Concentration

Concentration Meditation

Basic Instructions:

Sit comfortably with your hands resting in your lap.

Keep your posture straight but relaxed.

Try not to move except to straighten up your back if your body begins to lean forward.

Let go of all thoughts related to the past and the future.

Simply focus on the touch sensation of the breath as it comes in and out of your nostrils.

Some feel that sensation by the tip of their nose, some around the rim of the nostrils and some by their top lip.

Take a deep breath and force the air out through your nostrils. See where the sensation is most prominent for you. That is where you will place your attention.

Try to experience and stay with the sensation created by the entire in-breath and the entire out-breath.

Don’t control the length of your breath; don’t follow your breath in or out of the body; and don’t manipulate the breath in any way – Just allow the breath to breathe itself.

Every time your attention leaves the breath, gently but firmly come back to noticing the touch sensations of the breath.

This is a direct and non-cognitive observation of your breath – there is no need to think about the experience.

Notes:

For advanced states of concentration see the Jhanas.