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Concentration

Problem with Concentration - Am I Doing Something Wrong?

Hello,

I am somewhat of a noob when it comes to meditation. I found out one usually starts off with Concentration meditation and only later moves on to Insight.

In the beginning I thought I seemed to be making some progress. Once, a few months ago, when I did a bit of meditation a flickering white light seemed to appear a bit above my brow. I later read somewhere this could possibly be explained by meditation energy (chi?) hitting the optic nerve.

Ever since that day I have had no end to trouble with meditation! I can not 'stay fixated' on ANYTHING. Not my breath, not gazing at a rock, not focusing on feeling the body sensation in my perineum. Plus it is harder and harder to visualize anything. Sometimes there's a delay with trying to summon up the visualization and other times it's as if this..hmm...blackness deepens and I can't summon up any images at all. If I do somehow manage to forcefully over-ride this blackness I get conflicting images. Ex: if I imagine a lotus flower at my perineum I'll see the petals opening and closing at the same time! It's like I'm getting two different images trying to superimpose on each other. And then in a flash these conflicting images fade. And it takes a herculean effort to keep summoning it back up (usually with the exact same 'conflicting image' problem if I manage to succeed in re-capturing the image).

I'm unsure as to whether what I'm experiencing is due to something I may be doing wrong or it's just something I have to put up with until it passes.

Basically, I've been trying and tossing out assorted concentration methods for the past few months. Usually for the first session I'll get somewhere with the new method. I can go longer and longer before having to redirect myself to the object or whatever I'm concentrating on.

But eventually that experience degrades! And when it does it does so rapidly.

My last method was simply trying to see how long I could count before a thought intruded. For the first several tries I was able to get up to 10 or so before a thought or hmm...well I call it a "pre-thought" would arise. But then - it's as if the Thoughts are a germ! They adapt to whatever technique I use and the experience just degrades like hell. To use the above example I can't even get past 2 before thoughts and pre-thoughts start hammering out of nowhere.

Am I doing something wrong?! I have had discussions with a friend over at TaoBums about this and he is experiencing the exact same exasperating problem. It frustrates me because everywhere I look everyone says you can't get anywhere in meditation without having this crucial Concentration meditation skill under your belt. I am getting very depressed and stressed over this as I can't help but feel I must be doing something wrong.

I very badly want to achieve Full Awakening (Enlightenment, Buddha-nature..whatever you want to call it) in this lifetime and am willing to dedicate many hours per day for years to it. But it is so discouraging to have this problem keep cropping up over and over and over ad nauseum with every technique I try.

Can anyone tell me...am I doing something wrong or is this just something I'll have to endure a long time before it gets better?


Thank you

RE: Problem with Concentration - Am I Doing Something Wrong?
Answer
10/17/09 10:54 PM as a reply to D Fl.
Relax and keep it simple. Don't try to over do things. Stay relaxed and loose as you endeavor to find a groove. Don't over think yourself also. Or over react. Just stay with the meditation object, no matter what comes up.

Don't get upset when you're concentration lags. Just return to the object of meditation and resume observation. See? Simple. Sometimes simple is the hardest thing to do.

Try focusing on the breath as it enter the nostrils at the tip of the nose. Look for a soothing sensation as you follow the breath -- in and out. Let the breath determine its own length. Don't try to force it. Your job is only to follow it, whatever it does. Once you find that sensation, follow it as your mind becomes absorbed on it. You can use any kind of sensation that you become aware of. The sensation of the breath entering at the tip of the nostrils is a good place to start.

There's nothing wrong with refocusing the mind after it has been distracted. Don't worry about any thoughts that come in. Just watch them arise and pass away. See? Keep it simple. Nothing complicated.

What you want to achieve is focused attention on the sensation, which in turn will allow the mind to become absorbed on the sensation, setting up a recurring feedback loop of the pleasant sensation. If you do it right, you won't even have to think about it. The feedback loop of pleasant sensation will take care of itself. Concentration can build on this of its own accord. You won't have to force anything. You may get occasional intervening thoughts on the periphery, but your focus on the pleasant sensation can remain in place, taking you deeper into the pleasant sensation. Just let the periphery thoughts go.

Try it and see if it works. And remember: keep it simple.

RE: Problem with Concentration - Am I Doing Something Wrong?
Answer
10/18/09 1:53 AM as a reply to Ian And.
Other interpretations or attitudes:

Consider that the light was the A&P, now you are post that, to Dissolution, Dark Night stuff, which tends to involve real problems when trying to focus straight-on like most people do. Check out MCTB in the section of on the Vipassana Jhanas when I mention the problems with the third vipassana jhana.

Thought is not a problem if you use a technique like noting that turns thought into the practice itself, both by noting phenomena fast (which uses thought), and by noting "Thinking Thinking" when thoughts get in the way of practice, thus turning these sensations into more good objects for building insight muscles.