Something that changed my approach to concentration was realizing I could generate sincere interest in the thing I was trying to concentrate on, and pleasure in the observation.
Sometimes, the analytical lists of theravadin buddhism, such as the wings to awakening, are useful to contemplate. But sometimes, synthetic notions are more powerful and simpler.
We could say that you're trying to remove the five hindrances. Or that you're trying to balance the spiritual faculties. But we could also say, using a more phenomenological kind of jargon, that you want to learn to domesticate your interest. The notion of interest actually entails all these analytical categories... You want to stay connected with one thing stably for a long time, get absorbed. One of the strongest ways to achieve that, imo, is to see beauty in what you're observing.
When you're fascinated by a painting, a piece of music, a movie... your attention is usually unflagging, right ? Would you say you're "good" at listening to the music you like ?
So, for instance, if you take the breath as object, you could contemplate what your breath is. It is actually what keeps you alive, something which for you is equivalent to life. It's such a profound part of what your are, that you are labeled after it : you are an animal, a being that breathes (anima means breath or spirit). Your breath, in a way, is your spirit - for the christians and jews, ruah, or pneuma in greek (whence : pneumonia), was the holy spirit, right ? The breath of the universe. In many ways, the breath is universal, it is you connection with the cosmos. You have always been breathing, yet you have rarely acknowledged this.
To me, it's a bit like the sun, always present, always shining, even when we don't see it because, well, the earth is between the sun and us. Yet it shines, and warms us, and keeps us alive. Sometimes there is something between you and the breath but it is always there. Otherwise you would be dead. The analogy goes deeper, because indeed, if there was no sun, you would not be breathing, and if you didn't breathe, you could not see at all anymore. So even when you don't pay attention to it, you haven't lost the connection. There is this level of interdependance, but there is even more depth, because actually, your breath is not your breath, and the sun is not the sun, and they are contained within one another, neither the same nor different, neither nor... Can you perceive the sun in your breathing ?
Maybe that's doesn't resonate at all with you, maybe it does... But you get the idea. You can find a way to really engage with the practice, in a way that feels alive, is what I'm trying to say.
It's possible to look at your breath like you would watch the sun set or rise over the ocean, following the slow movement of the waves, taking in their myriad shimmers. Sense the beauty of it, whatever triggers a true sensitivity and vibrancy in your attention, you could pursue. For instance, when I started to contemplate that the breath was not limited to my nostrils, nor to my abdomen, but actually was running through my body at all times, that, quite litterally, the air that I breathed in a minute ago was now in the blood streaming through my fingers, that the pulse of my heart was actually part of the breathing process, that changed something ; I started to see the depth, the beauty, the mystery and poetry there, and then it was easier to want to look.
Thich Nhat Hahn, as well as Ajahn Brahm's instructions, contain something to that effect - TNH in particular invokes a lot of esthetic, poetic sensitivity. Brahm talks about the "beautiful breath" as a forerunner to jhanas. Of course there's little to none of that in theravadin vipassana, but hey, you're not a burmese monk after all !
What is the point of looking at something boring, seriously ?
And on that note, I will take my own advice and start using it in my practice again ! Thanks for letting this come out !
