Hey everybody

my goal at the moment is to attain access concentration but I'm a little confused on how to do the meditation on the breath.

the way I've been doing it is to count every exhale trying to get to 10 but returning to 1 if a  destracting thought pops in my head. Doing it this way I'm able to usually get to 6 before a destracting thought pops in my head. But I read somewhere else that I didn't need to restart at 1 unless I completely lost track of what number I was on and that I can just ignore the thoughts and keep counting aslong as i kept track on which numeber I was on.

if the latter is true I may already have access concentration because I found I can count my breaths for at least 5 minutes before i completely lose track of the number I'm on. What's the correct way exactly?

Hi, Billy,

There's no such thing as an "official," "correct" way to count the breaths. Different teachers teach different practices. Your best bet is to pick one teacher and follow along with their instructions.

There are different definitions for access concentration. What you describe fulfills one of the weaker definitions. If you do that as prerequisite for noting, that should be sufficient. (Although, noting can also be done completely without preparation before, if done right.)

This eliminates the extra thought "what number was I on?" It also makes it easy to note how far I got before losing it.