Thoughts On The Dhamma – Concentration
5. Concentration
The Need for Concentration
There are some teachers who instruct their audience to keep their minds free and relaxed instead of concentrating on meditational points because concentration, they say, restricts the mind. This is in contravention of the Buddha’s instructions although it assumes an appearance of the Buddha’s teachings. If, according to these teachers, the mind is set free, it will surely indulge in fond thoughts and may even revel in sensual pleasures.
— Discourse on the Hemavata Sutta —
Samadhi
Some are saying that samadhi — concentration of mind — is not necessary, that if one just ponders upon the two wisdom factors of the Eightfold Path, namely, Right Understanding (sammaditthi) and Right Thought (sammasankappa), there is no need to make a note of arising and vanishing. This is a skipping of the area of samadhi. Jhana-samadhi is indeed the best to attain, but failing that, one should acquire momentary concentration (khanika samadhi), which is equivalent to access-concentration. Otherwise, it is not real insight-wisdom. So said the Buddha:
Bhikkhus, try to acquire samadhi. A bhikkhu who has a stable mind knows the truth. What is knowing the truth? It is knowing that the eye (cakkhu) is non-permanent, that visual form (rupa) is non-permanent, and that visual consciousness (cakkhuviññana) is non-permanent.
So it is clear that without samadhi one cannot acquire Vipassana-knowledge and attain the knowledge of the supramundane Paths and Fruits (maggaphalañana). One can, therefore, decide that knowledge outside of samadhi is not Vipassana-knowledge, and that without Vipassana-knowledge one cannot attain Nibbana.
— Discourse on the Hemavata Sutta —
Becoming and Dissolution
A bubble bursts soon after it has been formed. A mirage conjures up an image of reality which disappears on close examination. There is absolutely no substance in either of them. This is common knowledge. As we know their true nature, so also must we know the true nature of the phenomena. When a meditator acquires knowledge of concentration through the observance of the dissolution of the Aggregates (khandha), he will discover that the known object and the knowing mind are all in a state of flux, now appearing, now vanishing. They are transitory. There is no essence or substance worthy to be named “mine” in them. They signify only the processes of becoming and dissolution.
— Discourse on the Bhara Sutta —
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