Concentration: Beginning Meditation Instruction
1. Resolve to set aside your life during this period of meditation. Use whatever images or ideas are
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caught up. I remind myself that meditating is the most important thing for me to do right now. If I
meditate, other tasks will more easily fall into place.
2. Relax the body, especially the chest and lower abdominal muscles
3. Close the eyes. Invite the cares of the world to drop away as well. Release any tension.
4. Form the intention to stay with the breath, no matter what. If the next breath were the last
breath of your life, if it stood between you and death, how carefully would you pay attention to that
breath? Would you miss a millisecond of it? Some day we will confront that last breath. The best
way to prepare for the inevitable is assiduous practice. Be diligent about each breath now.
5. Create a positive mood. One way is to take a few seconds to acknowledge how fortunate we are
to have found this path. Bring up feelings of gratitude for this teaching and for the opportunity to
practice. Also send good wishes to the millions of people who have protected this precious
information. There may be other individuals to whom you are in debt as well. Take a few seconds to
call them to mind. Wish that they, too, benefit from your meditation. (You may have strategies
already in place to generate a positive mood. Employ whatever works best for you.)
Initial breathing instructions
1. Learn about the breath
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long, jagged or smooth. See how it ebbs and flows. See how your body and mind are. Is the body
tense? Hurting? Is the mind agitated, tense, irritable, impatient or relaxed, calm, and open? Observe
how the breath conditions the body and mind, and how the body and mind condition the breath.
2. Take action to deepen the breath
Place one hand on the upper chest and one on the belly area. If y
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area hand should rise before the chest hand. I
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,
breathe all the way into the belly
for at least five breaths or more until you detect movement in the lower abdominal area occurring
first.
Observe the breath and see how long it takes for the air to pass in and out. Actually count. The
inhalation may be last until a count of three or four. After knowing the breath, relax the belly,
abdominal, and chest muscles even more and see if you can lengthen the inhalation by a count or
two. Do that until the breathing has been reset at a deeper, slower level. Once that has happened,
remain non-interfering with the breath and simply witness it. As we become more concentrated, the
breathing will deepen on its own.
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quick and shallow. This is unlikely, though.
Note: There is an exception to this quickening. In deep states of meditation, the heart will be beat
more rapidly and the breath will quicken just before entering into a deeper state. That is a natural
occurrence. It doe
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hlater when it
happens spontaneously.
3. Observe the whole body of the breath
To stay with the breath you can mentally say nose when the air enters the nostril, chest when it enters
the upper chest, belly when movement is sensed there, pause if that is what happens, and then repeat
this process in reverse. These words are the equivalent of training wheels that prevent falling over,
or in this case, falling off the breath.
Another word strategy that might help is to repeat the words in during the inhalation and out during
the exhalation. Label any pauses as well.
Or you can count the number of breaths. I prefer the same number for both the in breath and the
out breath. Only count to ten, and then go back to one. If you’
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mber you were at,
go back to one.
Some people use the words rising and falling.
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picking up as many nuances of the whole body of the breath as possible. For example, where does
the breathing begin? Which muscles move first? Then which? What does the pause feel like? Does it
seem like an inhalation has stopped but instead of an exhalation occurring, the lungs draw in more
air? Were you fully aware of how the pause felt?
Or else simply repeat the word watch as a pr
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precision, curiosity, and even a pleasant anticipation.
Whichever method you choose, stay with it. Plunge the mind into the successive aspects of the
breath. In this phase, we are making a sustained effort. Eventually this will not be necessary, but it is
critical at this juncture.
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no”or“
notnow”and immediately return to the breath. Don’
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with what is occurring. If greatly distracted, go back and intentionally do a set of five deep, slow
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Signs of deepening concentration
1. There are fewer thoughts. Noticeable silence and stillness fill the gap between thoughts. The
thinking, though persisting, is wispy and easier to dismiss. Also the thoughts may appear to be
happening back there, so to speak. They are no longer front and center. In deep states of
concentration, words become increasingly challenging to form in the mind. When articulating a
word, it seems as though we are pushing a heavy object through water. The task is difficult and
disagreeable.
2. Besides finding it easier to stay with the whole body of the breath, the activity itself becomes
enjoyable and interesting.
3. You may become aware of subtle sensations in the body which previously eluded you.
4. Something curious happens. The upper chest and lower abdominal area movements have reversed.
As the breathing slows and deepens, the lungs pull in more air, without any urging from the
meditator to do so. While this additional air is drawn in, the abdominal area caves during inhalation,
the opposite of what happened whe
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observe.
5. A pinprick of light may appear before you. Or there may be a swirling clear light or various
colored lights. As concentration deepens, this dot of light may evolve into a bright, stable, solid ball
of light resembling a sun. This light is traditionally called a nimitta which translates as the word
“
s
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g
n.
”What we are gazing at is the state of our mind. The light gathered into a tight ball is reflective
of a concentrated, one-pointed, collected mind. Swirling light indicates the beginning of
concentration but with less one-pointedness. The concentration is diluted and scattered. (A feedback
loop exists between our efforts at concentrating and the intensity of the light. The more we remain
focused with the light and the breath, the more the light will become more vibrant which in turn
makes it easier to collect and direct the mind.)
To deepen even more
1. Take your attention off the chest and abdomen and bring it to the area between your nostrils and
upper lip, immediately below your nose. For a couple of breaths, intentionally deepen your breathing
until you can feel air pass over that spot. Then allow your breathing to return to its natural, unforced
rhythm and keep the attention focused on that small location. Much greater concentration is
required to pick up sensations here. The inhalation is cooler and more obvious. The warmer
exhalation is subtle and more difficult to detect. Effort and concentration are required. Become
absorbed in detecting these subtle sensations.
2. Because the mind moves so quickly, it is possible to stay with the contact on the upper lip and,
instead of using a mental reminder to remain with that area, allow attention to move to the torso and
observe how it responds to the inhalation. In essence, the mind is moving very rapidly between the
upper lip area and the body. Be alert to any sign that air is passing out through the nostrils and
return quickly to where the exhalation touches the skin around or below the nose. Be alert to
whether the inhalations and exhalations involve both nostrils or only one. Does it stay that way?
Meticulous attention leads to greater concentration.
3. Our mind grows in concentration and becomes more refined as we progressively capture fainter
and fainter sensations. What to do when the breath vanishes is the next challenge. You may deploy
one or two words as anchors to support the mindfulness. Try the word watch again or consider the
words stay, still, wait, or precise knowing. Don’
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or
one word causes the mind to move. This mental volition is reflected by swirling light. No desire, no
intention, no like or dislike. Total letting go. This is how we move deeper into concentration. Once
or twice silently saying the word release can also help. When thinking release, allow all tension or
holding throughout your entire body to fall away.
© Susan Pembroke, 2007, Insight Meditation of Ventura