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Gautama said:<\/p>\nGautama said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2026 at the close of (instructional discourse), steady, calm, make one-pointed and concentrate my mind subjectively in that first characteristic of concentration in which I ever constantly abide.\u201d<\/p>\n
(MN I 249, Pali Text Society vol I p 303)<\/p>\n
Gautama\u2019s statement implies that he did not experience \u201cthat first characteristic of concentration\u201d when he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat first characteristic of concentration\u201d is \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d, as here in Gautama\u2019s description of \u201cright concentration\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what\u2026 is the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations, with the accompaniments?\u00a0 It is right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right mode of livelihood, right endeavor, right mindfulness.\u00a0 Whatever one-pointedness of mind is accompanied by these seven components , this\u2026 is called the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations and the accompaniments.\u201d<\/p>\n
(MN III 71, Pali Text Society vol III p 114; similar at SN V 17; \u201cnoble\u201d substituted for Ariyan)<\/p>\n
Even though giving \u201cinstructional discourse\u201d meant the loss of \u201cthat first characteristic of concentration\u201d, Gautama went ahead and taught, and he expected the monks in his order to do the same. He severely chastised a group of monks who had taken a vow of silence for their rainy-season retreat, and made a rule against the practice:<\/p>\n
\u201cMonks, an observance of members of other sects, the practice of silence, should not be observed. Whoever should observe it, there is an offence of wrong-doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
(2nd<\/sup> book of the Theravadin Vinaya, Khandhaka 4.1.13)<\/p>\n I have described the experience of \u201cone-pointedness of mind\u201d as the experience of the placement of attention by the movement of breath.\u00a0 I would contend that the necessity of breath utilizes the placement of attention to coordinate activity all the time, but consciousness of the placement enables the experience of a singularity in the location of attention from moment to moment:<\/p>\n The presence of mind can utilize the location of attention to maintain the balance of the body and coordinate activity in the movement of breath, without a particularly conscious effort to do so. There can also come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence.<\/p>\n