danger when it eats the bread)

15. To look at Extinction 观灭

Extinction also called the unborn...the contemplation of the nature of no birth and no death, no being no non-being, no coming no going, no sameness no otherness

The object of this exercise is to understand the true nature of reality, the reality of God. In order to touch the nature of absolute/ultimate, we need to throw away your notions and concepts...including the notion of birth and no birth/ being and non-being.

16. The contemplation of Throwing Away 放舍(the contemplation of nirvana or God)

Nirvana = cooling down/pleasant to be with

When something is burn, we cannot touch it or else we get burn. but if we wait until it cools down, then we won't get hurt.


Extinction of the heat of the afflictions like anger, hate, fear, wrong views, ignorance...etc. Buddhism adopted has adopted the word Extinction of Afflictions.


When we can't see the cloud, it doesn't mean the cloud does not exist. It is the moment of manifestation of the cloud

Birth is to be born means from nothing to something, from no one to some one. They give you the birth cert, before that you didn't exist....but this is not right.


Manifestation = 表

Paper= before it becomes a paper, it came from tree...

It is not possible that the rain will die or become nothing as it will become ice, snow..etc. The nature of cloud is nature of no birth and no death.

“无相定” armamitta/signlessness