Concentration & Mindfulness

“Just as…in the last month of the hot season, when a mass of dust and

dirt has swirled up, a great rain cloud out of season disperses it and quells it

on the spot, so too concentration by mindfulness of breathing, when developed

and cultivated, is peaceful and sublime, an ambrosial pleasant dwelling…”

— Buddha

Contemplative and spiritual traditions across the ages emphasize the value of developing awareness of breathing. We’ve all heard the instruction to “follow the breath.” There is a reason it’s so common! Even after mastering all kinds of mental powers and learning to access deep spiritual states, the Buddha is said to have let go all of these things to become fully enlightened. At that moment, he simply sat under a tree and observed the natural flow of breath.

To observe the breath may not be the mundane thing we might think it is. With the right intention, learning to authentically observe the breath is a deep practice that develops gradually. When we can truly sit with the unfolding of breathing as it is, we create the conditions for powerful insights to occur regarding the nature of the mind and reality. What may initially seem mundane can evolve into a vivid knowing of deep, universal truths. And from the perspective of this practice, knowing leads to the highest form of happiness: peace.

When we begin meditating, we might wonder, “Am I supposed to be thinking about the breath?” It is important that we discover that the answer to this question is no. And it may be important to wonder why we might ask this question in the first place.

Imagine if you thought your body could only walk, lift, push, bend, and pull. The body can only do things to take care of essentials. Then one day you discover the body can dance. It can spin. It can sway and it can swim. There’s a whole new understanding of what the body can do. Our conditioned view of the mind is that it can only think, solve, strategize, evaluate, and analyze. What other faculties of mind are there? The breath can teach us.

One of these faculties is concentration. Concentration is the ability to steadily hold attention on a particular “object” of choice, like a sound, a sight, or the breath. Initially, concentration requires a degree of effort. When we start meditating, we must prompt ourselves to focus on some feature of the present moment, like the breath. Over time, concentration strengthens and becomes fruition as opposed to prompted effort.

But concentration is not enough. In this practice we do not only concentrate. We concentrate to observe. We direct attention on a particular object to sense it. Concentration exists to cultivate mindfulness.

If you have poor vision and use a magnifying glass to read very small text, you must hold the magnifying glass steadily. You must hold to see. This holding is like concentration. But you cannot see with your hand. Your hand is there to support vision. This is the relationship between concentration and mindfulness. The perceiving of the text is mindfulness. In meditation, the “text” are the sounds, images, body sensations, thoughts, and emotions that make up the present moment. Becoming mindful of the present moment leads to insight, freedom, and peace.

Ultimately, we want to develop a clear, vivid perception of things as they are without judgment. Mindfulness is this crystal clear perception and agenda-free attitude. When we establish concentration, mindfulness can blossom.

Mindfulness sees the words under its magnifying power. It sees the shape and dimension of each letter and the large space between things, which may have seemed small before. When concentration and mindfulness are both strong, mindfulness sees continuously, without missing a syllable. When we meditate, we are holding the magnifying glass steadily enough to be able to see things with pristine clarity, like the many moments within a single breath.

Mindfulness helps us perceive things at the non-intellectual level. The non-intellectual level means we see things directly, without filter. We see things before the intellect has time to categorize, label, and judge. When we see things directly, we are just there. We are completely awake and alive to the moment as it is—without a hint of conditioned ideas making up things about it. Direct seeing is an unconditioned space free of mental patterns interfering with concepts and categories, preferences, judgments and opinions.

Mindfulness helps us perceive the reality of movement and change. The breath, for example, is a direct expression of movement and change. The paradox of connecting to the present moment is that we are connecting to motion, rising, falling, birth, and death. We are connecting to our own little private section of the universe—as it is. Over time, this perception leads to a deep release and ease within the heart.