The Art of Concentration Session 2 Rerun: Lesson 3

Hello Everyone

Having spent the last two weeks building up the energy of focused attention and overcoming initial levels of restlessness, sloth and torpor, we should by now be starting to feel the mind is becoming more balanced and settled. The next stage is to work towards genuine one-pointedness. One-pointedness has two aspects to it. The first is non wavering of attention which we have looked at already. This is where we settle and bring to rest our predominant field of attention upon our object. We should liken this to how our hands come to rest effortlessly in our lap. Once placed there they do not move. We need to work towards a point where our attention is similarly settled to a point of rest. The area of attention at this point should be neither too narrow and tight nor too wide and scattered. The area of the hands as a whole is an ideal field of focus to be establishing at this stage. Obviously when we are focused in on a smaller object ( like a single finger) this may vary, but we want to guard against stiffening the mind by making the focus too narrow.

The second aspect of one pointedness is to establish a single object within awareness to the point that our attention is not habitually left elsewhere. By far the hardest part of building one pointedness is to drop the part of the mind that continuously watches ourselves meditate or follows the flow of thoughts that arise in the mind.The first part of this is done by settling into awareness and establishing direct perception , which we will continue to explore further. The second aspect where we break the tendency to leave part of our attention engaged with the flow of mind can only be achieved through losing interest in the minds narrative and building interest in our object. We cannot stop the mind from thinking by wilfully trying to make it stop. It is very important that we understand this and do not frustrate ourselves trying.

In initially we can work towards this gathering of attention on the object by engaging the mental faculty of ‘investigation of states.’ Here we explore in more detail the characteristics of our object. But this has the disadvantage of continuing to uphold the mental process itself. While it helps to gather up more of our attention it doesn’t in itself lead to genuine one pointedness, because until it equates to bare observation, the reflective aspect of the mind may tend to continues to be active. To over come this further we now perform the exercise of ‘gathering up’ the rest of our attention upon the object. This is the focus of our next lesson. It might take some perseverance, and I ask you to continue to work at building your disinterest in the display of your mind while doing so. Some of you will find this more difficult than others. In truth this is the single biggest determining factor in how quickly or slowly real concentration develops. Many of you will find that you are by nature what we might call ‘mind watchers.’ This means that you are habitually more interested in what you are thinking than what you are experiencing. You need to keep reminding yourself that the mind is merely something you are adding to your experience but it is not inherently part of the experience. Neither is the mind itself ‘having’ the experience. It is in awareness that our experience actually is registered. The mind should simply be recognised as a mental display that we are adding to the naked experience itself. The exercise of gathering up our wandering attention marks the point of moving towards genuine one pointedness concentration. Eventually we will make this a habit each time we set our intention to concentrate. But for now it is something you will need to work at, rather like you have had to work at overcoming restlessness and dullness of mind.

So please use the recording this week to steer you through this process as you familiarise yourself with what is being asked of you. It is easy to become lazy and settle upon partial concentration while leaving the ‘mind watching’ running in the back ground. But please also remind yourself that you cannot wilfully make the mind stop. The mind stops only when we stop giving it attention. So disinterest in the mind and interest in the meditation object is the key here. This is the only way that we will move further towards absorption, and it it at this stage that most meditators stop progressing. If the mind watching isn’t over come at this stage it will follow you onwards through all your further efforts to concentrate.

I hope you enjoy this week’s practice. I have included a very touching little tale of a young owl which you might enjoy. The second track that we are sharing is the same meditation as in the first but without this story. I invite you to reflect on what it might be like to become fully absorbed in what you are doing, because it is this that leads us toward the experience of being ‘ beyond self.’

This itself is a key stage of insight because it shows us that the perception of ‘me’ at the centre of the experience is only a by product of not being fully engaged in the experience itself. Familiarising yourself with this understanding and the direct experience of no self that real concentration brings is one of the milestones on the whole path of liberating insight. Although this insight is attributed to vipassana practice, the experience of it is bourne initially of our progress in concentration. It is this that leads us into the first genuine experiences of serenity, the other fruit of concentration practice.

I hope you enjoy your meditation this week

with metta

Burgs.