Name: Right concentration
ISBN: 9781611802696

Right concentration

"The Buddhist jhanas--successive states of deep focus or meditative absorbtion--demystified. A very practical guidebook for meditators for navigating their way through these states of bliss and concentration. One of the elements of the Eightfold Patʼh the Buddha taught is Right Concentration: the one-pointedness of mind that, together with ethics, livelihood, meditation, and so forth, leads to the ultimate freedom from suffering. The Jhanas are the method the Buddha himself taught for achieving Right Concentration. They are a series of eight successive states, beginning with bliss and moving on toward radically nonconceptual states. The fact that they can usually be achieved only during prolonged meditation retreat tends to keep them shrouded in mystery. Leigh Brasington is here to unshroud them. He takes away the mystique and gives instructions for them in plain, accessible language, noting the various pitfalls to avoid along the way, and then providing a wealth of material on the theory of jhana practice--all geared toward the practitioner rather than the scholar"

What Hacker News says

incomingpainJun 2025

Born catholic, sexually assaulted by my priest while young, and became atheist. Was mostly just nothing until the sam harris crew came along then i went very militant atheist. Stoicism and meditation came along. In about then i was intrigued with the idea of morality and could it be done without anything external.

The big question, you really get to choose if you want to be a good or bad person. Of course you choose to be a good person, but then how do you do that?

When trying to figure that out, the realization is that lots of people fail at being a good person. It's not about the 'would you like to give $2 to childrens charity' but rather a training that is needed for your brain. When you look for what this training is, you become buddhist.

Through meditation, you can train to be aware of your thoughts, which arent yours, and thus by extension your actions which arent yours until after training. Once you become aware of the proverbial bad and good angels on your shoulders. You start responding and not reacting to life.

There comes a point where you dive into the Jhanas. Then you buy an at home EEG to become an expert at meditation. Right concentration by Leigh Brasington explains all.

Then you go through some stuff and end up a christian suddenly. Realizing that christianity is a buddhist sect; or really that all religions are trying to explain an unexplainable thing that cant be captured by human language.

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nprateemFeb 2025

I can recommend 2 books for those who want to try to learn, but tbh i think a retreat is still required to reach them:

1. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Right-Concentration-Practical-Guide...

2. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-Bliss-Beyond-Meditators...

Leigh Brasington reports that people he's spoken to who have studied kundalini yoga say the strong piti of the first jhana is the same as awakening the kundalini, so there's a bit of an "all roads lead to Rome" about these practices, which is encouraging.

Both authors are on dharmaseed. Worth checking them out. They're both great teachers.

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incomingpainNov 2022

So anyone curious to try, I recommend first understandings how to properly meditate. After you have good experience with this can you move onto the jhanas. I highly recommend: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Right-Concentration-Practical-Guide...

If you know how to do step 1 and then follow this book to the T. You will experience the jhanas.

I however caveat, you don't want to do this. It's a bad decision. You don't want to do this, really.

>Is Jhana Really Better Than Sex?

Absolutely, up to the third jhana.

>Can Jhana Really Substitute For Other Pleasures?

The author clearly has not walked the full path. Then again someone who did would not write this blog.

>really helped people avoid addictions

Absolutely no question.

>IV. What Can Science Tell Us About Jhanas?

The science path is a bad decision.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Buddhism-True-Philosophy-Enligh...

Let folks like Robert Wright make this mistake for you. For someone like him, he almost certainly has lost the ability to enter jhana.

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ffwacomOct 2022

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who coined the term ‘flow’, has a whole philosophy on life detailed in:

Flow

The Evolving Self

There’s the ‘awakening’ thing you can do, which might give a fresh perspective:

The Mind Illuminated - Culadasa

Seeing That Frees - Rob Burbea

Right Concentration - Leigh Brasington

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keeptryingJul 2022

I have always wanted to learn medicine slowly - over years. So I read medical text books slowly over years.

I find it amazing that we give so much agency to doctors over our health while we know relatively very little about our own bodies and health.

And biology is a big part of that learning.

I now study medical books on my soare time.

Would recommend “Clinical Methods” as your first foray. You will understand your doctor and the biology is immediately applicable in your Daily life. Ie how to deal with fevers in your kids.

After that learn about your skeletal system and biomechanics.

Next Neuro degenerative disease and the brain.

Once you’ve caught the learning bug, you can go into 1st year Med School curricula and then the rest from there.

Some big parts of medicine is relatively useless - psychology for example.

Would recommend learning meditation ina real way and reading “Right Concentration.”. Learning about jhanas and mental states.

I remember as a kid when they asked me what I wanted to do, I never understood why I couldn’t do all of the above.

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coyotespikeDec 2021

I meditate, usually an hour of sitting practice, and then through the day.

Practicing more felt really urgent after a couple of big psychedelic trips, and I've found getting into contact with a source of fundamental unconditional love hugely helpful. I feel very in touch with the sacred, despite being agnostic at best.

I'm not a huge fan of the mainstream concentration work stuff; I've been influenced by Rob Burbea's jazzy, improvisational approach.

Also, currently I'm working on the jhanas, which are a lot of fun, and I'm excited to work on them at a 10-day retreat starting in a week. Leigh Brasington's Right Concentration is the best intro, or for a thread see https://twitter.com/nickcammarata/status/1471300341232668679

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