Concentration vs Insight - Discussion
It's a basic but a good question. Intention is the main difference.
With concentration, or I like to call it "centering", your intention is to have your attention flow with the experience of the physical sensations of the breath. There are different versions of it: flowing with the sensations of the belly rising and falling, sensations of air moving in and out of the nose, sensations of the nose itself as the breath moves past a point on the upper lip, etc. (You'll want to chose what sensations your are going to define as "the breath" when doing concentration practice, because "the breath" really isn't some a thing in itself, it's a collection of experiences that get defined as "the breath".)
In centering practice, everything that isn't "the breath" is considered a distraction and is gently ignored or dropped from attention, and attention is gently returned to "the breath". The intention of this practice is to develop the ability to drop the busyness of the mind are rest in the naturally occuring flow of sensations.
As a result, concentration can be calming (although it will be naturally difficult until the mind slowly learns how to calm down). Concentration can also be kind of represssive, because a lot of internal experiences (thoughts, emotions, urges) are defined as being "distractions" and are actively ignored. So sometimes concentration practice can be misused in a way to avoid thoughts, emotions, and urges that are uncomfortable and challenging.
Conversely, the intent of insight practices is developing a clear experience of the present moment, AS IT IS, but using attention to breathing or noting or both as a way to support clarity of experience. In insight practice, nothing is considered a distraction except falling into a kind of non-attentive trance or thinking/analyzing too much about what is going on.
With insight practices, you want to have about 80% of your experience on physical sensations, emotional sensations, urges -- that kind of stuff -- and only about 20% thoughts. Usually we mostly live in thoughts, so this will initially feel like a big change in how we experience the world.
Noting is used to make sure we stay with the clear experience of the present moment without falling into trance or discursive thinking. Most of us find that unless we make a verbal "note" about some aspect of experience every so often, we will naturally fall back into "thinking about" the present moment instead of experiencing it. In insight practice, the sensations of breathing are used in the same way. Unless we are at least gently aware of the sensations of breathing in the present moment, we probably aren't really experiencing the present moment --- after all, we're always breathing or we're dead.
The other thing is that physical sensations are always occuring right in the present moment, so if you are experiencing physical sensations you must not be lost in thought.
As a result, insight practices tend to be much more active and stimulating. They can be frustrating too because it can be amazing how often we drift into thought and forget to note --- but no big deal, that's normal and isn't a problem. Basically each time we drift away we are learning about what causes us to drift away, and that learning is the main reason for doing insight practices!! We're learning how greed, aversion, and indifferance causes us to leave the present moment and go into "thinking about the present moment". So if we do get lost in a trance for a while, no big deal, just note what you were thinking about and you're already back in the present moment!
Hopefully that answer is helpful.
It probably is also important to say that "pure concentration" and "pure insight" are probably just conceptual ideas. The truth is all meditation practice contains a blend of concentration aspect and an insight aspect, you can't really force your mind to conform to an idealized version of what "should" happen in practice. What you'll find is that concentration practice supports insight and insight supports concentration and the "flavor" of meditation kinda moves between those two extremes during any particular sit.
I personally found concentration practice nearly impossible at first, but noting practice gave me enough structure to support clearly experiencing the present moment. When I got more used to resting in the experience of the present moment, then the concentration flavor became more possible. And when resting in concentration states became easier, it was possible to notice even subtler aspects of the present moment that I couldn't sense before when my mind was so busy. This sort of back and forth is really common over long term practice.
There's no one right answer of what flavor of meditation you "should" do. Work with the reality of how practice seems to work for you. It's okay to emphasize concentration some days and insights other days, or even to change during a sit. Ultimately, what is most important is to learn how your mind experiences the present moment. Make a study of your own mind. Notice how thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations actually occur. Notice how greed, aversion, and indifference is part of your experience. Notice what causes frustrations. Notice what supports relief.
Here's a big hint: most of all, we learn that we need to accept what is already happening in experience. When we "fight" what is already occuring, we basically suffer. We learn and relearn this lesson in many different ways. All you really need to do is "see" how the mind works and this become obvious and we become transformed. The mind itself will naturally drop unhelpful and frustrating patterns of resistance and reactivity, but first you need to clearly see what is going on.
Hope this helps, best wishes!
With concentration, or I like to call it "centering", your intention is to have your attention flow with the experience of the physical sensations of the breath. There are different versions of it: flowing with the sensations of the belly rising and falling, sensations of air moving in and out of the nose, sensations of the nose itself as the breath moves past a point on the upper lip, etc. (You'll want to chose what sensations your are going to define as "the breath" when doing concentration practice, because "the breath" really isn't some a thing in itself, it's a collection of experiences that get defined as "the breath".)
In centering practice, everything that isn't "the breath" is considered a distraction and is gently ignored or dropped from attention, and attention is gently returned to "the breath". The intention of this practice is to develop the ability to drop the busyness of the mind are rest in the naturally occuring flow of sensations.
As a result, concentration can be calming (although it will be naturally difficult until the mind slowly learns how to calm down). Concentration can also be kind of represssive, because a lot of internal experiences (thoughts, emotions, urges) are defined as being "distractions" and are actively ignored. So sometimes concentration practice can be misused in a way to avoid thoughts, emotions, and urges that are uncomfortable and challenging.
Conversely, the intent of insight practices is developing a clear experience of the present moment, AS IT IS, but using attention to breathing or noting or both as a way to support clarity of experience. In insight practice, nothing is considered a distraction except falling into a kind of non-attentive trance or thinking/analyzing too much about what is going on.
With insight practices, you want to have about 80% of your experience on physical sensations, emotional sensations, urges -- that kind of stuff -- and only about 20% thoughts. Usually we mostly live in thoughts, so this will initially feel like a big change in how we experience the world.
Noting is used to make sure we stay with the clear experience of the present moment without falling into trance or discursive thinking. Most of us find that unless we make a verbal "note" about some aspect of experience every so often, we will naturally fall back into "thinking about" the present moment instead of experiencing it. In insight practice, the sensations of breathing are used in the same way. Unless we are at least gently aware of the sensations of breathing in the present moment, we probably aren't really experiencing the present moment --- after all, we're always breathing or we're dead.
The other thing is that physical sensations are always occuring right in the present moment, so if you are experiencing physical sensations you must not be lost in thought. As a result, insight practices tend to be much more active and stimulating. They can be frustrating too because it can be amazing how often we drift into thought and forget to note --- but no big deal, that's normal and isn't a problem. Basically each time we drift away we are learning about what causes us to drift away, and that learning is the main reason for doing insight practices!! We're learning how greed, aversion, and indifferance causes us to leave the present moment and go into "thinking about the present moment". So if we do get lost in a trance for a while, no big deal, just note what you were thinking about and you're already back in the present moment!
Hopefully that answer is helpful.
It probably is also important to say that "pure concentration" and "pure insight" are probably just conceptual ideas. The truth is all meditation practice contains a blend of concentration aspect and an insight aspect, you can't really force your mind to conform to an idealized version of what "should" happen in practice. What you'll find is that concentration practice supports insight and insight supports concentration and the "flavor" of meditation kinda moves between those two extremes during any particular sit.
I personally found concentration practice nearly impossible at first, but noting practice gave me enough structure to support clearly experiencing the present moment. When I got more used to resting in the experience of the present moment, then the concentration flavor became more possible. And when resting in concentration states became easier, it was possible to notice even subtler aspects of the present moment that I couldn't sense before when my mind was so busy. This sort of back and forth is really common over long term practice.
There's no one right answer of what flavor of meditation you "should" do. Work with the reality of how practice seems to work for you. It's okay to emphasize concentration some days and insights other days, or even to change during a sit. Ultimately, what is most important is to learn how your mind experiences the present moment. Make a study of your own mind. Notice how thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations actually occur. Notice how greed, aversion, and indifference is part of your experience. Notice what causes frustrations. Notice what supports relief.
Here's a big hint: most of all, we learn that we need to accept what is already happening in experience. When we "fight" what is already occuring, we basically suffer. We learn and relearn this lesson in many different ways. All you really need to do is "see" how the mind works and this become obvious and we become transformed. The mind itself will naturally drop unhelpful and frustrating patterns of resistance and reactivity, but first you need to clearly see what is going on.
Hope this helps, best wishes!
