..續本文上一頁oncentration that has space for things to come and go. You might want to think of your awareness as a large screen, in the sense of a screen on a window. It”s a net through which the air can pass. It”s a particularly useful image for when you”re sitting where there”s a lot of noise. You can try to fight or resist the noise, but that destroys your concentration, turns it into a real battle. But if you think of your awareness as a big screen with a lot of holes that the noise can come through and just go out the other side without your having to react, that makes it a lot easier. There”s much less struggle. There”s space in your concentration for things to come and go without destroying the concentration.

　　That applies to thoughts as well. They can come and they can go but you don”t have to get involved in their content, those little worlds that exist within a thought. This is the kind of concentration that forms a basis for discernment. In other words, you can begin to analyze the concentration. You can think, but it doesn”t knock the concentration off its foundation. When the Buddha talk about the concentrated mind, he called it “mahaggattam cittam,” which means an expanded mind. Not a narrowed mind. It”s an expanded mind. That”s the kind of concentration that allows discernment to arise, that allows the factors of the path to develop.

　　Now, your mind can expand that way, your concentration can expand that way, but you have to start small. Like anything solid and big. I”m always amazed at the redwood trees in northern California: their seeds are infinitesimal, but when one of them takes hold, it can become an enormous, awe-inspiring tree.

　　The same with concentration. We all have concentration to one extent or another. Momentary concentration is something everybody has. To practice concentration means learning to recognize those moments and give them space so they can grow to the point where they can take over, so they connect and become the natural home for the mind. Homes need a solid, large foundation so they don”t tip over; and that”s the kind of concentration you want. If you give respect to your concentration that”s the kind of foundation you”ll get.

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