Brad Schwags:
problems in order from greatest:
- just can’t concentrate due to low energy or mad at myself for something
- I start instructing myself or analyzing these steps, trying to learn on the fly
- I get sidetracked on chakras, vibrations
- I start thinking about theory, 3 characteristics, etc or insights such as breath mirroring the mind, cause and effect, etc
Tarin has some good suggestions.
With the exception of "low energy," which is a hindrance problem (sloth and torpor) and can be solved by entering into absorption which neutralizes the five hindrances (which I assume is what tarin meant by his comment about "going deep"), if you will notice, the source of your problem stems from mental activity (i.e. thinking, analyzing, wandering mind).
A long time ago I came across the advice that one of the keys to successful meditation was being able to still the mind. At the time, I thought it was sound advice, but had no idea how to go about doing that! Soon enough, I forgot about it (meaning that it went off my radar screen and I neglected to recollect it again for years). At the time, I was practicing a mantra type meditation. So, verbalization was part of the meditation technique itself that I was practicing.
Many years later, as I was wrestling with another go at the process of realization, I recalled that advice again and began looking into how to go about making it a reality. I came across a book by Mouni Sadhu titled
Concentration, A Guide to Mental Mastery, and began to practice some of the techniques it suggested. After a relatively short while of practicing one or two of these techniques, I began to experience moments of "no thought," — that is, complete silence with no wandering mind and no inner verbalization. At first, these lasted for only a few seconds. Then later, as I continued to practice, the time spans of silence grew longer and longer.
One day when the mind was being particularly disobedient, I told it to "STOP" and it did. For several moments in succession. It completely stunned me that the mind obeyed that command! That experience was a revelation for me, because I had not experienced such complete and utter silence like that since I was a child. Virtually from that moment on, my meditation sessions became more productive as I was able
at will to quiet the mental agitation that the monkey mind was calling up to distract me.
Once you are able to still the mind, you'll be more able to accomplish those goals you have set before yourself with regard to the attainment of absorption. The mind will more easily become concentrated on whatever object you choose. And the strength of the concentration will increase with time and continued practice.
One of the first things you can do in order to achieve this kind of mental mastery begins with the simple practice of mindfulness. In both of the
Satipatthana suttas in the Pali discourses of the Buddha, the Buddha instructs beginning meditators with the following instruction:
"And how, monks, does a monk abide contemplating the body as body? Here a monk, having gone into the forest, or to the root of a tree or to an empty place, sits down cross-legged, holding his body erect, having established mindfulness before him. Mindfully he breaths in, mindfully he breaths out. Breathing in a long breath, he knows that he breathes in a long breath, and breathing out a long breath, he knows that he breathes out a long breath."
If you will sit for a while before meditating and establish a general mindfulness of your surroundings or an object like the breath, you will find that eventually the sluggishness will be replaced with energy, which you will then be able to carry into the meditation itself. Whenever I took the time to establish mindfulness at the beginning of my meditation session, the session itself always went well.
I know it may sound like an impossibility right now, but you actually
can gain control of the monkey mind mentality. It's all a matter of practice and diligence in attending to that practice. One technique mentioned in Mouni Sadhu's book was to watch the end of the second hand on a wall clock or wrist watch as it moves around the dial while not allowing any thoughts to distract you and to maintain uninterrupted attention on it without any unnoticed breaks in attention. Do not think of anything else, just watch dispassionately the end of the hand steadily revolving. Do not look at or think about the clock itself or about the figures passed over by the hand. As Mouni states: "Your eyes dare not be distracted by anything, and nothing in the world exists for you now except that moving colored line. In particular, verbalization, i.e. mental repeating of words, must cease during the exercise.
"First, note exactly, by the same second hand, the time when you began to follow its movements. Then check the moment when your still rebellious mind was
first distracted and forced you to forget to watch, and instead substituted a thought, word or some other kind of mental distraction for the exercise."
You should be able to observe a graphic demonstration of the increase in mental concentration as you honestly assess your progress and are able to see how long you are able to maintain your attention on the object before the mind wanders or breaks into verbalization.
Work at stilling the mind first. Take your time and don't become discouraged. Then, and only then, move on to learning about how to enter absorption. Having the ability to establish concentration on an object like the breath without becoming distracted from it will be a skill that will beneficially serve your meditative career for the rest of your life.
