{"id":390,"date":"2018-01-27T04:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T10:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/?p=390"},"modified":"2021-02-11T20:30:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T02:30:19","slug":"2018-01-27-seven-positive-qualities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/2018-01-27-seven-positive-qualities\/","title":{"rendered":"January 27 &#8211; Seven positive qualities (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends,<\/p>\n<p><em>I&#8217;m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I&#8217;ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I&#8217;m away.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, we looked at the first three of the seven factors: mindfulness, investigation, and energy. Today, we&#8217;ll look at the next three: joy, tranquility, and concentration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As our mindfulness deepens, we investigate, and then that rouses energy. When the energy is strong, joy arises. Bhante Gunaratana describes five types of feelings of joy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>minor joy &#8211; makes our body hair stand on end<\/li>\n<li>momentary joy &#8211; like lightning flashing moment after moment<\/li>\n<li>showering joy &#8211; descends on the body and then disappears, like waves breaking on a seashore<\/li>\n<li>uplifting joy &#8211; lifts the body (perhaps even literally)<\/li>\n<li>all-pervading joy &#8211; suffuses every part of the body<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He says this joy is not the same as pleasurable feelings of everyday life. You may have experienced moments like this type of joy &#8211; for example when listening to a special song or seeing art. Do you notice moments of joy in your mindfulness?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tranquility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bhante says, &#8220;Tranquility is a mental state in which the mind and body are calm, relaxed, and peaceful. &#8230; we enjoy profound peace and happiness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Concentration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This might not be the best translation of the word, since I think many of us associate concentration with the attitude of, &#8220;shh, I&#8217;m trying to concentrate&#8221;&#8230; But this type of concentration comes from a place of tranquility developed from joy.<\/p>\n<p>Can you think of a time when you had that type of joyful tranquility that allowed you to really focus? For some, it might be when creating art or woodworking. I sometimes get in that &#8220;flow&#8221; when I&#8217;m programming computer code!<\/p>\n<p>When we have a deep meditative concentration, we can focus the mind and then have the possibility for deep insights.<\/p>\n<p>Here are Gil and Adrianne&#8217;s talks on these three factors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Joy Factor of Awakening<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4875.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4875.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Instructions: Mindfulness of Thoughts<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4876.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4876.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Tranquility Factor of Awakening<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4877.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4877.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Instruction: Mindfulness of Mind<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4878.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4878.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Concentration Factor of Awakening<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4879.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4879.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Instruction: concentration<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4880.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/4880.html<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, I invite you to pick one recording for your contemplation today.<\/p>\n<p>With best wishes,<br \/>\nAndrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends, I&#8217;m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I&#8217;ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I&#8217;m away. Yesterday, we looked at the first three of the seven factors: mindfulness, investigation, and energy. Today, we&#8217;ll look at the next three: joy, tranquility, and concentration. Joy As our mindfulness deepens, we investigate, and then that rouses\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/2018-01-27-seven-positive-qualities\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[102],"tags":[85,64,155,146,28,103,84,158],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2018","tag-adrianne-ross","tag-concentration","tag-factors-of-enlightenment","tag-fourth-foundation","tag-gil-fronsdal","tag-henepola-gunaratana","tag-joy","tag-tranquility"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1143,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}