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• Sitting Meditition - 20-30 minutes

 
• Welcome and Introductions

 
• There are three components of The Noble Eightfold Path: Virtue (Skillful Speech, Skillful Action & Skillful Livelihood), Concentration (Skillful Effort, Skillful Mindfulness & Skillful Concentration) & Wisdom (Skillful Understanding & Skillful Thinking).

 
• We began with Skillful Understanding - a conceptual understanding of The Law of Cause and Effect and The Four Noble Truths.

 
• Then we explored Skillful Thinking:

 
• Importance of Intention
• Each action (i.e., speech and deed) is preceded by a thought
• Each unskillful thought is rooted in greed, hatred and delusion
• Each skillful thought is rooted in non-greed (generosity), non-hatred (loving-friendliness and compassion) and wisdom
• We have experienced through Skillful Understanding and the Law of Cause and Effect,
• thoughts rooted in greed, hatred and delusion lead to disharmony and suffering
• thoughts rooted in generosity, loving-friendliness, compassion and wisdom lead to harmony and peace
• As the mind begins to understand suffering and its cause (craving), it begins to lose interest in its attachment to sensual stimuli, rests in each moment with equanimity, and responds appropriately to each moment as wisdom naturally arises.

 
• Skillful Thinking is Intentions of:
• Generosity - Letting Go (Renunciation): Material, People, Experiences and Beliefs
• Loving-Friendliness or Metta (Goodwill): wishing for the happiness and welfare of others
• Compassion (Harmlessness) - understanding the suffering of others and wishing them to be free from suffering

 
• Then we explored Virtue: Skillful Speech, Skillful Action and Skillful Livelihood and saw the application of Skillful Understanding and Skillful Thinking in our daily lives: seeing the causal connection between --
• skillful intentions and actions and resulting harmony and peacefulness in our minds and in our lives
• unskillful intentions and actions and resulting disharmony and disruption in our minds and in our lives

 
• Then we began to examine the third section of the Path, Concentration, as we experienced Skillful Effort and then Skillful Mindfulness.

 
• We learned that Skillful Effort means abandoning what is unskillful and cultivating what is skillful:
• By applying mindfulness, developing skillful responses rooted in generosity, loving-kindness, compassion and wisdom.
• With an attitude of ease, receptivity, energy, presence, willing invitation, but not grasping. Being kind to yourself.

 
• Skillful Mindfulness is paying bare attention from moment to moment to WHAT IS.
• We unknowingly perceive ourselves and the world around us through thought patterns (perceptions) that are limited, habitual and conditioned by delusions.
• It results in a proliferation of concepts that distort the true nature of our experiences.
• A mindful mind is precise, penetrating, balanced and uncluttered -- like a mirror that reflects without distortion whatever stands before it.

 
• Sharing of Experiences (have class help me illustrate Skillful Mindfulness in their own experiences).

 
• Today, we will explore Skillful Concentration -- From the Satipatthana Sutta:

 
• A meditator …having gone to the forest, to the foot of a tree, or to a secluded place, sits down cross-legged, keeps his upper body erect, and directs mindfulness towards the object of meditation.

 
• Ideal places to meditate
• Posture
• Intention to keep in mind
• strong intention intensifies efforts, before starting:
• decide how long
• commitment not to move
• Importance of Sila
• Apply mindfulness towards the object of meditation (e.g., breath)
• Preliminary practices
• Sense of joy - gratitude for the opportunity to practice
• Abandoning the baggage of past and future - resolve to be present: to let go of the past and not be concerned about the future.

 
• Ever mindful, he breathes in, ever mindful he breathes out.

 
• Aware of the touch sensation of breath
• Focus attention at that place
• Not controlling the breath
• Aware of each in-breath and each out-breath as they occur
• Gently but firmly bringing awareness back to the breath
• One breath at a time
• Use of counting, if needed
• to keep the mind from wandering
• to train the mind to remain where it is placed
• Silent awareness of the present moment - abandoning the mind's inner chatter, which is always fixed on what just happened or what the mind projects could happen (but never in the present moment)
• Watching every moment so closely that you don't have time to comment on what's just happened
• Guest Greeting Simile - imagine you are the host of a party and are greeting each guest as they arrive. You don't have time to get into a conversation with a guest or you'll miss the next guest!
• As you get more concentrated, and experience the peacefulness that such abandonment brings, the mind will incline towards silence.

 
• Breathing in a long breath, he knows, "I breathe in long";

breathing out a long breath, he knows, "I breathe out long."


         Breathing in a short breath, he knows, "I breathe in short";
         breathing out a short breath, he knows, "I breathe out short."
 

• Begin to notice or "know" the length of each breath - a non-verbal awareness.
• As concentration improves, and the body and mind become more tranquil, breath may feel longer, slower, deeper or more subtle.

 
• "Making clear the entire in-breath body, I shall breathe in," thus he makes effort [literally, he trains himself]; "making clear the entire out-breath body, I shall breath out," thus he makes effort.
• Begin to notice the beginning, middle and end of each breath - again, a non-verbal awareness.
• If the mind wanders, notice if it occurs at the beginning, middle or end, and then increase effort at that point - until each breath is seen in its entirety.

 
• "Calming the gross in-breath [literally, body-conditioned object], I shall breathe in," thus he makes effort; "calming the gross out-breath, I shall breathe out," thus he makes effort.
• Breath becomes more refined.
• A mental image may appear at this stage, indicating deepening concentration:
• Bright light, cluster of stars, a flower, a gem, or a vision of a glistening spider web.
• This is referred to as a "counterpart" sign - the mental counterpart to the physical experience of the subtle breath.
• The degree of concentration at this stage is called "access concentration". It occurs just prior to attaining the jhanas.
• With access concentration, the mental hindrances are temporarily suppressed.
• At this point, one can either
• continue with serenity meditation, experience the jhanas, and use that as a basis for developing insight, or
• immediately begin practicing insight meditation

 
• Classifications of Jhanas:
• fine material jhanas
• immaterial jhanas
• vipassana jhanas (momentary concentration)
• supramundane jhanas (obj=Nibanna)

 
• Mental factors associated with first jhana:
• applied thought (supresses, sloth & torpor)
• sustained thought (supresses doubt)
• rapture (supresses ill-will)
• happiness (supresses restlessness & remorse)
• one-pointedness (supresses sense desire)

 
• The jhanic factors arise one at a time and in that order. Each one supporting the arising of the next.

 
• When all five are present, the mind is in a state of absorption - in the first jhana.

 
• Next step is to develop mastery
• cultivating the five factors
• entry into the jhana at will
• remaining in that state as long as desired
• emerging from it at will
• clearly isolating each jhanic factor after emerging
• investigating each factor that has been isolated

 
• If practicing insight meditation upon emerging from the jhanas, one then:
• recognizes, upon emerging, that the jhanic factors are no longer present
• examines each factor, and discovering that, while they are sublime, they are impermanent, unsatisfactory and selfless

 
• If one does not enter the jhanas and moves immediately to insight meditation after attaining access concentration
• the mind is not fixed on one object, to the exclusion of all others
• attention is simply directed to the changing states of mind and body, noting any phenomena that presents itself
• concentration becomes stronger, moment after moment, until one-pointedness is established on the constantly changing stream of events

 
• Insights arise concerning the impermanent, unsatisfactory and selfless nature of all phenomena

 
• Skillful Concentration is not the end of the path -- It ushers in a new mobilization of Skillful Understanding and Skillful Thinking:

 
• Skillful Understanding becomes a direct seeing of the real nature of phenomena, previously grasped only conceptually

 
• Skillful Thinking becomes a true renunciation of defilements born of deep understanding

 
• This leads to the supramundane paths, which have the special task of eradicating the defilements of:


      1.  personality view
      2.  doubt
      3.  clinging to rites and rituals
      4.  sensual desire
      5.  ill-will
      6.  desire for fine-material existence
      7.  desire for immaterial existence
      8.  conceit
      9.  restlessness
    10.  ignorance

• Defilements are eradicated in four stages:

 
• Stream-enterer - 1, 2, 3
• Once-returner - reduce greed, aversion and delusion
• Non-returner - 4, 5
• Arahant - 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

 
• Questions about Skillful Concentration

 
• Recommendations for developing Skillful Concentration

 
• Make a commitment to keep consistent in the daily practice of meditation.
• Increase the time spent in meditation every day.
• Attend retreats frequently -- longer retreats offer a unique opportunity to develop concentration
• Consider self retreats - starting with a solitary Day of Mindfulness, then a weekend self retreat.
• Keep life simple and remain contented with little.
• Practice Compassion for the Conditioned Mind.
• Approach the practice with joy.

 
• Questions about The Noble Eightfold Path

 
•  Closing Meditation

Recommended reading online concerning the practice of Skillful Concentration:

The Basic Method of Meditation - by Ajahn Brahmavamso.

Mindfulness of Breathing - by Ven. Ledi Sayadaw (The Wheel Publication No. 431/432).