“Momentary concentration that focuses on mental or physical objects from moment to moment is called nondistraction (avikkhepa), a mental state that is the opposite of restlessness. When momentary concentration becomes strong, the mind seems to penetrate its object every time an object is noted.”
Source: Manual of Insight (1945), p. 62
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Mahasi Sayadaw13
Burmese Buddhist philosopher 1904–1982Related quotes
Henri Bergson book An Introduction to Metaphysics
An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903), translated by T. E. Hulme. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912, p. 44
“Maintain the same state of mind in every moment of thought, in every phase of mental activity”
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Source: Hsiu-hsin yao lun (Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind), p. 126.
Context: Do not try to search outside yourself, which [only] leads to the suffering of saṃsāra. Maintain the same state of mind in every moment of thought, in every phase of mental activity.
Ragnar Frisch (1895–1973) Norwegian economist
Source: 1970s and later, From Utopian Theory to Practical Applications, 1970, p. 10
“[T]here’s a lot to be said for celibacy, for the concentration of your mental and physical energy.”
Camille Paglia (1947) American writer
Source: Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992), p. 291
James Joyce book Stephen Hero
Stephen Hero (1944)
Context: Now for the third quality. For a long time I couldn't make out what Aquinas meant. He uses a figurative word (a very unusual thing for him) but I have solved it. Claritas is quidditas. After the analysis which discovers the second quality the mind makes the only logically possible synthesis and discovers the third quality. This is the moment which I call epiphany. First we recognise that the object is one integral thing, then we recognise that it is an organised composite structure, a thing in fact: finally, when the relation of the parts is exquisite, when the parts are adjusted to the special point, we recognise that it is that thing which it is. Its soul, its whatness, leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance. The soul of the commonest object, the structure of which is so adjusted, seems to us radiant. The object achieves its epiphany.
