Part Two · The Āgama View · Right Concentration and the Five Hindrances

Part One took concentration apart to look at it: what it is, how deep it goes, where one enters. Part Two sets this wheel back onto the cart—to see what position concentration holds within the whole of the Buddha's teaching.

Once it is set back in place, three things come into view that Part One could not see.

The first is place. Concentration is set into the noble eightfold path, named "right concentration," standing as the eighth factor. That word "right" was not added for nothing—where it comes from is the business of the first chapter. The second is sequence. Concentration is also listed among the seven awakening-factors, sitting sixth, with five factors before it and one after. How it arises within that sequence is the business of the second chapter. The third is seclusion. The content of concentration the texts state by subtraction—subtracting five things that cover the mind. What those five things are, and what remains once they are subtracted, is the business of the third chapter.

Place, sequence, seclusion—three coordinates, all looking at one same concentration. When the three chapters are walked, the Āgamas' concentration will be complete: it is a factor with its own position on the path; it is a fruit that arises in due sequence; and the content of that fruit is the absence of the five hindrances.

We begin with that word "right."