I thought I would provide a short update on my meditation practice, in case anyone would like to know. I have been sitting for 30 minutes every weekday morning.
First, I found that my mind isn’t quite stable enough to practice vipassana (insight) meditation as effectively as I would like. I did some research and discovered that many meditation teachers — including Daniel Ingram of www.InteractiveBuddha.com and author of Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha — suggest that one practice basic concentration meditation (aka ’shamatha’ in Sanskrit; ’samatha’ in Pali) to build up one’s concentration enough to practice vipassana in a meaningful way. From what I have gathered from some teachers, one doesn’t need to be an advanaced concentration meditator to do vipassana practice. Still, getting to know the territory is useful.
I haven’t been doing it for very long, but here’s what I have come to find out… Concentration practice is often called “tranquility meditation”, which seems ironic as a beginner. Most of the time, there is nothing tranquil about learning to concentrate on the breath. My mind is usually all over the place, and I have to constantly bring my attention back to the sensation of my breath. I have heard Jack Kornfield liken this experience to training a puppy. You ease the puppy in to a sitting position and say “Sit,” and the puppy sits – for a moment. The puppy then gets up and toddles away, to which you gently pick the puppy up and bring her back to a sitting position. This sort of kind attention is what is encouraged. I find this to be true. It does me no good to get frustrated with myself. If I am kind to my wandering mind it is much easier to bring it back in to focus.
I have been experiencing a positive change in my ability to concentrate — noticing more and more of the subtle sensations that compose the experience of breathing and improving my ability to stay focused on the process moment-to-moment. I still have a long way to go before anything really neat happens.
