Friday, July 18, 2014

Wrong Concentration during Meditation

     "there can actually be wrong concentration, which has nothing to do with samatha or vipassanā, because both of these have right concentration. 
     Wrong concentration happens to a lot of yogis. They use too much energy to focus because of greed, because they are trying to get something; so they develop this heavy concentration. That can be dangerous. Because it’s wrong concentration, of course it’s dangerous. The motivation behind that kind of concentration is greed actually. They want something so badly they use a lot of energy to focus, thinking that’s how they’ll get it, and sometimes that energy builds up to a level that they themselves cannot control. That’s because there is a combination of the power of focusing and the power of the defilements. So it is really very out of control. Double trouble."          Sayadaw U Tejaniya

       Destined to Teach. Āyasmā Kumāra interviews Sayadaw U Tejaniya, 1996
       http://sayadawutejaniya.org/teachings/
 
Vatican Modern Art Collection

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for these excellent points - I agree. Most of us need good teachers to keep us from going off track: Jack Kornfield's excellent 8-CD set "Transmission" from Sounds True www.soundstrue.com; and the Spring 2014 edition of Buddhadharma are good resources. Also, there are basic prerequisites for practice, especially morality - see: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/08/foundation-for-meditation-practices.html

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