Teachers Marcia Rose and Pat Coffey have over 60 years’ meditation experience between them. Marcia has led retreats at IMS for 18 years; she is also the founder and guiding teacher of The Mountain Hermitage in Taos, New Mexico. Pat began teaching in 1997; he is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville, Virginia and the Blue Ridge Prison Project. More recently, both have been drawn to the concentration and insight practices offered by Burmese meditation master Pa Auk Sayadaw and, in 2008, he authorized them to teach according to his method. Here they explore the topic of samadhi – meditative concentration – and its benefits.

Marcia & Pat, what is the Buddhist understanding of concentration?

Marcia: In Buddhist practice, concentration is defined as a gathering together of the energy of the mind. Usually, our minds wander randomly from one thing to another and this potentially powerful energy is dispersed. In order to harness and stabilize it, we need to focus our attention on an object. The breath is often used as such an object since it’s always with us and is readily available.

As we repeatedly attend to an object of concentration, the mind becomes increasingly focused, clear, relaxed, serene and peaceful.

Pat: The word ‘concentration,’ although a frequent translation of the Pali term samadhi, is a bit limited. When the mind is well established in samadhi, a rich range of mental factors simultaneously arise, including tranquility, equanimity, lightness, flexibility, faith and mindfulness.

There’s also an ethical element, the sense of right and wrong, as well as honesty. For example, successful thieves have great concentration – they can really focus on the task at hand, but they certainly don't have samadhi.

Can you give some examples of concentration practices?

Pat: The collection of techniques that cultivate concentration can be sorted into two baskets. You're either developing samadhi through continuous mindfulness of changing phenomena, or through maintaining awareness on a single point or object.

With the breath, we can pay attention to its many features, such as movement, vibration and pressure, and remain mindful with the entire moment-to-moment flow of experience as each breath unfolds. When we do that, we’re deepening concentration through continuous mindfulness.

Or, we can develop samadhi by placing our attention on one specific aspect of the breath, such as a small spot under the nostrils. In this case, we're not paying attention to all the breath’s various sensations, but instead simply resting the mind on that particular point as each in-breath and out-breath crosses back and forth. Imagine sawing a log. As the saw moves back and forth, there are many elements involved with that movement. But in this case, we're resting our attention solely on where the cut is happening.

Marcia: Practicing lovingkindness, compassion and other qualities known as the Brahma Viharas, or ‘divine abodes,’ can also develop and deepen concentration. If we’re repeating phrases, we can pay attention to their meaning and visualize the beings that are receiving the good wishes we’re sending. We can also notice the felt sense of each quality in itself. We can choose any one of these objects, or use all three of them at times. As we practice, the mind becomes filled with samadhi.

Walking meditation can also contribute to the deepening of concentration. It is often one of the first and easiest ways for people to develop samadhi. During a period of somewhat slowed-down walking, we simply bring a focused attention directly to the movement of the legs and feet, and the sensations taking place there. 

Does attitude play a role in cultivating samadhi?

Marcia: Definitely! Relaxation, humor and interest are very helpful and in fact necessary in concentration practice. I would start with relaxation – it’s at the crux. This is because it prevents difficulties from arising as concentration deepens. Trying too hard and striving to achieve certain pleasant mind states can result in tightness and suffering. We can lose a flexibility of mind and a lightness of being.

Pat: I love the paradox that the very deepest levels of samadhi described by the Buddha require a light, relaxed countenance toward the whole process. We need to bring to it both a robust energy yet also profound relaxedness. If students approach concentration practice with curiosity and ease of heart, they will fare much better. What’s helpful is an attitude of, “Hey, this is interesting, let's see what this practice is all about!” It’s simply unproductive to attempt to force the mind into one concentrated state or another.

How does concentration help insight to unfold?

Marcia: In beginning a mindfulness-based meditation practice our mind needs to learn to be at least somewhat concentrated. To connect with our experience, to truly know what is coming in through the sense doors of the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the touch, and the mind itself requires focus and stability. A tranquil and steady mind allows this kind of intimacy with our experience and is absolutely necessary for insight to arise.

The ability to stay focused develops over time. What happens is that we're connecting with and concentrating on our object one moment, but in the next, the mind has suddenly veered off somewhere. We’ve lost touch with the immediacy of our direct experience and have become absorbed in fantasy or memory or planning. At that point we need to gather the attention back again to the object. Every time we do this, concentration gets stronger and the mind becomes a little bit brighter and clearer.

This cycle happens again and again, throughout all the years of our practice. It's like a graceful dance – concentration and mindfulness continually interweaving back and forth with each other.

How does samadhi benefit our everyday lives?

Pat: Concentration is a very practical tool for living. Last year, while I was sitting a long retreat of samadhi practice at the Forest Refuge with Pa Auk Sayadaw, the economy went through a meltdown. When I got home, I had to deal with significant financial changes as well as a difficult set of relational and emotional issues going on around me. But what I noticed in myself was a pronounced increase in equanimity. As I endeavored to sort through everything and help where I could, I was able to remain present with my own and others’ suffering in a much deeper way than before. As the ability to collect the mind’s energy increases, we can stay present in intense situations without reacting or running away. We can make more skillful choices and act constructively with greater wisdom and compassion.

Marcia: Within less than a week after returning home from a three-month concentration retreat, also with Pa Auk Sayadaw, my income taxes were due. I have to admit that I dread tax preparation every year. Sure enough, old habits of mind went into full gear with thoughts coming up such as, "There's just no way I can do this. I can't think like this now, especially after my retreat."

But to my great surprise and delight, when I eventually sat down at my desk and began the work, I found the task amazingly easy. Completing my return went more quickly than ever before. I was well focused, and simply did what needed to be done without resistance. It was actually almost fun!

Pat: When the mind is more relaxed, rested and unified through concentration practice, we have a wonderful tool to help us live our lives. We can aim this integrated energy toward all kinds of exploration. We can contemplate the big spiritual questions like the nature of suffering, impermanence or the self, or the quality of love. Or, we can direct this clearer, cohesive, malleable mind toward more everyday questions like how to work with a troubled relationship, how to solve a gnawing problem, or how to hit a ball! Whatever we’re dealing with, the gathered, tranquil mind is more likely to offer skillful insights into the challenges at hand than a scattered, reactive mind.

Can concentration practice improve our health?

Pat:Concentration reduces stress. It's restorative. When the mind is gathered into a concentrated state, and not off in the future, rehashing the past, or fantasizing, the whole mind-body system gets a rest. Research has verified the healing benefits of basic mindfulness practice, which includes the development of concentration, of samadhi. Studies show an increase in the immune function as well as the ability to recover more quickly from the emotional wear and tear of suffering and loss.

Marcia:Concentration practice, leading to a mind more steeped in the qualities of samadhi, helps infuse our everyday activities with wisdom and lends an openheartedness and spaciousness to our interactions. Contentment, joy and ease are more often and more readily available. These beautiful and wholesome qualities profoundly reduce restlessness and agitation – destructive emotions such as worry and regret have nowhere to abide.

Marcia and Pat will lead a 5-day course, Wise Concentration: Steadying the Mind at IMS’s Retreat Center, December 18-23, 2009.