The Heightened Mind: Dhamma Talks of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.

The Heightened Mind: 
Dhamma Talks of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.

When you practice concentration but your mind isn’t firmly established in genuine merit, Māra will come after you with a big grin on his face. 

What this means is the Māras of the aggregates: There will be feelings of pain throughout your body, your perceptions will be a turmoil, your thought-fabrications will think of 108,000 different things, and your consciousness will be aware of things all over the place. 

When this happens, your heart will be crushed and your merit snuffed out. Like a sticky-rice sweet that’s not cooked all the way through: If you eat it, you’ll get indigestion.

When practicing concentration, you have to be careful not to force or squeeze the mind too much, but at the same time you can’t let it run too loose. Force it when you have to; let it go when you have to. 

The important point is to keep directed thought and evaluation in charge at all times. In this way, the mind gains quality: It won’t play truant or go straying off the path of goodness. 

The nature of goodness is that there are bound to be bad things sneaking in, in the same way that when there are rich people there are bound to be thieves lying in wait to rob them. When you make merit, Māra in his different forms is sure to get in the way. So when you meditate, be careful not to fall into wrong mindfulness or wrong concentration.

Wrong mindfulness is when your awareness leaves the four frames of reference—body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities. Here, the body means the breath, feelings are sensations of comfort or discomfort, the mind is the awareness of the body, and the mental quality we want is the quality of the present.

Wrong concentration is when you’re forgetful or unaware, as when you’re unaware of how the body is sitting, where the mind is wandering off to, how it comes back. The mind lacks both mindfulness and alertness.

But when your concentration gets established, the mind will grow higher. And when the mind is up high, nothing can reach up to destroy its goodness. 

Like the stars, the moon, or the sun that shine in the sky: Even though clouds may pass in front of them from time to time, the clouds can’t sneak up or seep up to make the brightness of the stars, moon, or sun grow murky or dark.

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The Heightened Mind: Dhamma Talks of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.

https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#heightenedMind

16 May 2023