The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation by Richard Shankman

Author:Richard Shankman [Shankman, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781626252950
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2015-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Two Kinds of Concentration

The word “concentration” carries various connotations, each shaping how it is considered in relation to insight meditation. None of the interpretations are right or wrong, no application is better or more correct than another. I hope we can appreciate the range of ways concentration is practiced and the various ways it is related to insight so we can make conscious, informed choices in how to steer our practice, because each choice will influence the direction in which meditation unfolds in different ways.

Samadhi means “undistracted”; another good translation is “collected.” An undistracted or collected mind can unfold either naturally, on its own, or by purposefully aiming in one direction or the other. Strengthening concentration can serve to connect us more intimately with our body and mind or to disconnect us from our experience.

If you continue practicing as I have been teaching here, giving emphasis to mindfulness of breathing, your ability to concentrate and remain steady and focused with the breath will grow. Your mind will progressively wander less and less and you can eventually become so skilled at centering on one thing that your mind will hardly waver at all. If you keep training your mind, taking your practice far enough, you can reach a stage in which you become extremely adept at concentrating. Your ability to remain steady and undistracted on one object will have been strengthened to the point where you will not notice any other experiences.

You will be fully engrossed, fully absorbed, just in the experience of one thing, the one meditation object, whatever it is. At this stage your mind is so fixed on a narrow point that it can never wander. At this point undistractedness has progressed to the pinnacle of steadiness.

The changing flow of experience will stop for you because your mind has become one-pointed. Ultimately, concentration can be taken so far that you will no longer notice experiences in your body, thoughts, sounds, moods, or emotions. You will lose awareness of other experiences because the ability of your mind to concentrate on this one point has been strengthened so much that your mind does not go to anything else; you do not perceive anything from any of the senses.

I call this type of undistractedness exclusive concentration, because the mind is exclusively focused on one thing; awareness rests exclusively on that one thing and excludes awareness of everything else. It is also called one-pointedness or fixed concentration because the mind can stay narrowly fixed on the one point of the breath.

The second way undistractedness can develop is equal in depth and power to one-pointed exclusive concentration, but is qualitatively very different. In this second style of undistractedness, perception of changing phenomena is never lost. Instead of being lost, your awareness of changing experiences is enhanced. At its culmination the mind itself stops, just as it does in exclusive one-pointedness, but this is stopping of a different sort.

Rather than the flow of sense perceptions stopping, the mind comes to tranquility, all the while being open, receptive, and clearly aware of the full range of changing experiences.

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