(Richard Shankman) The Art and Skill of Buddhist M PDF

“What a joy to read The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation.
This
book is filled with the author’s warmth, wisdom, and compassion.
Richard Shankman has offered a very clear and user-friendly com-
panion for anyone wanting to learn meditation. … A great gift.”
—Bob Stahl, PhD, coauthor of A Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Workbook, Living with Your Heart Wide Open,
Calming the Rush of Panic, A Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Workbook for Anxiety, and MBSR Every Day
“A wonderfully clear, simple yet thorough book on how to practice

Buddhist meditation! Richard Shankman does a masterful job at
guiding us through the natural and powerful interplay of mindful-
ness, concentration, and insight. Whether you are new to meditation
or an experienced practitioner, this is a book to keep close at hand.”
—Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and
True Refuge
“In simple, clear language, [Shankman] shares how mindfulness,

concentration, and insight form one complete path. A wonderful
guide for practice! While valuable for anyone, people who can’t easily
access a meditation teacher or supportive community will especially
appreciate this book.”
—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness
“A brilliant introduction to meditation practice. Infused with

Richard Shankman’s compassion, this practical and wise book pro-
vides the tools needed for individuals to deepen their practice and
find their own way on the path of meditation.”
—Gil Fronsdal, teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and
Insight Meditation Center, and author of The Issue at Hand,
A Monastery Within, and a translation of The Dhammapada
“Richard Shankman’s new book, The Art and Skill of Buddhist
Meditation, is a wonderfully clear and straightforward guide for deep-
ening our understanding of the meditative process. Based on his
many years of practice and study, he offers a unified vision of the
path, with many helpful and practical suggestions all along the way.
An important contribution for navigating the inner journey.”
—Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness
“Here is a book that you will turn to again and again over the years
of your practice because it speaks to both the possibilities and the
challenges of meditation. Richard Shankman offers clear instruc-
tions on how to establish a meditation practice as well as specific
guidance through some of the deepest practices of concentration
and insight.”
—Phillip Moffitt, author of Dancing with Life and
Emotional Chaos to Clarity
“This book is like having a skilled meditation coach by your side.

Richard will teach you the basics of meditation, and then keep refin-
ing your approach, anticipating the highs and lows you’ll meet over
years of practice. He combines ease of understanding with a real
depth in both concentration and insight. This book offers valuable
tips for both new and experienced meditators.”
—Guy Armstrong, senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation
Center and the Insight Meditation Society
The
A rt And S kill
of B uddhiSt
M editAtion
mindfulness, concentration, and insight
R I C H AR D S H A NKMA N
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Publisher’s Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the
subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in
rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or
counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books
Translations in Chapter 8 of the jhana definitions are by the author.
Translations of the jhana similes are reprinted with permission:

Excerpts from The Middle Length Discourses of The Buddha: A New Translation of the
Majjhima Nikâya, translated by Bhikkhu Ñânamoli, edited and revised by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Copyright © 1995 by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions
Company, Inc., on behalf of Wisdom Publications, http://www.wisdompubs.org.
Copyright © 2015 by R
ichard Shankman
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
5674 Shattuck Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.newharbinger.com
Cover design by Amy Shoup; Interior design by Michele Waters-Kermes;

Acquired by Jess O’Brien; Edited by Ken Knabb
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shankman, Richard.
The art and skill of Buddhist meditation : mindfulness, concentration, and insight /
Richard Shankman.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-62625-293-6 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-62625-294-3 (pdf e-book) -- ISBN
978-1-62625-295-0 (epub) 1. Meditation--Buddhism. 2. Theravada Buddhism. I. Title.
BQ5612.S525 2015
294.3’4435--dc23
2015014898
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First printing
Contents
Introduction 1
1 Establishing the Foundation for Meditation 15
2 Beginning Instructions 33
3 As Concentration Begins to Grow 47
4 Working with Difficulties 59
5 Right Concentration 71
6 Deepening Concentration 81
7 Strong Energies and Challenging Experiences 89
8 Jhana: The Culmination of Concentration 101
9 Insight 123
10 Equanimity 137
Introduction
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
P
erhaps nothing is more emblematic of Buddhism than the
image of a monk in silent meditation. With closed eyes and
attention inward drawn, it evokes in us a sense of wisdom,
peace, and calm.
Ever since the Buddha’s great awakening and discovery of a long-
forgotten path to inner peace and happiness, meditators have fol-
lowed in his footsteps. Ordinary people just like us have undertaken
the same practices that have been handed down throughout the
centuries. They have seen for themselves the treasures these teach-
ings might hold in their own lives. We can realize the peace and
happiness the Buddha discovered 2500 years ago.
This book is a travel guide along that same path to inner peace,
meditation as it has been preserved and taught in the Theravada
tradition of Buddhism. Theravada means “school of the elders” and
is the oldest living Buddhist tradition, the only one of the earliest
Buddhist schools surviving today. Its texts are preserved in the Pali
language.
This is a book of exploration and discovery. We will explore the
essential elements of meditation, from beginning mindfulness to the
deeper stages of concentration and insight—learning how to culti-
vate and strengthen them, and how to bring them together in our
practice. We will discover the greatness of our capacity for wisdom,
love, and kindness as we open to deep states of calm, clarity, and
peace.
Meditation is not something mysterious or complicated.
Meditation is accessible and practical. Its benefits are available for
anyone interested in discovering what it may have to offer. Its prac-
tices and techniques are simple to do. Meditation is about learning
how to live peacefully with quiet minds and open hearts. All the
things we may have heard about that can come from meditation—
wisdom, peace, and calm—we can realize for ourselves.
Buddhist meditation comprises a variety of practices for calming
our mind and increasing awareness of our thoughts, moods, and
2
Introduction
emotions. Being more aware of our experience offers the chance for
meeting any situation in a more balanced way. We have the possibil-
ity to respond wisely when we can be more fully present and less reac-
tive with whatever happens. We learn to move through all the ups
and downs of life with balance and an inner sense of well-being.
Why Meditate?
You may be drawn to meditation for many reasons. You may be
looking for a way to manage your stress and feel more peaceful and
calm. Perhaps you want to quiet your mind, which is scattered all
over the place, to stop obsessing and learn to relax. Or you are
dealing with chronic pain or illness, or any other challenging situa-
tion that is hard to endure, and you are looking for tools to help.
Sometimes we don’t know exactly what we are looking for, but we
know we are suffering or struggling in some way and have heard that
meditation might help.
All of these benefits are available to us. Peace and joy may seem
distant, but they are in actuality not so far away. They are within
each of us, but we must turn our attention inward and come to know
ourselves. With practice your mind will become trained and a natural
sense of calm and contentment will follow.
The ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation and teachings is to
guide us toward a nonreactive equanimity and inner peace in the
midst of all aspects of our lives. Beyond the importance and benefit
of fostering the valuable skills of stress reduction, pain management,
and relaxation, on a more fundamental level Buddhist teachings are
asking us to make a shift in how and where we look for happiness,
with far-reaching and profound consequences for our well-being.
Buddhist meditation is a mosaic of wise and skillful means for
cultivating wholesome qualities of our hearts and minds, enabling us
to live and act in ways that create more happiness and less suffering
3
for others and ourselves. We can learn to respond skillfully to any

situation, with wisdom rather than reactivity. As we move about our
daily lives with increasing open-heartedness and calm, we can meet
our difficulties and learn to work with them.
The Buddha’s Teaching

Buddhism is a down-to-earth, practical teaching. It is not interested
in metaphysics or philosophy but, rather, in concrete steps we can
apply directly to our life. The Buddha was inviting us to take an
honest look at our life situation and ourselves. He was helping us
find a way to lasting peace and happiness in the midst of life as it is.
The Buddha’s teachings, known as dharma, offer a framework for
understanding our world and ourselves. Though these teachings can
seem complicated or imposing, their essence is expressed in a concise,
yet comprehensive, formula: the Four Noble Truths.
The First Noble Truth is that life involves suffering, that life con-
tains an unavoidable element of uncertainty and stress. One of the
most misunderstood of all Buddhist concepts is the teaching on suf-
fering. Many people believe the Buddha taught that life is suffering,
but this a misconception. Buddhism acknowledges the obvious fact
that life contains both happiness and misery, pleasure and pain.
It is not that there is no happiness to be found in this life. Getting
happiness by having more of what we want and getting rid of experi-
ences we do not like certainly bring their own rewards. But those
rewards are not enduring. No experience will give us a stable, secure
sense of satisfaction because everything is constantly changing and
nothing is going to last.
Seeking our happiness solely in having or not having certain
experiences— we call that a conditioned happiness, because it is
dependent on circumstances—is a fragile kind of well-being. Even
when things are going well, we know that the security and happiness
4
Introduction
of the moment will ultimately be lost. On some level we know that

life is uncertain, tenuous at best, and that anything can happen at
any time. This can leave us feeling uneasy, never really at peace.
Because everything is destined to change, we suffer when we cling to
anything, when we try to hold on to what cannot last or fight against
our experience when it is not to our liking.
This is the First Noble Truth, that life is uncertain and unreli-
able. We can appreciate the happiness of the moment, but when the
situation inevitably changes we suffer if we try to hold on to the past
we long for or push away the present we wish to be different than it
is. We do not suffer if we can learn to let go and be at peace with the
ever-changing flow of life.
The Second Noble Truth is that the suffering in our lives has a
cause. This cause is usually translated as desire or craving. Another
common misconception is that Buddhism teaches that desire is bad,
that we are supposed to get rid of all desires. But the Buddha stressed
the importance of wholesome desire. If you did not desire to under-
stand Buddhist teachings and apply them in your life, you would not
be drawn to meditation.
Most of us spend most of our time striving to get or hold on to
more of those situations, people, and things we think will make us
happy, and avoiding those we think will make us unhappy. We seek
to have more pleasant experiences and fewer unpleasant ones. No
one wants to have less of what they want and more of what they
don’t want in life. When things are not going our way, we can’t wait
for them to change. And when things are going well, we forget, we
become complacent and caught up in our daily affairs, thinking
everything will just continue on and on as it has been. But some-
times you get what you want and sometimes you do not, and some-
times you get what you do not want at all.
So the Second Noble Truth is that we create suffering by cling-
ing to things or pushing them away, all because of a particular kind
of desire: craving. Through wholesome desire we are motivated and
5
inspired to seek what is beneficial and good for ourselves and others.
When healthy desire turns into craving, we cannot stand to be
without those things or to let them go. When we are craving, our
desire is so strong that we must have it, keep it, or get rid of it.
The Third Noble Truth is that there is an end to suffering. The
enlightenment the Buddha discovered is often called a liberation
through nonclinging. We can learn to ride the waves, navigating
life’s inevitable ups and downs with balance and grace. We can learn
to let go of our suffering and live peacefully with quiet minds and
open hearts in the midst of all that life gives us. All Buddhist teach-
ings, and all the various meditation practices and techniques, are
aids in service of this goal.
In the Fourth Noble Truth, the Buddha laid out a system for how
to live and practice in order to cultivate wholesome qualities of our
hearts and minds. This system is the Noble Eightfold Path. The first
two elements of the Eightfold Path, Right Understanding (also
known as Right View) and Right Intention, make up the wisdom
section, and entail understanding the Buddha’s teachings in order to
aim one’s efforts in the right direction. The morality or virtue section
comprises the next three pieces, Right Speech, Right Action, and
Right Livelihood. The final section is the path of meditation, the
focus of this book, consisting of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and
Right Concentration.
The Eightfold Path is a holistic system. Each factor is necessary
for and dependent upon all the others. Most of this book focuses on
the meditation section of the Eightfold Path but you cannot bypass
the other elements, and they will be incorporated throughout the
discussions. Without the wisdom to understand where you are
aiming you cannot reach your goal, so you need Right Understanding
and Right Intention. And your mind cannot settle down in medita-
tion if you are mistreating others or embroiled in conflict, so you
need to establish a foundation of virtue: Right Speech, Right Action,
and Right Livelihood.
6
Introduction
The Building Blocks of Meditation

Meditation aims us toward a more reliable way to find happiness, in
which our well-being is not left to chance and life’s uncertainties.
Meditation is learning to let go of our obsessive tendencies of grasp-
ing for things we want and pushing away those we do not like, and
to begin to look for happiness in how we relate to what is happening.
We can find peace in any circumstance by letting go of craving and
clinging, and by changing how we relate to whatever life brings us.
The concept of letting go and nonclinging is simple, but we soon
find out that what sounds so simple, letting go of our suffering, is
hard to do. To actualize this, we need to train our minds to more
thoroughly learn how to let go. Our reactive patterns are strong and
it is so easy for us to get caught over and over in our daily lives. If we
say, “Do not cling to things or push anything away,” perhaps we can
do it in a given moment, but as soon as the right experience finds us,
the particular causes and conditions arise—we are caught once
again in our habitual reactive patterns. This is the place for
meditation.
There are many meditation practices and they all aim to develop
the key qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, mindfulness, con-
centration, and insight.
Loving-Kindness and Compassion

A balanced meditation practice, as well as a balanced life, is built
upon a foundation of kindness and compassion. Some people find
their hearts opening naturally as mindfulness, concentration, and
insight grow. For others it is helpful to devote part or all of their
practice to developing such kindness and compassion.
Compassion for ourselves supports us in difficult times, when we
are struggling to find a way to let go. Compassion for others helps us
relate to them with empathy and kindness, instead of reactivity and
7
aversion. We learn how to engender kind thoughts and feelings and

how to work skillfully to let go of negativity, seeking to suffuse a
compassionate attitude into our meditation and our lives.
Mindfulness
Meditation begins with mindfulness. I define mindfulness in a
simple way, as not being lost on “automatic pilot.” Mindfulness
means knowing whatever is happening rather than being caught up
in your experience. It means being aware of yourself and your sur-
roundings, not just going through the motions unaware of what you
are doing. Being mindful means being awake to and fully present in
any moment.
You can be mindful of anything. You can be aware of your
thoughts and moods, what is happening in your body and what is
going on around you. When you know your emotions without being
entangled in them, you are able to make wise choices in how to
respond to situations. You gain a balanced perspective that allows for
greater freedom in meeting the flow of life’s ups and downs.
Becoming more aware of your own experience, of what is hap-
pening in your mind and body, also helps foster a greater under-
standing of what other people are going through. You can notice
those around you and how you are interacting with them. Having
some space between your experience and your response to it opens
you to greater possibilities and choice in how to act. Recognizing
your mental and emotional patterns, you can begin to shift habitual
behaviors.
In this book we will explore various ways to use and direct your
attention in a purposeful way to strengthen concentration and
insight. The first meditation practice I will offer is called mindful-
ness of breathing. This practice will help you learn how to connect
with your breathing, so that your mind will grow more steady, more
calm, and less distracted.
8
Introduction
Concentration
Through the proper use of mindful attention you will learn how
to compose and settle your mind, developing the quality of concen-
tration. To be concentrated means your awareness is calm, collected,
and undistracted. To be undistracted means your mind is not con-
stantly wandering. You can direct your focus where and when you
want and keep it there. A concentrated mind is amazingly clear and
perceptive, beyond what is normally accessible.
With a steady, undistracted awareness, mindfulness can pene-
trate deeply and subtly as you turn your attention inward. A concen-
trated mind is described as being rid of impurities, bright, free from
blemishes, flawless, pliable, adaptable, steady, and composed and
collected. It is with this quality of mind that we turn toward insight.
Insight
We do not need the Buddha to tell us about suffering and stress.
We know all about it. What we do not know, and what we need help
with, is what to do about it. This is where insights can really help us.
A lot of emphasis is put on insight in Buddhist meditation.
Insight means understanding the way things are, including life’s
uncertain and impermanent nature, and acknowledging and making
peace with life on its own terms. We come to understand the inner
workings of our mind and the nature of our body as it ages.
Insight blossoms as we connect with and come to know ourselves
deeply and intimately. Increasingly, as mindfulness and concentra-
tion grow, we are able to clearly and directly perceive ever-subtler
places of reactivity, their causes, and the way to let them go. We can
see our habitual patterns and tendencies that lead to stress. We know
when we are caught in those patterns and tendencies and under-
stand how to let go of stress through nonclinging.
9
In the Buddha’s path of awakening we seek to strengthen mind-

fulness and steady our minds in order to more clearly see things the
way they really are. How to do this is the subject of this book.
Paths of Meditation
The various meditation practices all belong to one of three main
branches of the meditation family: insight meditation, concentration
meditation, and concentration and insight integrated as a single
style of practice. Concentration and insight are both important in all
these meditative paths. Because there is not just one way meditation
is practiced and taught, there can be some confusion about how
these two aspects of the practice fit together.
Insight meditation is often viewed and taught as a practice sepa-
rate and distinct from concentration meditation. In this understand-
ing, insight is equated with mindfulness, the present- moment
awareness of whatever is happening. In the path of insight
meditation—vipassana in Pali (pronounced vih-PAH-suh-nuh)—
you apply mindfulness to meet your moment-to-moment experience,
without any special effort devoted to cultivating concentration.
Some degree of concentration will develop naturally as you sustain
your attention on the array of experiences coming and going during
the meditation session.
By paying attention to what is happening in each moment, you
begin to clearly perceive and have insight into where you are cling-
ing to or fighting against your experience. You start to learn how to
meet difficulties and work with your suffering wisely. Meditators
practicing in this style may not be concerned with developing the
deeper stages of concentration, feeling that however much concen-
tration naturally develops through mindful attention to their chang-
ing experiences is sufficient.
10
Introduction
In the path of concentration meditation, you are concerned with

the attainment of meditative states of highly undistracted awareness.
Concentration meditation primarily seeks to calm and steady the
mind. Some degree of insight develops naturally, as a result of being
so undistracted, but the emphasis is on attaining deep stages of con-
centration known as jhana. (We will explore jhana in depth in a
later chapter.) Those meditating in this way feel that refining their
ability to remain undistracted enhances insight, and so they may
turn to the practices of insight meditation only after developing con-
centration to a high degree.
In this book we are going to explore the third branch of medita-
tion, in which concentration and insight are brought together as a
single path of practice. In this style of meditation, concentration and
insight are given equal emphasis. The aim is to develop the deeper
levels of each, keeping both in mind at every step.
How to Use This Book

The practice presented here synthesizes mindfulness, concentration,
and insight into a single, integrated path of meditation practice. I
will offer specific guidance for cultivating both insight and concen-
tration. This book will help you find the approaches and techniques
that work best for you, offering a range of instructions for working
with various possibilities of what can happen in meditation. Although
no book can address every possible experience you can have in medi-
tation, I will discuss the most common experiences that tend to arise
as the meditation process unfolds, as well as a range of techniques
suitable for dealing with those experiences.
Your task will be to engage in the various practices as best you
can, and see what results you get. What you do next will depend on
your experience from the previous practice. We do not want to
11
bounce around from one thing to another, but we do want to remain

receptive to see if something really is not working and to be ready to
let it go and try something else.
This book is designed for both beginning and experienced medi-
tators. Even if you are experienced, I suggest reading the first couple
of chapters to get a sense of how concentration and insight can come
together as one path.
If you are new to meditation, see what practices you are drawn
to. Some will resonate with you. Give them a try. Some you will not
relate to at all. Let those go. If you do not know or have a sense of
which practice to use, pick mindfulness of breathing and stay with
that a while. With time and with experience you will come to know
what works and what does not. In subsequent chapters I will talk
about how to proceed, depending on what happens as your medita-
tion practice develops.
You should not expect to be an expert meditator in a single day.
When learning anything new, it can take patience and perseverance
to see results. Do not be surprised, and do not be hard on yourself, if
you find it is not easy to sit quietly with yourself. Through repetition,
and some degree of trial and error, we go from those clumsy first
steps to a sense of proficiency and ease.
I am often asked how much time you should devote to medita-
tion. The answer is however much you are inclined to do and your
life circumstances will allow. Many people find that beginning with
fifteen to twenty minutes a day is a good way to start. Once you have
gained some experience, try sitting a little longer, perhaps half an
hour. See how that works for you. Some people work their way up to
forty-five minutes or an hour, or more, or sit more than once a day.
In general, as with anything you wish to develop, the more time you
give to meditation, the more you will get out of it. Just do the best
you can. Any amount of time spent sitting quietly will be of benefit.
12
Introduction
As you begin, take some time to reflect on your aspirations and

intentions for undertaking these ancient practices. You would not be
drawn to meditation and Buddhist teachings if you did not want to
live with more clarity, calmness, wisdom, and compassion, in a way
that creates less suffering and more well-being for yourself and others.
Keeping your good intentions in mind will be a great support
through all the ups and downs of a meditative life as you begin this
journey of awakening, following in the Buddha’s footsteps.
13
Chapter 1
Establishing the
Foundation for
Meditation
M
editation comprises a wide array of skillful means. There
are many meditation practices to choose from. Even if
we all undertook the same meditation practice, regard-
less of what that practice entailed, we would have our own individual
experiences.
Though we have many things in common, we are also unique
and meditation unfolds differently for each of us. As a result, how
best to work and what is needed in order to proceed at each step will
be different for each of us. There is no single right or best technique
or approach that is suitable for everyone, and so no instruction will
be appropriate for all of us in all circumstances, no method univer-
sally effective or desirable in all situations. What is most useful for
one person in dealing with a particular situation or experience may
not prove useful for the next person, and may actually be
counterproductive.
Concentration and insight, and all the various meditation prac-
tices and techniques for developing them, rest upon the foundation
of mindfulness. Mindfulness means being aware of whatever is hap-
pening in any given moment. When you are angry or worried or
stressed, you know it. When you are happy and at ease, you know
that. You know your internal world, the feelings in your body, your
emotions, thoughts, and moods, and you are mindful of the world
around you. Whatever is happening, you can be mindful of it. In the
next chapter you will learn specific practices to begin applying mind-
fulness in meditation, starting with mindfulness of breathing.
Through the practice of mindfulness you train your mind to
settle and focus by directing your attention purposefully in a skillful
way, and your ability to remain collected and stable increases. Being
undistracted means your awareness can remain steady, without
jumping around or wandering away. We use that undistracted aware-
ness to more clearly come to know whatever is happening moment
by moment, leading to insight. Practicing mindfulness leads to
16
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
insight because you are looking directly into the nature of your own
mind, body, and all experience.
Concentration and insight work together. Each can be a doorway
for opening to the other. We must enlist them both, though one or
the other may be emphasized at any particular time.
If you begin with concentration, you have to employ all the
resources and support of mindfulness. You are making your mind
steady, collected, and undistracted, so that your attention is not scat-
tered. Your perceptions become powerful and the deepening of
insight must follow.
If you emphasize insight in your meditation, you use mindfulness
to investigate the conditioned and changing nature of your mind,
your body, and all phenomena. You cannot help but strengthen and
bring to bear the power of a steady mind. You may naturally incline
in one direction or the other, but concentration and insight can
never really be separated.
The more concentrated you are, the clearer and more refined
your mind becomes and, because your awareness is unclouded,
insights come on profound levels. A clear steady awareness illumi-
nates your mind, allowing previously inaccessible and subtle areas of
clinging and suffering to be revealed, so that you can see whether or
not you truly are resting peacefully in the stream of nonclinging.
Your perceptions are not only more subtle; because of concentra-
tion’s penetrative power, their ability to permeate and transform you
is greatly enhanced.
Sometimes you may choose to lean more on the concentration
side and other times you might emphasize the deepening of insight.
And sometimes meditation will take you in a direction other than
what you intended. The emphasis in another direction will emerge
on its own. We want to remain receptive to how our experience
changes over the course of days or weeks, or throughout a single
meditation session, and to be open to letting go of how we think
things are supposed to be.
17
As your practice develops, the times when concentration is

strong—when the mind is settled, clear, and sharp and it is easy to
let other experiences stay in the background—will increase. During
those times, remain simply with mindfulness of your breathing, or
with other practices I will offer, working skillfully to strengthen the
concentration, letting it run as far and deep as it can go. You will
have lots of opportunities for insight to develop within the concen-
tration practice since, through the deepening clarity concentration
brings, you will naturally become more and more aware of a full
range of experiences in your body and states of your mind and heart.
There will also be many times when you will not be able to con-
centrate. Your mind may become dull or scattered, or you may have
to deal with hindrances or suffering in some way. Something you do
not like will push to the forefront of your awareness and you will find
yourself struggling or tense. You will naturally find yourself on the
insight side of practice as you learn how to work in these situations.
All of these times, when you cannot concentrate, when difficulties
arise, as well as the times throughout your day outside of meditation,
are rich areas for insight to grow as you learn to meet them with a
quiet mind and open heart.
Even when your concentration is strong and your mind is clear
and bright, you may choose to turn your attention toward investigat-
ing your experience, whether it is bringing mindfulness to meet some
thought, emotion, or sensation in the body, or specifically looking for
the characteristics of any experience, such as how it arises and passes
away. In those times you are choosing to turn toward the insight side
of the practice. You do not have to try and figure out when those
times are, but can just follow your intuition where it leads you.
Dharma practice entails working skillfully with whatever is
before you, with what is happening right now, right here in your
experience. By remaining attuned to the natural unfolding of medi-
tation, your experience will tell you what is needed, and whether you
18
are on the concentration side of the practice or when the emphasis

turns to insight.
What Does a Healthy Meditation

Practice Look Like?
Before starting any practice or technique, we must establish a base of
Right Understanding and Right Intention and have a basic idea of
what our goals are. Bringing a sense of ease to your practice will help
you relax into the present moment without overstriving, allowing
you to meet and work skillfully with all that can happen in medita-
tion. If you can meet your experience with an attitude of kindness
and self-compassion, you will avoid falling into self- criticism or
struggle during the times of challenge. Patience prepares you for
working with any hindrances that may arise. These are the founda-
tions upon which meditation is built.
Balanced Effort
In this practice we are trying both to get somewhere and to go
nowhere at all, doing two apparently contradictory things at the
same time. Sometimes dharma practice is talked about in terms of
“going nowhere” or “nothing to gain,” so it can seem confusing when
we speak of cultivating or attaining meditative states of concentra-
tion and insight. These two aspects of practice, progressing along a
path and going nowhere, appear to be at odds.
You would not undertake anything if you did not want to get
something from it. Of course we want to be more concentrated,
more peaceful, more quiet and clear. It’s okay to want that—in fact
the Buddha said that the pleasure of concentration should be
pursued, developed, and cultivated.
19
This seeming contradiction resolves itself when we understand

that we are actually doing only one thing: aiming ourselves in a
wholesome direction and, at the same time—at each step along the
path—resting aware of and present with whatever is happening. We
are moving along a path of practice by cultivating and strengthening
meditative states and wholesome qualities of our mind and heart,
and we do it simply by staying present with and connecting mind-
fully with whatever is happening, moment by moment. Getting
somewhere and going nowhere are both true at the same time.
The deeper stages of concentration are not stages of gaining or
doing, but profound states of letting go. How can we want something
while letting go of desire for it to happen? How can we devote our-
selves to a path of progress, pursue it wholeheartedly, without making
it an object of craving and clinging?
Our task is to learn how to get it but not grasp for it. As your
mind begins to steady and the momentum of concentration builds,
you learn to apply yourself ever more skillfully, recognizing more
clearly what works and what is not helpful. By remaining mindful
and clearly aware, not only of what is happening but how you are
relating to what is happening, mental steadiness and clarity deepen
and you can stay connected with equanimity and ease. Practicing in
this way, our goals for developing wholesome qualities of calm,
clarity, and peace do not become corrupted into overstriving. We
want to apply ourselves well, but not fall away from a peaceful abiding
in the present moment into longing for something else.
Right Effort is nonstriving effort. The idea of effort often con-
notes a sense of hard work and a determined push. I am suggesting
another approach, a balanced effort that is skillful and that has
nothing to do with striving or straining and everything to do with
ease and relaxation, with maintaining a sense of connecting and
allowing within mindful presence.
If we think there is something we have to attain, some place we
have to reach, or any experience we must get other than the one we
20
are having, we are out of balance; but we are also out of balance and
do ourselves a disservice if we become complacent. Knowing when
to make effort and when to relax and just allow is an art—an art
that can take time and experience to cultivate and that comes for
most people through a certain degree of trial and error. Try to let go
of any expectation, resting as relaxed as you can in your present-
moment experience, and then to practice in a way that naturally
leads to deepening.
Ups and downs in energy, enthusiasm, and interest all come and
go. At times you may notice a real decrease in wanting to meditate.
Sometimes you will be motivated and sometimes you may be bored,
even with pleasant meditative states. We can experience inspiring
states of meditation and then feel bogged down in aversion or
resistance.
When you hit a wall, sometimes the best thing to do is to keep
meditating, regardless of how you feel. It can very valuable and
important to sit through the hindrances. At other times it is more
skillful to let go of any preconceived form, maybe going for a walk or
reading instead. This is different from just following your likes and
dislikes. I suggest experimenting with both approaches. If the equa-
nimity and awareness is strong, then it does not matter what the
form looks like. Just live in the flow of your experience with a mind
of nonclinging. Let your inner teacher be your guide and look hon-
estly at the results. That will inform you what is needed next.
Ease and Relaxation

It can feel especially demanding when first starting out if you are
restless and it is hard to sit still, or if you keep falling asleep, or your
body is not used to the sitting posture and hurts. Perhaps you can
only manage one or two mindful breaths before becoming so deeply
lost in thought that you completely forget about being with the
breath for the next ten minutes. The typical untrained mind is out
21
of control; just at the time when we are the least settled, calm, or
peaceful, and when we could use a lot of concentration and stability
to help us be present with all these difficulties, we have these quali-
ties the least.
Recognize that it takes practice and training for the mind to
begin to settle and, just as with any art or skill, we are not going to
become expert meditators in a single day. Proficiency and ability
develop over time, yet many of us sit down to meditate and expect
our minds to be quiet and peaceful right away. It should not surprise
us that meditation can be challenging in the beginning. Our minds
are not trained. Reflect on how much time you have spent on auto-
matic pilot, led around by your likes and dislikes with a distracted
mind. That is a lot of time training your mind to be scattered and
not present.
Ajahn Chah, the great Thai meditation master, compared medi-
tation practice with growing a chili bush. He said our job is to prepare
the soil, plant the seed, water it, and protect it from insects. That is
our whole job. We do our part, and after that how fast or in what
manner it grows is not our business. You cannot pull on the leaves
and expect them to grow. Yet in meditation we expect the plant to
grow, flower, and produce chilies in one day.
All you can do is aim yourself in the right direction. How medi-
tation unfolds, how quickly and in what way, is not within your
control. Here is where the quality of patience will serve to support
you very well. Your job is to practice the best you can, connecting
with whatever experience the breath, body, and mind are giving you.
You do not have to be better at meditation than you are, and that
includes your capacity to let the process unfold and reveal itself in its
own way. Patience and the wisdom to not suffer are among the skills
you are cultivating by doing your best to let go of struggle and relax
into your experience.
Ease and relaxation are foundational to meditation practice. We
cannot even begin to settle if we are struggling. Consciously
22
beginning by bringing in a sense of relaxation and ease, just the best

you can, will help you let go of constriction and tension and take the
striving out of the process.
Opening to the Present Moment

Meditation practice is an exploration, a process of recognizing
and fostering what is skillful and learning to let go of what is unskill-
ful. If our practice is about learning, then we are not afraid of any-
thing that might happen. We need not worry because whatever
happens is teaching us. If we regard every experience as a teacher, we
can apply ourselves with an attitude of experiment and inquiry, not
judging our meditation in terms of how concentrated we are, as so
many of us do, but with interest to find out what is real and true.
We can be curious, doing the best we can to meet our experience
with inquisitiveness and look to see if what we are doing is helpful or
unhelpful. What we learn we can apply to the next situation. Even
falling into struggle is an opportunity for learning; it helps you to
realize that you are unable to be equanimous in this situation.
Instead of floundering in self-judgment or criticism, merely look to
see what happened. Any time you discover an edge—those things,
situations, and experiences you feel you cannot be with—important
areas for growth are revealed. Whatever happened is teaching you,
giving you information, informing you how to move forward.
A big shift came in my own practice when I got just as interested
in my suffering as I was in my bliss. As my mind became less dis-
tracted, I could see more and more clearly every time something
unpleasant or painful would arise and how my mind responded. I
began to stop worrying about whether or not I was getting what I
wanted and turned to my experience with an attitude of interest and
investigation.
Let your experience of the moment be your teacher. See if you
can turn directly to meet whatever is happening, even if it is painful.
23
That does not mean you have to stay with it, making yourself plunge
into something difficult, scary, or distressing, if it is too much for you.
You have to look and see what is needed, letting however much skill,
experience, and wisdom you have show you the way. It may be that
you choose to stay right in the fire of an uncomfortable feeling,
emotion, or memory, or you may back away, bringing down the
intensity to get some relief in order to give you the rest and resources
you need.
If you are judging yourself or your experience, try your best to
stop. Do not make it a struggle to stop struggling, but try to let it go
as best you can. Sometimes it is not so easy, in which case you are
learning something about conditioned patterns of tension and stress
that may be deeply habituated. You may need to inquire and investi-
gate what is fueling the tendency to hold on to some painful reaction
even when you see that it is creating more suffering.
Relaxation, ease, and patience will be your allies as you learn to
let go of struggle and begin to meet yourself with kindness, compas-
sion, and a sense of exploration and experimentation. Your practice
is to study and learn about yourself, and nothing need be excluded.
Everything is an opportunity for learning.
We tend to judge our meditation by how pleasant or unpleasant
it is. When the practice is to our liking, when it feels good and we
are getting what we want, we call that a good meditation. When
the present moment is not how you have decided it should be, when
it seems to go badly or fall apart, check to see what you have found
out about yourself, about how your mind works and about the
places you get stuck. See if there is something you can let go of that
is unhelpful. How can you build on what you have learned? If you
can let go of judgment and contention, shifting your attitude from
always seeking what you want and avoiding what you do not want,
you can begin looking at what happens with interest, discerning
what you can cultivate that is skillful and what is unskillful that
you can let go.
24
In the late sixties and early seventies it was common to see

posters around the San Francisco Bay Area of the Indian guru Meher
Baba, with his big grin and bushy mustache and the simple caption:
“Don’t worry, be happy.” That was in the early days of my meditation
practice; I remember thinking that it was a nice sentiment, like
something you might say to children, but not really all that deep. It
was only much later that I was able to appreciate Meher Baba’s
deceptively simple teaching. As you reflect on your meditation prac-
tice and how it is going, take a few moments right now to let the
words soak in and notice however they land for you: “Don’t worry.”
“Be happy.”
In beginning any practice it is helpful to try to let go of expecta-
tions. Of course, we would not take up a practice if we did not expect
some results. But results come more quickly, and with less suffering,
if you can practice in a way that allows you to be at peace and happy
where you are, even as you aim toward a goal. Be as happy and
relaxed as you can. Find the freedom in the moment while practicing
in a way that heads in a skillful direction.
Sometimes it may feel like you are working very hard, but even
in those times you can learn to rest and relax. Check if there is any
tension or constriction in your body. Try to relax those areas. Do you
find some sense that you have got to change your experience? See if
you can let that go and relax into whatever is happening. This is
Right Effort, being fully in the present while naturally heading
toward more peace, clarity, and awareness, getting somewhere and
going nowhere.
After a few months on one long retreat I complained to the
teacher that I had not yet reached jhana, which I had previously
attained by this point. At that time I had already been meditating
for more than thirty years, having sat many retreats of various lengths
along with a strong daily practice. I had attained jhana in about four
or five weeks of intensive meditation, so going into this retreat I
thought, This is going to be great! I’ll be in jhana in a month or two at
25
the most, and then proceed from there to even deeper stages of concentra-
tion, insight, and liberation.
The teacher asked if I could be perfectly happy and at ease if I
never attained jhana again, and kindly pointed out that real freedom
is found not in attainments, but in nonclinging to whatever is hap-
pening. I remember answering with something like, “Yes, of course
that is true, but in order to deeply realize that fact I’ve got to get…”
and then proceeding to suffer and struggle for some time more. I’d
had it all planned out. I knew that any time the thought I’ve got to get
comes up about anything, it is a setup for suffering. But what had been
a wholesome aspiration had become hijacked by my greedy mind.
All the parts of yourself and all the patterns at work in your life
come with you as you begin to meditate. Just as we are liable to suffer
when we do not get what we want in the course of daily life, even
with the most sincere intentions we can fall into worry, stress, or fear
as the meditation process unfolds. This is all part of the learning
process as we get to see how our minds work. You do not have to be
free from patterns of negativity in order to begin meditation, but you
do need the tools to work with whatever meditation presents.
Working with Hindrances

You cannot meditate without any problems or difficulties ever
arising. From time to time all of us will be troubled by sleepiness,
restlessness, worry, desire, aversion, or doubt, and we need to find
ways to navigate these challenges when they assail our minds.
When engaging in any form of meditation, mindfulness is the
way to deal with these hindrances effectively. Often we cannot
simply concentrate or focus our minds to push through problems.
Through meditation we are cultivating a stable, clear awareness that
bolsters our inner resources to meet these hindrances. When con-
centration is strong and our minds are settled, there are not so many
distractions, and if unpleasant experiences do arise they do not
26
bother us. When concentration is quite strong the hindrances

cannot arise at all. Concentration suppresses the hindrances, but
until it is well developed we need to find ways to set the hindrances
aside enough to be able to get into concentration and jhana. When
the concentration is not strong there is a range of skillful means,
various approaches and techniques, for dealing with hindrances.
Often just being mindful that a hindrance has arisen is enough
to loosen its grip and enable us to let it go. Experiences become hin-
drances only when they are stronger than our ability to meet them
with equanimity. There is something about their quality that catches
our minds; they become problems that we tend to struggle with and
get caught in. When we are mindful and clearly aware of what is
happening, we are often able to meet the same challenges with a
calm, nonreactive presence.
Sometimes mindfulness alone will not be enough to enable us to
act effectively when we encounter problems. At such times we must
find other ways to work with them. We may need to find ways to
bring down their intensity if they are too strong for us, or to suppress
them or let them go.
Antidotes are ways of directing our attention in order to release
a hindrance or have it fade away. If we are holding on to something
pleasant, sometimes reflecting on impermanence—reminding our-
selves that this experience will not last—can help us let it go.
Conversely, if we are aware of something unpleasant and are experi-
encing aversion, perhaps consciously bringing some loving-kindness
to the situation, to ourselves, or to whatever the object is can help.
In dealing with sloth and torpor we can look for ways to increase
our energy. You may need more rest—a nap could help. Or try stand-
ing up during the meditation; open your eyes and take some deeper
breaths. If you are restless, with your mind scattered and unable to
focus, try bringing up the effort more. Or you may need to take a
walk or do some other kind of movement to help get the excess
energy out.
27
Doubt, which can be the most insidious of the hindrances, colors

our perception and undermines our ability to discern that a hin-
drance has arisen. We are liable to become identified with the doubt,
believing our thoughts that the practice does not work or that we
cannot do it. We may need to talk with a friend or teacher to get a
more objective perspective; or to spend time with a dharma com-
munity (whether in person or with a “virtual community” online); or
to read inspiring books or listen to talks. Find whatever supports you.
Hindrances are going to happen for all of us. When they attack
and are quite strong, and you have tried various strategies and nothing
seems to work, your practice will be to know that that is the way it is
for you. Sometimes the best we can do is bring some compassion to
ourselves for all the times we get caught up in struggle or forget.
Self-Compassion
I remember my beginning days as a meditator, wondering what it
was going to be like if something ever started to happen. I was young,
naïve, and idealistic, and looking around the meditation hall, seeing
everyone sitting so still, looking like perfect Buddhas, I thought,
Look at them all. Everybody is blissed out but me. I imagined everyone
in transcendent states of ecstasy as I grappled with knee pain, a
mind that could not stay on the breath, and thoughts of inadequacy.
It is so easy to fall into judging ourselves and comparing with others,
and we can end up creating a lot of unnecessary suffering along this
path whose purpose is to take us to the end of suffering.
It is often taught that morality is the foundation for beginning
any meditation practice. Morality entails speaking, thinking, and
acting in wholesome ways that decrease stress and increase well-
being in ourselves and others. A standard Buddhist model to guide
us in this way is the five precepts: nonharming, not stealing or not
taking that which does not belong to us, care not to cause harm
around sexuality, wise and careful speech, and abstaining from
28
intoxication that leads to heedlessness. There is no doubt of the crit-

ical importance a moral basis has in creating a healthy and support-
ive environment for our meditation to flourish.
But even more fundamental than morality is self-compassion.
Self-compassion understands that we each have our own suffering,
that each of us is a unique blend of strengths and weaknesses, and it
allows us to be present with our suffering without adding negative
self-judgment or blame.
We see how simple the instructions for beginning meditation
are. Make yourself as comfortable as possible. Sit any way you wish
that will allow you to remain relatively still in a relaxed way (you can
even lie down). You do not have to make anything happen, but just
be mindful of whatever is happening. Yet we soon discover how dif-
ficult this simple process can be.
Some amount of physical and mental discomfort inevitably
comes when we set aside our usual distractions and concerns to just
sit quietly and be present with ourselves. Our bodies ache, or our
feelings—of unworthiness, shame, fear, guilt, trying to please others,
or any of the many other psychological and emotional difficulties so
many of us contend with—can come roaring up at any time.
We can be quite critical or judgmental, thinking that we really
are not doing any of this very well and falling into adversarial rela-
tionships with our experience and ourselves. When difficulties arise
we tend to think something is going wrong, or that we are not trying
hard enough or are not doing it the right way. But if you could medi-
tate better you would. If you could concentrate better you would. If
you could be less distracted or meditate more often, then you would.
Self-compassion allows us relax more, to understand that we are
trying our best (even though it may not feel that way to us), that the
forces that distract us or pull us to waste time are very real, and that
sometimes, despite our best efforts, we do not get the results we want.
We do not have to know how to have self-compassion; we just
have to be open to the possibility of self-compassion, learning to stay
29
present to our experience with an open heart without judgment or

blame. Even in the beginning we can start to bring equanimity
toward our experience and our self.
Experimental Attitude
A skilled carpenter never reaches for a hammer when he needs to
tighten a screw; he works seamlessly and with ease with whatever
situation is presented. He doesn’t fret or judge that the screw is not a
nail, but concerns himself with completing his job well. We need a
range of skillful means at our disposal, adding many tools to our tool
kit over time and with experience, and learning how to use them
confidently and effectively. Instead of feeling oppressed by a situa-
tion, complaining when things are not going our way and struggling
against ourselves, we can avoid a lot of stress by letting go of our
ideas of how things should be and turning with interest to meet
whatever our meditation is presenting us.
By attending directly to whatever is happening, your experience
will tell you what is needed and how to proceed. If you become stuck
in a fixed idea of what is supposed to happen when you sit to meditate,
you can fall into a struggle with your experience and yourself. Becoming
a skilled meditator means learning to meet even challenging situations
with interest and curiosity. We can get just as interested in our strug-
gles and sufferings as we can in our bliss. Sometimes we will want to
investigate the situation, verbally or nonverbally. Sometimes all we
need is to be present and wait as the situation unfolds.
Meditation, therefore, involves a degree of experimentation, trial
and error, engaging in the practice and seeing what actually happens,
not seeking some prescribed set of experiences we are told should
happen. Whatever happens really is just fine. Even when things
seem to go wrong, the present moment is giving us information,
informing us how to proceed in the next step.
30
All you have to do is stay open and receptive to what your expe-
rience is telling you. When your mind is steady and clear and nothing
else is calling for your attention, continue cultivating the concentra-
tion. There will be plenty of times when you cannot concentrate or
you are dealing with other experiences or you just sense that you
should turn toward and investigate what is happening in some way.
At those times, simply follow out the investigation without worrying
about concentration, working as skillfully as you can with whatever
the moment brings. In this way, you never have to choose between
when to do concentration and when to do insight practice, and you
can take both as far and deep as you wish.
As meditation progresses the instructions will begin to differ for
each of us, depending not only on what happens, but also on what
we are learning about our strengths and challenges in working with
those experiences. When the practice is difficult or painful, we work
skillfully with the pain. When the mind is calm, collected, and con-
centrated, we work skillfully with the pleasure.
Bringing an open, receptive attitude will be a tremendous
support in deepening your capacity for working with the unfolding
stages of meditation. The receptive attitude is not afraid of anything
that might happen. It only looks to see what actually is happening
and how we can work with it most skillfully.
Think of each meditation practice as a doorway into the same
inner sanctuary. We do not want to become preoccupied with a par-
ticular door, thinking ours is the best or the only way—there can be
many. It does not matter which you choose. Once you have stepped
through that doorway you will guide and steer the practices so they
begin to converge at one place, which is a synthesis and integration
of concentration and insight. How we get there will differ from one
person to the next, because each practice can bring its own result
and the experiences each of us have, even if we are all doing the
same practice, will vary. So at each stage I will offer a range of tech-
niques and possible ways to work with each practice in order to head
31
them in the same direction. I will offer various practices you might
try, starting with mindfulness of breathing meditation. Through
experimentation and experience, along with the guidance presented
here, you will find what quiets your mind and opens your heart, what
brightens mindful awareness and deepens connection with your
body and mind.
You will learn to meditate so the mind becomes more collected
and centered, leading ultimately to the deepest stages of concentra-
tion. At the same time, you will be guided so that mindfulness and
clear awareness of all experiences are strengthened, regardless of
the level of concentration present—so that insight can flourish.
Awareness will be guided to open into mindfulness of your body and
of the states of your heart and mind, revealing and deeply connect-
ing with all aspects of your experience.
Ultimately, you must rely on your intuition and best judgment on
how to proceed. You engage in some meditation practice to which
you are drawn, or which you are taught by a teacher you happen to
encounter or read about in books, and then you undertake that prac-
tice to the best of your ability and assess the results as best you can.
With time and experience you will come to know what you can
trust. But in order to learn how to rely on your own inner guidance
you have to try out the instructions, put them into practice, and see
what the results are.
32
Chapter 2
Beginning
Instructions
I
t can be helpful to establish an environment that is relatively
free from distraction. As your meditation practice develops and
your ability to calm your mind and remain mindfully present
strengthens, it will not matter when or where you choose to practice.
You will be able to meditate in any situation. Especially in the begin-
ning, though, finding a time and place relatively free from noise or
commotion can be a great support.
Pick any place you like to sit quietly for the duration of the medi-
tation period. It does not have to be perfectly quiet. Just do the best
you can with whatever situation you have to work with. You can
meditate at any time of day, early in the morning, late at night, or
during a lunch break—whenever feels best and your schedule will
allow.
Perhaps turning off your phone will support you to let go of
thinking about messages or other distractions. Some people use a
timer to end the sitting period so they do not have to think about
when to end. It is okay to use a clock, but be careful not to fall into
peeking at the time too often. Or you can meditate without timing
the period at all, simply sitting however long you wish. See what
works best to help you be more fully present for the meditation.
When the meditation period is over, you can get up whenever
you feel ready. You may want to remain sitting a short while to recon-
nect with and transition to your surroundings. Sometimes this helps
to carry the meditative awareness back to your ordinary activities.
Or you can get up right away.
We will begin with the simple practice of mindfulness of breath-
ing, connecting with our experience of the breath wherever in the
body we can feel it most easily and clearly. We will pay attention to
how the practice unfolds, using whatever actually happens to inform
what is needed at the next step.
It may be obvious that mindfulness of breathing is a good fit for
you or it may not be clear or easy to figure out. Give it some time.
Just because you cannot concentrate well on your breath does not
34
Beginning Instructions
mean it is not a good meditation subject for you to work with. Often,
it simply means that your mind is not yet trained, so do not be too
quick to give up on the breath and switch to something else. What
happens as we meditate will be different for each of us, and we each
have our own strengths and ways of working.
If, after trying out mindfulness of breathing for a while, you feel
drawn to one of the subsequent practices I offer, feel free to give it a
try. Mindfulness of breathing is not the best practice for everyone.
Find a style of meditation that you feel drawn to do.
Mindfulness of Breathing: Our

Foundational Meditation Practice
Begin meditation practice very simply, with mindfulness of breathing,
by resting your attention at some place in the body where you can feel
your breathing easily and clearly. The breath is our teacher; we are
learning how to be present with something as we connect mindfully
with the experience of breathing just as it is happening now.
Sit in a way that is relaxed and upright with as much ease and
comfort as possible, finding the balance between not straining to
sit straight and not slumping. Your posture does not have to be
very formal; you can be in a chair, or in a cross-legged position on
a cushion, or on a meditation bench on the floor. If you have back
problems you could even lie down as long as you are able to stay alert
and not get sleepy.
If you are new to meditation it may require some experimenta-
tion to find a posture that best supports you to sit for the duration of
the meditation period with as little pain as possible. Our bodies will
not allow some of us to be comfortable regardless of the position we
choose, so just do the best you can to find a posture that will allow
you to sit quietly without moving too often.
35
Let your eyes close in a relaxed way and take a few moments
to feel your body sitting. Notice that you do not have to do much
and that the experience of your body, in whatever position it is in,
is easily known just by paying attention in this very simple way.
Some people think meditation is complicated or mysterious, but the
foundation of our entire practice is simply opening to, and mindfully
connecting with, our experience in order to meet each moment just
as it presents itself.
Bring your awareness to your body breathing. As you pay atten-
tion to your body, you can become aware of your breathing in a
simple, uncomplicated way. This is not thinking about your breath-
ing or analyzing it, but just resting your attention on the direct, bare
experience. Try to let go of your judgments or opinions—This breath
is not clear enough, This is not right breathing—and see how you can
become more receptive to the pure simplicity of each breath.
Check in with your body to see where you naturally and most
clearly feel the physical sensations of breathing. It could be at the
nose, in the abdomen, or whole-body breathing—all are part of the
body. Give emphasis to mindfulness of breathing, letting other expe-
riences stay in the background of your awareness as much as possible
without struggling to do so. Try not to control the breath, but let
the body breathe at its own rhythm. We are not trying to make the
breath be any special way. The body knows how to breathe all on its
own, breathing itself without you having to make it happen.
Find where your attention naturally wants to settle and stay
with that. We do not want to be jumping around from one place
to another. It does not matter where in the body you connect with
your breathing. All places work equally well to cultivate even the
deepest stages of concentration and insight; the key is to find the
place where you naturally feel your breathing most clearly and
easily, without strain. If you do not have an obvious preference, try
bringing your attention to the area of your nose, feeling the air going
in and out. For some people, concentration strengthens more quickly
36
and sharply by focusing their attention there, though that is not true
for everyone.
Later, as your meditation evolves and concentration deepens,
your awareness may naturally be drawn on its own to other areas
in your body. When that happens, don’t fight yourself, but simply
follow your experience, let it unfold and present itself to you. This
is not jumping around, but is following the organic progression. For
now, keep it simple and stay with your breathing in one place.
Do not move your attention to follow the breath from the nose
down into the chest and back up. Being mindful of breathing at the
nose is sometimes likened to a saw cutting wood. The saw’s long
blade moves back and forth, but only touches the log at one place.
Air moves from the outside to deep in the lungs; though it “touches”
the body in more than one place, we do not follow it with our atten-
tion from the nose down into the lungs. Let your awareness rest at
one place, either just inside the nostrils or anywhere deeper inside
the nasal passage area. Try it out and let your attention fall wherever
in the area of the nose you naturally feel the breath.
You may feel your body breathing most clearly by noticing the
rising and falling of your abdomen. In this case you are not feeling the
sensation of air, but the physical movement of your belly expanding
and contracting with each in-breath and out-breath. Again, let your
body breathe at its own pace, as deeply or shallowly as it wishes, and
let your awareness rest on the physical sensations of the belly rising
and falling.
Variation: Whole-Body Breathing

Another way to practice is called “whole-body” breathing. This does
not mean trying to feel the breath everywhere in your body, includ-
ing the arms and legs, but entails widening your mindful aware-
ness to include the experience of breathing at the nose, chest, and
abdomen—the whole torso all at once, rather than focusing narrowly
37
just at the nose or the abdomen. You may not feel your breathing in
all these places, and it is fine if you notice the breath at some places
in your body but not at others. For example, you may feel breathing
at your chest and abdomen but not the nose. Let the sensations of
breath present themselves to you naturally, not trying to make your-
self feel them in any particular way.
It may be immediately obvious where you feel your breath best
or you may need to experiment, spending some time following your
breathing at each of these places. If you are not sure, just pick one of
these styles and stick with it for a while to see how well it works.
Later we will talk about working with all the other experiences
that can arise—the range of body sensations, sounds, thoughts, and
moods that pull our attention and that can make it hard to stay
with the breath. For now, give emphasis to awareness of the breath,
not clinging to it or pushing away any other experiences, just with
a strong preference for that particular awareness while letting other
experiences remain in the background. Stay relaxed the best you can.
Continue practicing in this way, returning to the physical expe-
rience of breathing over and over again. In the following chapters we
will talk about some of the common ways meditation can unfold
and how to work with our experience in each case. For now, just
stay with your breath in a simple way. Later, as the practice unfolds,
we will pay attention to what happens, which will inform the next
steps. As we emphasized in the previous chapter, there is no one-
size-fits-all instruction for what to do next. We will not know until
we see how the practice unfolds and what actually happens.
When the Mind Wanders

At any time, but especially in the early stages of practice when our
minds are not trained, the mind can have a tendency to wander
38
away in thoughts of planning, worry, or fantasy, completely forget-

ting to be with the breath. This is to be expected; it’s the nature of
an untrained mind. One of the first insights we have is the realiza-
tion of how out of control our minds are.
You cannot stop your mind from wandering. Such wandering is
natural and it will happen many, many times. Remember to stay
relaxed and do not struggle to remain present and connected. Once
you realize you have forgotten about your breath you are already
back, so just start again and stay with your breathing the best you
can. Meditation is a process of returning over and over, each time
you drift away. Try not to create a problem or beat yourself up because
you have wandered away again.
Mental Noting
You can try experimenting with mental noting, an aid that helps
direct the attention to remain present with the breath. Some people
find this technique very helpful to stay more connected and consis-
tent with mindful breathing and not wander off so much, while others
find it unhelpful or unwieldy. If the latter is the case with you, just let
it go and continue simply with the bare experience of breathing.
Mentally repeat the words in and out with each in-breath and
out-breath, keeping most of your attention on the sensation of
breathing itself and letting the words remain soft and in the back-
ground of your awareness. If you are mindful of your breathing at the
abdomen, you can use the words rising and falling with each rise and
fall of your belly, or simply breathing, breathing, with each whole-body
in-breath and out-breath.
Mala
Just as mental noting is an internal aid, a mala is an external aid
to help keep the breath in mind. The mala is a string of beads of any
39
size and length that is comfortable to pass between your thumb and
any other finger. If you use a mala as an accompaniment to breath-
ing meditation, a single bead marks each complete in-and-out breath
cycle. Place your thumb on the bead with the in-breath and pull it
across your finger with the out-breath. Just as with mental noting,
you may or may not find the mala helpful to stay more present with
the breath.
Breathing, mental noting, and the mala can all be used together,
giving your mind three things to do at once, all pointing toward one
thing, mindfulness of breathing. You can coordinate mental noting
and the tactile experience of moving the beads by grabbing the bead
with the in note and pulling it across your finger with the out, always
keeping the physical experience of breathing foremost in your
awareness.
These props, mental noting and the mala, will begin to feel cum-
bersome at some point as your concentration strengthens. The very
supports that you may have found so helpful early on will have done
their job and you will need, and want, to let them go. Feel free to use
them as much as you like for now, especially when you need lots of
support, but be watchful to not become attached or reliant after their
useful time has passed.
Alternative Meditation Practices

The breath is commonly taught as a universal meditation subject,
suitable for everyone. But for some people the breath is not a good
object to work with. I knew a man who had a choking incident as a
child, and paying attention to his breathing brought up feelings of
anxiety. Another person with asthma found that she became tense
whenever she focused on the breath. If you are one for whom the
breath does not work well, there is nothing wrong; this will not
40
hinder your ability to meditate. It’s just a matter of finding the right
practice in these early stages to substitute for breath meditation.
Here are some techniques you can try if you think mindfulness
of breathing is not a good practice for you. These common alterna-
tives are not the only methods that can substitute for mindful breath-
ing, but the full range of possibilities is beyond our scope here.
Mindfulness of Sound
In the instructions for mindfulness of breathing we let all other
experiences stay in the background of our awareness, not forcing or
pushing them away but bringing a gentle sense of allowing them to
be in the background while giving some preference or predominance
to awareness of our breathing. In the same way, with this practice we
allow other experiences to stay in the background and we give pref-
erence or predominance to the experience of sound. You may feel a
natural draw or pull to awareness of hearing, and this practice can
be very calming and settling. Those for whom mindfulness of sound
works well commonly report it as an easily accessible and even com-
pelling meditation object. You may be drawn to awareness of the
sounds themselves or you may be more naturally aware of the act or
the process of listening or hearing.
Mindfulness of sound entails working with either inner or outer
sound. Even though it may be very quiet where you are meditating,
you may feel drawn to rest your awareness in listening to however
many or few sounds may be present at any time. Other people hear
an inner sound: a clear perception of ringing or some other sound,
experienced not through the ears but in the mind. You can see if you
have such an experience and if you are drawn to rest in awareness of
inner or outer sound.
If you are working with mental noting, you can mentally repeat
hearing or sound if that helps you stay connected and centered with
41
the auditory experience. If you practice mindfulness of sound, just

substitute hearing every time I use the terms breath or breathing.
Touch Points
Pick a few places in your body—touch points through which you
cycle your attention. They can be any place. For example, you could
choose the feeling of your hands touching together or wherever they
are resting on your thighs or knees, the feeling of your lips touching,
and the feeling of your bottom pressing against the chair, cushion, or
bench. It does not matter where in your body you choose, as long as
they are places where you can feel some sensation easily and clearly.
Place your attention at one of these points and rest it there for a
few moments, however long you wish—maybe as long as two, three,
or five breaths—making a mental note of touching, touching if you
are using noting. When you are ready, move your attention to the
next place, and then the next, continuing to cycle through your
touch points in this way. You do not have to bring awareness of
breathing into the process, though you can if you wish. If so, experi-
ment with how awareness of breathing can help deepen your con-
nection with touch points.
Body Scan
Body scan involves sweeping your attention systematically
through your body, generally moving down through your body
(though you can move up if that is more natural for you) and placing
your awareness at each place for a few seconds or longer. As you
move your attention through your body, you may have a lot of sensa-
tion at a particular place or just a general sense of having your atten-
tion there without any particular sensation being noticeable.
42
For example, if you start at the top of your head, rest your aware-
ness there and when you are ready slowly move your attention down
through your head. You could spend a lot of time, going into detail,
putting your attention into many parts of your face, the back of your
head, the sides, and so on; or just experience a general sense of
moving your awareness through your head without spending time in
so many detailed places.
When you are ready, finding your natural pace, continue moving
your awareness slowly through your head, neck, and down into your
shoulders, paying attention to each place in as much or as little detail
as you wish. You may or may not put your awareness individually
down through the arms. Continue in this way down through your
torso, possibly in your chest or back or just a general sense through
your torso, and so on, moving your awareness all the way down
through your legs and into your feet. When you are ready, start again,
move your attention back to the top of your head and repeat the
body-scanning process throughout your meditation session.
Mantra Meditation
Mantra meditation involves choosing some word, sound, or
phrase that is repeated mentally over and over again. The words or
phrases may or may not have meaning. You may have heard mantras
chanted out loud, but as we are teaching here, all mantras should
only be repeated mentally. In this way of practice, just as with the
breath or sound, give strong preference to repeating the mantra and
let all other experiences stay in the background.
This is a very powerful, concentrating practice if it is the right
practice for you. You may already know some mantras you want to
try, or you could just pick something now. For example, you could
pick the name of the Buddha, and repeat Buddha, Buddha, over and
over again. And, while it is not necessary, you could coordinate the
43
mantra with your breathing, repeating Bud on the in-breath and dha
on the out-breath, and similarly for any other mantra you might be
working with. You can use a mala to help you stay present and con-
nected with the mantra, whether or not you coordinate the mantra
with your breathing.
An example of mantra practice is the way that metta (loving-
kindness) meditation is often taught, which is through the use of
phrases of loving-kindness. Pick one, two, or three phrases of loving-
kindness, which could be directing loving-kindness to yourself or to
others. For example, you could repeat May I be happy or May you be
happy or May you be peaceful or May you be safe. These are just some
examples of phrases of loving-kindness; you can make up your own.
Repeat the phrases over and over, rotating through them one by one,
and this mantra repetition can become the foundation for your med-
itation. Let that be the vehicle to take you into deeper states of
concentration.
Practicing metta in this way brings all the concentration power
that repeating mantras offers, but because the phrases have meaning,
that meaning comes in and becomes extra empowered through the
use of the mantra.
As you begin to work with any of these practices, try to incorpo-
rate a feeling of balance and ease into your meditation. For now, do
not worry about anything else except establishing a connection, a
relationship, with your primary practice—breath, sound, body scan,
touch points, or mantra. Gently bring your attention back, over and
over, to reconnect when your attention has wandered away.
In the coming chapters you will learn to practice so that mind-
fulness, insight, and concentration are integrated. We are not only
learning to flow seamlessly between concentration and insight, we
will bring insight into even the deep states of concentration.
Mindfulness comes up to meet whatever level of concentration you
have, so that awareness of the body, mind, and heart is retained and
44
the opportunity for insight is never lost. In this way insight medita-
tion is right there along with the concentration.
A steady, undistracted awareness that lets us see when we really
are resting at peace within the ever-changing experience of our life
is the goal of a balanced and unified practice. Without chasing after
or pushing away anything, and doing nothing that takes you away
from yourself or out of your experience, aim toward clarity and calm.
Let every experience be your teacher.
45
Chapter 3
As Concentration
Begins to Grow
A
t some point you will begin to experience the first “aha”
moments of meditation, as concentration begins to
strengthen, as undistractedness deepens and grows. It may
only be for short periods, but sooner or later there will be a notice-
able shift in your consciousness. The change may be slight in the
beginning, but you will clearly feel calmer, more peaceful or still,
perhaps in ways you have never touched before.
As you hear this, be careful not to fall into comparing or judging
your meditation or yourself if your mind is not settling down and you
are still waiting to taste some of these experiences. Maybe you are
wondering if anything is ever going to happen for you. Try to relax
and let things unfold in their own time.
You do not want to chase after some experience you think you
are supposed to have or to fall into struggle trying to have someone
else’s experience. Do not try to make anything happen, but be
mindful about whatever actually is happening. What is important,
and what to get interested in, is your own experience, the unique
expression of how meditation unfolds for you—and that includes not
yet noticing any effects from your efforts.
The unfolding of meditation can express itself in lots of ways.
How is it you know you are starting to concentrate and to settle
more deeply into the meditation? You know because you are having
some kind of experience that is telling you so. Though you will not
have to wonder if meditation is deepening—it will be obvious—the
progression of meditation and the many experiences that can come
with it are highly individual and can vary greatly from one person to
the next.
You may feel expansive, as if your body or mind has become vast
and spacious. A concentrated mind can feel very pleasant and even
blissful, and the pleasant sensations can be experienced in the body,
or as mental phenomena, or as not clearly located any place in par-
ticular. Some people begin to experience feelings of warmth or
48
As Concentration Begins to Grow
energy moving in their body. Others see lights or images, or hear

inner sounds. These sounds and images can be easily recognizable
and familiar, or they may be vague and not clearly formed. For some,
deepening concentration brings a wonderful heart opening, where
you are filled with kindness, compassion, or love extending uncondi-
tionally to yourself and others. These are among the experiences of
concentration, any of which can be dramatic and strong, or smooth
and light.
By now you have no doubt seen how hard it can be simply to sit
quietly with yourself. If your mind is spinning out of control, you may
have wondered, What is the point of all this? When you feel restless or
your body aches, it can take real commitment to stay with the prac-
tice. Challenges can arise any time in meditation, but it can be espe-
cially difficult when we do not have the support of a clear, steady
mind.
Now you gain confidence that the practice works and that you
can really do it. The building momentum starts to do some of the
work for you, strengthening and sustaining your ability to meet
whatever might happen. It feels like more of the practice is happen-
ing on its own and you don’t have to put in so much effort to make
it happen.
Sustained and encouraged by these initial experiences, you will
begin to feel closer, more familiar with your breathing. Where
perhaps you were bored or restless, now you can be interested. What
is this breath? Where is the deepening process leading? Now is the
time to begin discovering how your practice can be more intimate,
letting the felt sense, the nonconceptual experiential knowing of the
breath, strengthen and grow.
See how long you can stay present and aware of the whole breath.
Connect with the full cycle of breath, feeling the beginning, staying
with it in the middle and through to the end. Notice the pause before
the beginning of the out-breath and stay with that all the way to the
pause before the next in-breath. Experiment and explore how you
49
can be even more fully in contact, more fully immersed in the sensa-
tions of your breathing, letting it capture your attention and fill your
awareness.
As meditation progresses, our practice can begin to shift and
reveal itself to us in new ways. We must be ready to let go of how
things have been, and open to how the moment is presenting itself
with fresh interest and curiosity.
Foreground and Background

Sometimes, without your doing anything to make it happen, you will
feel the concentration experiences more strongly than the breath.
You will be more clearly aware of the peace, the stillness, the expan-
siveness, the energies, or the pleasantness than you are of the sensa-
tions of breathing. Whatever your concentration experiences are,
they are naturally predominating and popping out to your aware-
ness, even though you can still clearly feel the physical experience of
your breath, or whatever other meditation practice you may be doing.
When that happens, if that happens, you do not have to do anything
about it at that point. Mindfully know that that is the way the medi-
tation is presenting itself and continue on with your practice as you
have been.
At other times your experience may unfold in just the opposite
way. Even though the experiences of concentration may be strong,
the physical sensations of breathing become more prominent and
you will feel them more easily and naturally than you will the con-
centration. Again, you do not have to do anything except notice
that that is how the meditation is expressing itself, and continue
practicing as you have been, just staying with your breathing.
Deepening meditation can manifest in a third way, where you
are more or less equally aware of the experiences of concentration
and the sensations of the breath, the sound, the touch points, or the
50
mantra. Sometimes the experiences of concentration and breathing

can go beyond just being equal in your awareness and begin to feel
merged or mixed into one new experience that cannot easily be sep-
arated. There is no longer a clear boundary between experiences of
concentration and experiences of breathing, and you open to a new
blended “concentration-breath” experience. Do not worry if it is
hard to conceive what this blended experience might be like—it will
be obvious to you if it happens. The goal is not to make this happen,
but if it does, then let this new unified experience be the object of
your meditation.
It may not be obvious how the concentration and the breath are
unfolding in relation to each other, or whether you are feeling the
breath or the concentration more strongly. It is not important to
figure it out. Do not stir up your mind looking for it or get too
involved in figuring out what is happening. If you are not aware of it
naturally, check in now and then, perhaps a couple of times during a
sitting period. But mostly simply continue with the practice of
mindful breathing.
Broadening and Narrowing the

Lens of Awareness
Like a camera lens zooming in and out, our awareness can expand
and contract. Sometimes your awareness may feel very narrowly
focused. All your attention will center on the breath and you will not
pay much attention to other things going on around you. At other
times your mind may be quite open and spacious, allowing other
body sensations, thoughts, emotions, and sounds to be known along
with the breath. And sometimes you may not have a clear sense of
your awareness being either narrow or broad.
When your awareness narrows, you may not notice much else
outside the meditation subject. If you are connecting with your
51
breathing at the nose, for example, it can feel like you are concen-
trated in just this area, without noticing much else beyond. Other
times you can feel just the opposite, like awareness is more open and
inclusive of a broad range of experiences. The lens has been widened.
Even though you may still be quite concentrated on the breath, there
is also a broader awareness around the main meditation object.
This feeling of being narrowly or broadly focused can happen
on its own, but you can also choose to narrow or widen your atten-
tion, moving in whichever direction helps you remain present and
connected. It is fine to experiment some and get to know the dif-
ferent flavors. There is not a right or wrong setting for the lens of
awareness.
Shifting Attention
So far the instructions have mainly been to keep bringing your atten-
tion back to your breath whenever your mind wanders. Continue
practicing in this way, stabilizing and strengthening the connection
with your breathing at the same place where you have been resting
your attention all along.
The more present and undistracted your mind is, the more aware
you will be of anything that happens. You can become more con-
nected and concentrated on your breath and at the same time open
increasingly to awareness of other experiences. Perception of your
inner and outer world heightens and all that goes on in your body
and mind is naturally known within a wider field of awareness
around the central object of the breath or other primary meditation
object. Any sensations in your body and experiences in your mind
are easily and effortlessly known.
As you settle more deeply, your body may become very relaxed
and still, so there might be less happening in your body to be aware
of, but anything that does arise will clearly be known. As the
52
progression of awareness gets even subtler, you will plainly perceive

what is happening in your mind. Whatever happens, you will know
it, whether your mind is contracted or expansive, concentrated or
unconcentrated, grasping and clinging or equanimous and relaxed.
Do not bounce around from one place in your body to another,
or from one practice to another. Practices such as body scan or touch
points, which purposefully cycle through points of attention, are
fine. That is not jumping around.
But you should remain receptive to the natural progression and
allow the process to reveal itself in its own way. Your attention may
naturally be pulled in new directions, and you should not force your-
self to stay with your breath at one place if the movement elsewhere
is clear and strong. Follow the natural, organic progression as the
practice unfolds.
You may find that your attention wants to go to another area in
your body or that something else is capturing your interest. An area
you are not observing can suddenly pop out in your awareness.
Sometimes you may find that the awareness naturally wants to settle
on the breath at the abdomen, some days on the entire body, and
some days on the nose.
Deepening concentration can move beyond the breath, mani-
festing in many different ways. Subtle, nonphysical sensations, such
as feelings of energy, can become prominent. These kinds of experi-
ences can open to and merge with the body, or they can become
disembodied.
Do not struggle to stay with your breath where you originally
started, but follow where it naturally leads. Bring a sense of experi-
mentation and openness to see and learn where the meditation
wants to take you. See what happens when you allow your awareness
to follow its natural unfolding. It may stay in the new area or it may
change again on its own.
If you become more agitated by allowing your attention to move,
bring it back to the original object. See what results you get by
53
following the natural progression. Look to see what disturbs your

mind and what helps it settle more deeply.
If you feel restless or sleepy it is fine to shift your attention else-
where, away from the breath to some other place in your body, or
even to sound, if you find it helps. That is not jumping around. It is
being skillful. It is important to find what works and what supports
you best in any situation. There will always be times when we need
to let go of the practice we are doing and use some other skillful
means. Once you feel settled again, come back to your main
practice.
More Subtle Awareness

As your awareness becomes more refined, you may begin to notice
ever more subtle details of the sensations within the experience of
your breathing. If you are mindful of breathing at your abdomen, you
may notice the rising and falling movement in more detail, such as
slight variations in pressure or whether you feel the sensations more
clearly in one part of the belly than another. At the nose you may
become aware that the in-breath is cool and the out-breath warmer,
or begin to notice many slight shifts in sensation. You may feel tick-
ling or notice the moving air more clearly at one place in your nose
than another.
This enhanced perception of body and breath sensations can
arise naturally as a fruit of meditation. It is fine if more detail and
subtler experiences in the breath become apparent on their own, and
that does happen for some people.
Sometimes you may choose to bring mindfulness to these subtler
sensations, but in general do not go looking. Bringing this investiga-
tive attitude to the breath will strengthen concentration to a certain
degree, but seeking out all the little sensations associated with your
breathing is too much mental activity, too much doing, to be
54
conducive to the deepest stages of concentration. For now, just

connect with the physical sensations of breathing in a simple way and
allow your experience to develop and reveal itself as it will on its own.
Building Mindfulness
A key to integrating concentration and insight is cultivating and
strengthening mindfulness at every stage, from the first glimmers of
steadiness and peace to the subtlest states of concentration. If you
want to travel due north, you might be heading only a tiny fraction
of a degree off course and not notice any difference for a long time;
only once you have traveled very far will your direction really start to
diverge. A very small variance in the beginning will become a very
large difference over a long time, and you may end up in an entirely
different place.
Your sense of direction need not be perfect. The mountain you
are aiming toward comes in and out of sight many times in the
course of a journey. When it is out of sight you use your best sense of
direction to head roughly the right way. Once you crest the next hill
and the mountain is again in plain view you can fine-tune your
course.
Similarly, we are applying mindfulness in every aspect of medita-
tion, even in little ways in the beginning, so it will strengthen and
grow, coming with us as an ally and rising up to meet whatever level
of concentration is there. Then it does not matter what kind of con-
centration we have or how strong it is, because mindfulness is always
there to meet it.
The simple instructions of checking in occasionally to be aware
of how the concentration experiences are unfolding in relation to
the breath, or whether our attention is narrow or wide, are part of
the training for bringing mindfulness and clear comprehension into
the meditation process. Beginning in the earliest stages we are
55
starting to notice what is happening. Our practice can lead in many

directions and, depending on how it naturally unfolds, we may let it
progress on its own or we may direct the meditation to proceed along
a different path. As we become more attuned to how our practice is
unfolding, we will be able to make clear choices in how we may want
to steer the instructions and work with the progression of concentra-
tion and insight.
Balance
The experiences of concentration can be compelling when they are
strong. It can feel very pleasant when your mind starts to calm down.
When your mind settles even a little bit you begin to feel more com-
plete and satisfied, your heart and mind nurtured and your body
replenished. Meditation can become delightful, even sensual, for
some people, and we tend to like it a lot. When this happens you do
not have to stop liking it or deny the experience in some way. Include
the pleasure you feel in meditating in your mindfulness. Continue to
follow it and let it build. Notice how you feel the pleasure in your
body and in your breathing. Learning how to use pleasant feelings is
an important skill. Let the pleasure draw you more fully into the
experience of breathing.
However, because these experiences can be so alluring, it is easy
to become fascinated by them and overlook the most important part
and the main reason we want to become concentrated: the undis-
tracted awareness itself. It is especially important to distinguish
between these two main aspects of a concentrated mind, the clear,
steady awareness and the experiences that can happen within that
awareness. In the same way that we can lose our mindfulness and get
lost in whatever is happening in daily life, we can be pulled into and
caught up in the happiness, peace, and pleasure of meditation. This
can happen to any of us and should be viewed as another of the
56
many situations we will encounter and learn to navigate in the life

cycle of our meditation practice. Bringing attentiveness to our expe-
rience and how it unfolds starts to strengthen the mindfulness and
clear awareness, which will carry into the stronger experiences of
concentration we will discuss later.
Do not go after or push away any part of the breath. Stay mindful
and aware, in a relaxed way, the best you can. Try not to make any-
thing happen or to push anything away. Do not fight or get into a
struggle, overstriving for some experience you want or pushing away
something you don’t want. We need to have the tools to work skill-
fully with however our meditation practice unfolds.
57
Chapter 4
Working with
Difficulties
N
othing proceeds in an unbroken line, just getting more and
more pleasant and good without any challenges. There are
always ups and downs in meditation. To practice medita-
tion and progress, you have to acknowledge and use everything it
has to offer, including the times when you cannot concentrate. You
do not want to miss the opportunities for insight and growth those
times provide.
Your body may ache, or painful thoughts, emotions, or memories
can arise, making it difficult to sit through the experience. There
will be times when you cannot concentrate and it feels like you are
just sitting there waiting for the session to be over. It can be hard not
to get up from meditation when you feel restless or bored, something
else pulls for your attention, or you simply do not feel like doing it.
To deepen our mindfulness, concentration, and insight we need
to be honest with ourselves about what is happening, employing all
the skills we are learning for working with what is here, what is real,
and what is true. We need an array of tools for navigating our inner
landscape, the range of shifting thoughts, feelings, moods, and emo-
tions that appear in the course of meditation—both for when our
minds are clear and settled and the meditation feels pleasant and
good, and when it feels like it is all falling apart.
Turning into the Skid

Formal meditation is practice for real life. All the work we put in on
the meditation cushion is training ourselves to meet the moments of
our life without being oppressed by them. When confronted with
anything unpleasant, our habitual response is often to push it away.
When our knee aches, we stretch out our leg. When old memories or
feelings awaken, we distract ourselves. If we cannot concentrate, we
push harder. When the present moment is not giving us what we
60
Working with Difficulties
want, we can fall into a negative reinforcing spiral of frustration,

agitation, and struggle.
When negative emotions or distressing thoughts arise, we feel
the affliction, even if we are mindfully present. Aches and pains are
not going to melt into pleasant sensations, regardless of how we relate
to them.
But we can magnify the problem by our inability to be with what
is happening. A pain in our neck that will not go away is unpleasant
enough. When we engage it in battle, a whole new layer of suffering
is added on top of an already painful situation. We feel the pain and
then add more suffering through the struggle.
When driving on icy roads, the automatic response if you begin
to skid is usually to jerk the steering wheel away from the direction
in which you are skidding. But to gain traction and head back in the
right direction, you have to steer toward it. The way out is counter-
intuitive. Even if you are careening toward a building or tree, the
way out is in; you have to turn into the skid. Only once you have
gained traction and the tires are gripping the road can you steer
away from the obstacle.
This is the challenge. We need practice so that we have the pres-
ence of mind, the space between what happens and our response to
it, to choose the right course of action. Seeing the inevitable difficul-
ties as a chance for discovery allows for the possibility of freedom.
These are opportunities for taking charge of your response in any
situation. The way out of suffering is not always to turn away from it,
but to bring a willingness to meet your experience.
Noticing the Changing Nature

When our hearts and minds are at peace it is easy to become compla-
cent, but clarity and ease inevitably give way to periods of difficulty
61
and stress. Just as the sun at its zenith always sets, only to rise again,
and flowers open and close according to their natural cycles, the old
falls away but a fresh opportunity is left behind.
Insight begins to mature as we learn to end the struggle and turn
to meet every experience as our teacher. We do not want to miss the
opportunity for growth these times offer.
When hindrances arise or we do not get our way, we can learn
to stop fighting ourselves. When our beautiful meditations have
turned to burdens, we should not miss the potential that these times
of change present to see the transitory nature of life. We begin to
understand that nothing has gone wrong, that the situation has
merely changed due to its own causes and conditions. This is how
everything works.
Some amount of discomfort or pain is inevitable. If you sit still
long enough, even if it is in a soft, comfortable chair, your body will
hurt. You can lie down to meditate, or choose any posture, and even-
tually aches and pains will show up. We want to find the balance
between shifting our posture to take care of ourselves, and letting
things be and learning how to work with what is.
Knowing Your Limits

Notice your experience as you sit down to meditate. Take a few
moments to settle into your sitting posture and look to see what the
present moment is giving you. This is reality. What do you find is
happening? It is not so much a matter of trying to be mindful of your
breathing, but being interested and curious to connect with and
attune yourself to whatever is actually here. Not what happened the
last time you sat to meditate. The whole practice is learning how to
work and be skillfully with the present, with this reality.
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Imagine a circle, with you at the center. Inside the circle are all of
the experiences you are able to be present with, whether they are
pleasant or painful. Outside the circle are those situations that are
too much for you to deal with, things that are so intense or difficult
that you simply cannot work with them. Think of meditation practice
as expanding the circle to encompass more and more of your life.
We need discernment to know what we can handle, and respect
for what really is too much for us. We need to recognize where any-
thing that happens lives in relation to our circle. The wisdom to
know when to stay present with something and when, in fact, it is
too much comes from experience. We will all have times when we
think we are on one side of the circle and we are actually on the
other. Oftentimes we struggle, moving away from pain when we
really could have worked with it. When we stretch out our knee to
relieve the pain or distract ourselves from some emotion, we may
miss an opportunity for learning how to be present with and let go of
our suffering in the face of difficulties.
There are also times when you might stay with something too
long and it would have served you better to shift or move, to change
the situation or bring down its intensity if you can. We think we are
supposed to stay with it, believing we should be able to remain
mindful and present without struggle, when in reality it is simply too
much. It falls outside of our circle. We may sit with terrible knee
pain, toughing it out, when we need a break—not out of aversion but
out of compassion for ourselves, so that we can find some ease and
our mind can relax. In those times we suffer unnecessarily.
When to stay with something and when to seek some relief is a
question we all must answer for ourselves. Use your best intuition.
Do not worry whether or not you made the right decision.
You do not always have the luxury of changing your circum-
stances, whether in meditation or in life. Whenever something really
is too much, we are going to suffer if we cannot bring down the
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intensity or find a way out. We need a tremendous amount of com-

passion for ourselves in those times, when we find there is no escape
from something that is beyond our learning edge. Our task then may
be to bear our suffering.
You can try redirecting your attention away from the hurt toward
something pleasant, safe, or comforting. While pain or sorrow may
not disappear because you distract yourself, putting your mind on
something pleasing can be a real support, providing a needed break
and bolstering your ability to come back later with full attention to
deal with the situation. We don’t want to always run away from prob-
lems, but we do want to use whatever tools will help us.
Try opening your eyes and looking around for a beautiful image,
perhaps a flower or painting. Feel the beauty of it. Let the pleasant
feeling permeate you. Or pick up a book and read a few inspiring
passages, or turn on your favorite music, finding whatever gladdens
your mind and helps you feel more happy and relaxed. Notice how
good it feels and consciously let the good feeling pervade your body.
Once you feel steadier and more able to meet your experience,
try again, turning your attention back to work with the difficulty.
Notice what is it like to meet the physical pain or emotional anguish
now, and if this helps you meet the situation with some degree of
nonreactive presence.
When you feel steady and clear and hindrances are not arising,
stay with the breath. You may notice that your mind is quiet, your
body is relaxed, and you find an ease of continuity in your attention.
If you become aware that your body aches or your mind is distressed,
if you are struggling, see if you can stop fighting yourself and try to
let go of your suffering. Remember that we are not trying to stay with
the breath and be concentrated no matter what, but we do want to
stay present for and work skillfully with anything that might happen.
Do not try to force yourself back to the breath when difficulties arise,
but stay receptive to welcoming all experiences as part of your
meditation.
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Pleasant and Unpleasant

Some experiences are pleasant, some are unpleasant, and some are
in between. Anything unpleasant can be hard to be with. If some-
thing is too pleasant it pulls us in, and if it is somewhere in between,
neither obviously pleasant nor unpleasant, it is easy to space out or
feel restless or bored. The Pali word vedana, commonly translated as
“feeling” or “feeling tone,” refers to this pleasant, unpleasant, or
neutral aspect accompanying all of our experience.
Feelings act as filters to color our perceptions and influence how
we relate to whatever is happening. When we are not aware of them,
we tend to reactively push away anything unpleasant or to grab onto
whatever is pleasant. We notice not just the experience itself, but the
experience mixed with our opinions and judgments about it. If you
are being mindful of knee pain in your meditation, for example,
sometimes you might not notice that you are relating to the pain
with some aversion. Once you have fallen into reactivity, it’s much
harder to let go. You want to be aware of whatever is happening, but
also of the attitudes you bring to meet your experience.
Noticing the feeling tone creates a wedge of mindfulness, giving
you space between what happens and your response to it. By remain-
ing clearly aware of what is happening and the feeling tone associated
with it, you can let pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral experiences all
come and go without pushing away or trying to hold on to anything.
If you notice that you are tense or struggling, try checking for
feeling tone. Just bringing awareness to feelings is often enough help
for you to stay present with a challenging experience. You can be
aware of something pleasant without holding on to it. You can know
your experience is unpleasant without straining to make it go away.
You can let go of indifference to meet neutral experiences with
interest.
Even when your meditation seems to be going smoothly, it can
be useful to check in with the feeling tone from time to time. You
65
can notice the feeling tone of any sight, sound, smell, taste, physical
sensation, or thought. Bringing such awareness to feelings can help
unmask subtle areas of craving and clinging that you may not have
noticed before.
Opening to All Experiences

So far we have been emphasizing letting our breathing or some other
meditation object stay in the foreground and allowing all other expe-
riences to stay in the background of our awareness. We are deepen-
ing our connection with the breath, learning to become close,
familiar, and intimate with it, inclining our mind to it over other
experiences. While we are cultivating a strong preference for the
breath as a primary meditation subject, we will not be able to main-
tain that level of connection and attention all the time.
It soon becomes clear that during some days, some sittings, or
some parts of sittings you will not be able to focus or stay present
very well. You cannot force your mind to concentrate. You can try to
force it, like prying something open that does not want to release,
but that will only serve to make you more frustrated and stressed.
There are always many other experiences in addition to the main
ones we are working with in meditation. At times you will find your-
self agitated or restless, sleepy or dull. Your body may ache or you
may be flooded with emotional pain, fear, confusion, old memories,
anger, or grief. Or something else will push itself into the forefront of
your consciousness, refusing to rest in the background—something
with which you struggle or suffer in some way. You may be bothered
by sounds or other things that previously were easy to let go and
allow to remain in the background.
It can be difficult to stay present when you find yourself facing
physical pain or emotional distress. At times it can be challenging
66
not to fall into aversion when something becomes strong or compel-

ling and you grapple and strain against what is happening.
During these times we want to find ways to open to, include, and
incorporate any of these other experiences into the meditation prac-
tice. We do not want to fall into a struggle with ourselves, trying to
push away whatever is happening, thinking we are supposed to stay
only with our breathing.
We began learning how to be mindful by paying attention to our
breathing. Then we used the breath to deepen mindfulness. The
breath was our first teacher and as we continue to attend to it, mind-
fulness, concentration, and clear awareness all deepen, along with
our ability to be present regardless of what happens. As the art and
skill of meditation matures, we learn to surf the waves of all that
happens, gracefully moving in a very inclusive way with the continu-
ously changing flow of experience.
Mindfulness with Breathing

When we cannot concentrate, our back aches, or there is pain in our
knee or grief in our heart, it can be hard to stay with the breath.
Rather than struggling to concentrate, we can let go of the breath
and stop trying to keep these difficulties at bay.
One technique to help is switching from mindfulness of breath-
ing, or mindfulness of sound, to mindfulness with breathing, or with
sound, or with any other practice you are doing. Allow the breath to
come into your awareness along with whatever else you are dealing
with. The breath acts as a stabilizing factor and support, helping you
remain present to meet and work with the pain.
For some people it is a sense of breathing into the experience.
For others, it is more a sense of having breathing in their awareness
alongside whatever else is happening. It is not splitting your atten-
tion but having both together at the same time, the pain and the
67
breathing, the emotion and the breathing. You will have to experi-
ment and see what works best.
When meditation is easy and pleasant, breathe with it, working
skillfully and wisely with the pleasure to deepen concentration.
Breathe with the good feelings in your body and mind. When it is
difficult, try breathing with that. The practice is not to deny or negate
your pain; we are not trying to get rid of anything. If you have pain in
your body, you can direct your breathing right into the pain. If you
have pain in your heart, try breathing with the anger or sadness.
If you are having trouble connecting with your breathing, look to
see where the block in the connection is; turn your attention to it and
see if you can breathe with that. If you are unable to be with whatever
that is, turn to what is stopping you now and see if you can breathe
with that. Keep backing up; keep turning your attention toward what-
ever is keeping you from being with your present-moment experience
until you find what you can be with. That is the place to focus.
Your experience will tell you what is needed and how to proceed.
Notice if you are struggling, if there is some way in which you are not
relaxed and at ease. Your struggle will tell you. Look to see what is
going on and if you can relax into your experience. Do not fight or
strain to keep the breath at the center of attention. Let go of the
breath and turn with mindfulness to meet the reality of the moment.
You may need to experiment to find how you can breathe with
discomfort, or how you can let the support of the sound you are
working with, acting as a stabilizing influence, come in with you to
meet the worry. It may not be obvious how you can breathe with
strong emotion or with any other experience. Explore and experi-
ment to find how the breath can help you be present with your dis-
tress, and incorporate it as part of the meditation. When you are not
concentrated, you can breathe with that. When your back aches,
you can breathe with that. You can breathe with the pain in your
knee, or with your anger or grief. Let the breath help you integrate
your struggles as part of the practice.
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By turning toward your experience you can work with physical

and emotional pain, including them in the meditation. When you
are in pain or upset, if your experience is difficult or unpleasant in
some way, breathe with it. Try directing the breath; see what emerges
as you breathe into grief. The breath will help you remain steady and
present even in the face of discomfort. It will act as a support to help
you stay more relaxed.
Eventually, either in this or in a future session, things will get
quieter and you will be able to concentrate again, the difficulties will
subside or they will change or will not be so interesting or compel-
ling. You will again be able to let other experiences stay in the back-
ground without struggle and you can return to the mindfulness of
breathing practice.
In this way, you do not have to choose what to be aware of in
your meditation. You can allow your experience to inform you.
During the times when you can concentrate well, when your body is
at ease and other experiences are not so strong, keep them all in the
background and stay with your main, simple practice: mindfulness of
breathing. At other times these experiences will become strong or
you will find yourself struggling or suffering, and then you can bring
in mindfulness with breathing, or with sound, letting the breathing
or sound act as a support to help you stay more undistracted and
present. In this way you learn to move seamlessly back and forth
between mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness with breathing.
There may also be times when whatever is happening is so strong
or so compelling that you just feel that you need to put your whole-
hearted, full attention on the experience while letting go of the
breathing completely. Even mindfulness with breathing may not be
appropriate; instead, you remain fully with the other experience.
During those times, too, stay with the experience until it subsides or
you need a break, and whenever you choose you can come back to
the home base practice of mindful breathing.
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If physical or emotional pain or struggle has not settled out when

it is time to end your meditation, you may wish to take the last few
minutes before getting up to shift your awareness to something that
helps ease the stress. If you have been sitting with body pain, change
your posture. Take a few deeper breaths and stretch out your arms
and legs. Open your eyes and notice your surroundings. Or you can
simply get up from the session if you feel ready to transition and
carry on with your day.
Over time you will learn that the course of meditation, like all of
life, flows in cycles, following its own patterns and progression. You
will be more able to relax with the ever-changing rhythms as they
lose their power to shake you off center.
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Chapter 5
Right
Concentration
I
f you have ever undertaken the practice of bringing mindfulness
into daily life, trying to be aware the best you can moment to
moment and not be lost on automatic pilot, you know how hard
it can be to stay present and awake. Perhaps you try to stay with your
breathing or feel the movement in your feet as you move about, being
mindful and clearly aware in any way you can, as much as you can.
Or you use something else—feeling the phone in your hand as you
talk, your hands on the steering wheel if you are driving, anything to
help anchor your attention in the present moment. It is the same in
meditation. Perhaps you are present for a few breaths, only to find
yourself waking up sometime later from the daydream of your
thoughts and worries and all the imaginings that capture your atten-
tion to remember, Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m trying to be mindful.
If that has ever happened to you, then you have experienced
mindfulness without the support of concentration. That is a very
different experience from mindfulness with concentration. As our
practice develops, the fruits of our efforts in formal meditation per-
meate all the rest of our lives. We find that we are increasingly
mindful naturally, without having to try to make it happen.
The Pali word we have been translating as “concentration” is
samadhi. It is significant that the final element, the culmination, of
the Eightfold Path is Right Concentration, and that the whole final
section—Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration—
is called the samadhi group. It is not the mindfulness group; it is the
concentration group.
This is telling us something. It is saying that Right Concentration
includes effort, that mindfulness is included, it is not something sep-
arate, and that it includes undistractedness. All three of these ele-
ments need to work together, informing and supporting each other,
in order for concentration to be Right Concentration.
It is hard to overstate the important place samadhi holds in the
Buddhist path to awakening. We have to understand Right Concen
tration and how to apply it, especially as we begin to cultivate and
72
R ight Concentration
attain the subtler, deeper stages in meditation. The Buddha placed

great importance and emphasis on samadhi, talking about it over
and over in his teachings. In addition to the prominent place samadhi
holds in the Noble Eightfold Path, it is emphasized in many of the
Buddhist teachings that elaborate on meditation practices.
Two Kinds of Concentration

The word “concentration” carries various connotations, each shaping
how it is considered in relation to insight meditation. None of the
interpretations are right or wrong, no application is better or more
correct than another. I hope we can appreciate the range of ways
concentration is practiced and the various ways it is related to insight
so we can make conscious, informed choices in how to steer our
practice, because each choice will influence the direction in which
meditation unfolds in different ways.
Samadhi means “undistracted”; another good translation is “col-
lected.” An undistracted or collected mind can unfold either natu-
rally, on its own, or by purposefully aiming in one direction or the
other. Strengthening concentration can serve to connect us more
intimately with our body and mind or to disconnect us from our
experience.
If you continue practicing as I have been teaching here, giving
emphasis to mindfulness of breathing, your ability to concentrate
and remain steady and focused with the breath will grow. Your mind
will progressively wander less and less and you can eventually become
so skilled at centering on one thing that your mind will hardly waver
at all. If you keep training your mind, taking your practice far enough,
you can reach a stage in which you become extremely adept at con-
centrating. Your ability to remain steady and undistracted on one
object will have been strengthened to the point where you will not
notice any other experiences.
73
You will be fully engrossed, fully absorbed, just in the experience

of one thing, the one meditation object, whatever it is. At this stage
your mind is so fixed on a narrow point that it can never wander. At
this point undistractedness has progressed to the pinnacle of
steadiness.
The changing flow of experience will stop for you because your
mind has become one-pointed. Ultimately, concentration can be
taken so far that you will no longer notice experiences in your body,
thoughts, sounds, moods, or emotions. You will lose awareness of
other experiences because the ability of your mind to concentrate on
this one point has been strengthened so much that your mind does
not go to anything else; you do not perceive anything from any of the
senses.
I call this type of undistractedness exclusive concentration,
because the mind is exclusively focused on one thing; awareness
rests exclusively on that one thing and excludes awareness of every-
thing else. It is also called one-pointedness or fixed concentration
because the mind can stay narrowly fixed on the one point of the
breath.
The second way undistractedness can develop is equal in depth
and power to one-pointed exclusive concentration, but is qualita-
tively very different. In this second style of undistractedness, percep-
tion of changing phenomena is never lost. Instead of being lost, your
awareness of changing experiences is enhanced. At its culmination
the mind itself stops, just as it does in exclusive one-pointedness, but
this is stopping of a different sort.
Rather than the flow of sense perceptions stopping, the mind
comes to tranquility, all the while being open, receptive, and clearly
aware of the full range of changing experiences. The mind, equally
still, unwavering, and steady as in one-pointedness, stops but does
not stop fixed on a point.
This is a different kind of stillness, known as jhana, an utterly
undistracted awareness that is open to include all that is happening.
74
In a later chapter we will explore the nature of jhana, and how to

enter and work with those meditative states.
In order to differentiate from one-pointedness, I call this second
kind of concentration unification of mind. This concentration is
inclusive rather than exclusive, because it excludes nothing and is
inclusive of all experiences.
The main distinction between inclusive unification of mind and
exclusive one-pointed concentration is whether or not you have any
experiences of changing phenomena. Exclusive concentration is dis-
connecting. When taken to its culmination there is no longer any
sensory experience. It is a purely mental state in which the mind
becomes one-pointed, such that there is only the experience of bliss,
or of light, for example. All sense of changing experience is lost. You
cannot experience your body.
In inclusive concentration you have not lost connection with the
body; in fact, that connection is enhanced. You are aware of your
body and of your mental experiences, but along with that there is a
deeper place of the mind that is utterly still, clear, present, and aware.
Everything is happening and unfolding within pure awareness, and
the pure awareness is not moving. The mind is unmoving, mindful-
ness and clarity are amplified, and the connection with the whole
range of your experience is heightened. It is this second style of con-
centration, this inclusive style, toward which we are aiming.
This distinction between two kinds of undistractedness is impor-
tant as you learn to navigate the deeper, subtler stages of concentra-
tion. You may naturally incline toward unmoving focus that is
concentrated exclusively on a point, losing awareness of everything
else, or you may lean toward an unmoving and undistracted mind
that is open and aware as all kinds of different experiences come and
go. By understanding these distinctions, and with a clear sense of
where you are aiming, you may choose to let the process unfold on
its own, or you can steer the unfolding in either direction. In the
next chapter we will discuss how to recognize in which direction you
75
are naturally moving and how you can steer toward inclusive undis-
tractedness, which will be a powerful support in bringing concentra-
tion and insight together.
Concentration Supports Insight

No Buddhist teachers say, “Be distracted.” Everyone appreciates the
importance and benefit of a clear, steady, unconfused mind for the
cultivation of insight. Aiming toward more presence and stability
helps you to not be lost and caught up in your thoughts, feelings, and
moods. But while the ability of the mind to remain undistracted is
considered important by all, there is a wide range of understandings
and teachings about what that concentration should look like. Some
meditation teachers de-emphasize concentration in insight medita-
tion while others place great emphasis on its development. This can
be a source of confusion, especially when reading guides like this
one. If you are an experienced meditator and have heard instruc-
tions from numerous teachers, it may not be clear how, or if, these
instructions fit together, or if you should be doing insight meditation
or concentration practices.
In fact, you are not doing insight versus doing concentration. It
is all one practice. There does not need to be any contention between
mindfulness and concentration; we need not choose between the
two. We can strengthen both together and aim our meditation in a
way that appreciates and highlights both.
For insight and concentration to work together you have to
develop the right kind of concentration. Insight necessitates an inti-
mate connection with your entire experience so you can see what is
happening and how you are relating to it. If you become too exclu-
sively concentrated, if you lose contact with changing mental and
physical experience, you lose the link with yourself and insights are
not likely to arise. You will have to lift out of the concentration in
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order to regain awareness of the changing experiences of your body

and mind and turn toward insight.
You need to stay connected with your body, heart, and mind if
you want to understand their nature. Insight blossoms as you come
to recognize that all things are constantly changing due to their own
causes and conditions. When you try to hold on to anything that is
destined to change, you sow the seeds of suffering. In order to know
these truths directly, beyond ordinary intellectual understanding,
you need to touch changing phenomena so that you can observe
change and your responses to it. It is in service of this goal that we
are cultivating unification of mind, which can go all the way to jhana
without losing the experience of change. Insight can arise even in
the deepest stages of samadhi; it is, in fact, enhanced since you never
lose connection with change.
Since we will be developing concentration that is connecting,
you are not going to lose awareness of your body and mind. Just the
opposite; your connection with yourself will be enhanced. You do
not have to come out of even the deepest stages of concentration
into some lower level in order to do insight meditation.
You can synthesize concentration and insight into one practice
through cultivation of inclusive, connecting awareness, opening
whole new realms of opportunity for deepening insight. Stilling the
mind to the point where you are undistracted but still connected
with all experiences, you are never too concentrated. You do this by
bringing up mindfulness to meet the concentration. When you have
a small degree of concentration, bring the mindfulness to meet it.
When concentration and its associated experiences are powerful,
bring the mindfulness up to meet that. Insight is happening even in
the deepest stages of concentration because you never lose connec-
tion. You can take the practice all the way to jhana and mindfulness,
concentration, and insight will all come with you and be unified.
Concentration that is connecting shines a bright light of aware-
ness with which to meet our experience in ever-subtler ways, opening
77
the way for profound insights to arise. When concentration is con-

nected, the ground is prepared for insights to occur both within
states of concentration and without.
A Potential Pitfall of Concentration

The undistractedness that comes with being well-concentrated can
generate a whole range of amazing and compelling phenomena. In a
later chapter I will discuss the kinds of attractive experiences that
can arise when you are concentrated—deeply satisfying feelings of
peace and calm, pleasant feelings of energy moving in your body,
and interesting lights and sounds. It is common for meditators to
practice in order to have these experiences. The experiences of being
concentrated have an important function in making the mind mal-
leable and wieldy, and gladdening the mind, leading to relaxation
and ease and allowing us to remain present with the ever-changing
flow of experience.
But these pleasant experiences can be pitfalls. If meditators
confuse these experiences with the greater purpose of being concen-
trated—to enhance awareness of and connection with our self—
meditators risk becoming attached to them. We should not fear
these states or try to avoid them, but should bring wisdom and dis-
cernment to working with them, just as we do with any other experi-
ence. Fear of attachment should not dissuade us from cultivating
these important states of mind. If clinging to or grasping for medita-
tive states arises, that can be a rich area for investigation and learn-
ing. Just as we should not seek after suffering, but should not fear it
either, we should neither chase after the pleasures of concentration
nor avoid them due to worry about attachment. I will discuss how to
recognize and manage these situations. Having clear guidance, you
will not have to worry about any of the experiences that might arise
in your meditation.
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Right Concentration
Right Concentration is always defined as the four jhanas (as we’ll
see, jhana is divided into four stages). If you remember that concen-
tration really means being undistracted, then jhana is a special kind
of undistracted awareness that does not leave mindfulness and
insight behind. Right Concentration yokes tranquility, mindfulness,
and insight evenly together.
Though the Pali texts are explicit that Right Concentration is
the four jhanas, this does not mean you have wrong concentration
unless you have attained jhana. Aim toward jhana but be careful not
to set yourself up for overstriving. From a practice perspective it is
more useful to consider Right Concentration as culminating in jhana.
Whatever degree of concentration you have can be considered Right
Concentration, as long as it is accompanied by Right Understanding,
Right Intention, and the other elements of the Eightfold Path.
Holding concentration with this attitude can support you in staying
easeful and relaxed, helping you avoid overstriving or struggle even
as you remain conscientious and committed in your meditation.
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Chapter 6
Deepening
Concentration
W
ith growing concentration and heightened mindfulness,
meditation opens in whole new directions as our efforts
bear deepening fruit. Supported by the steady presence
you have been cultivating, what had been difficult or a struggle now
comes almost effortlessly. Where you may have been plagued by hin-
drances or strove just to stay present for a few breaths, you are now
opening to a degree of ease and clarity inaccessible in the
beginning.
This can be an inspiring time, encouraging and sustaining your
continued practice. As peace, calm presence, openhearted kindness,
and all the benefits you have been receiving on the meditation
cushion are carried through into the rest of your life, you may feel a
growing sense of gratitude and a deeper motivation to explore where
this journey of self-discovery might lead.
This is also a time to notice if you fall into craving or clinging.
Just as we can easily get caught up in ordinary life, we can become
enthralled with the progression of meditation. We do not want to
turn what is wholesome and meant to help us come to an end of suf-
fering into a source of clinging. If you find yourself pushing to make
the concentration better or stronger or more blissful, try to relax and
let go into whatever is happening, whether it is a time of discomfort
or ease. Stay with the simple mindfulness of breathing practice,
however the process continues to reveal itself. Let the power of the
concentration you have developed support an even deeper, more sus-
tained connection with your breath.
By now you are well acquainted with meditation’s challenges and
rewards. Bring the skills in mindfulness you have been developing to
meet and work with all the inevitable ups and downs. Notice what is
happening and how you are relating to the unfolding process. The
same equanimity you employed to prevent you from falling into aver-
sion with hindrances will help you avoid the trap of craving for the
pleasure of concentration.
82
Deepening Concentration
Ways of Unfolding
Deepening practice can develop in a variety of ways. As your ability
to remain undistracted grows, the experiences associated with con-
centration can become much stronger and more compelling, and
will tend to fill more and more of your consciousness. Concentration
and the physical sensations of breathing may begin to mix, merge, or
interact in a variety of ways.
Sometimes the physical breath will expand out naturally and be
experienced through the entire abdomen, torso, shoulders, or head.
Or awareness can shift from the gross physical sensations of the
breath to subtler inner sensations, which can be experienced as pat-
terns of energy in the body.
We discussed previously how sometimes the sensations of breath-
ing can be more prominent than the experiences of concentration,
and other times the concentration can become stronger in your
awareness than the breath. This dynamic can also shift so you feel
the concentration and the breath merging until they become one
blended experience. No longer feeling the physical sensations of
breathing as being separate from the experiences of concentration,
you now find that the object of your attention is transformed into a
new experience, breath and concentration unified into what we can
call the samadhi-breath. You might experience the samadhi-breath as
the breath blended with light, energy, pleasure, stillness, sound, or
any of the experiences we have been talking about. Or, rather than
merging just with the breath, samadhi also can expand beyond the
breath to fill your whole body.
If subtle breath energy, or any other samadhi experience, suffuses
throughout your body, let the process happen. Perhaps you will still
be able to individually discern the breath and the concentration, or
the concentration suffused throughout the body, but the sense of
83
them merged into one will be stronger. If any of these phenomena

happen, let the feeling of breath expanded through the body or the
blended experience become the new object of your meditation prac-
tice. Stay with the new blended or expanded experience, just as you
have been working with the breath from the beginning.
The merging of samadhi and breath, or the expanding of breath
to fill the whole body, may happen naturally; or you may choose to
direct your attention to move in these directions, if you feel yourself
becoming less connected with the sense of your body. In our discus-
sion of Right Concentration we said there are two main directions in
which concentration can head: toward inclusive concentration or
exclusive concentration. For some of us, the experience of concen-
tration will naturally expand to suffuse the body. If samadhi has
pervaded your entire body, you are naturally heading in the direc-
tion of inclusive, embodied unification of mind, and you do not have
to do anything except let the process unfold on its own. Do not try
to get back to the breath. Continue mindfully connecting with the
whole body. The breath will have done its job.
Meditation can also progress in the opposite direction. Rather
than feeling embodied, you can become increasingly engrossed in
the concentration experiences themselves. If these experiences
become quite strong and compelling, you may feel drawn into them.
You may want to leave any feeling of your body behind and go into
these experiences—we call it becoming absorbed in them—ever
more deeply. Becoming less connected with and aware of the body,
you are becoming more engaged with and absorbed in the purely
mental experience of the pleasure, the light or the bliss.
You are headed toward a one-pointed, disembodied, exclusive
concentration. If you were to follow that and let the bliss fill more
and more of your awareness, you would eventually lose awareness of
your body altogether and only the experience of light or bliss would
remain.
84
Steering Toward Inclusive

Concentration
Since we are aiming for inclusive, embodied samadhi, as the concen-
tration becomes stronger, notice in which direction you are inclin-
ing. Check in once or twice during a sitting period to see if you have
a sense of being connected with your body or not. For many people
there is neither a strong, obvious pull into the concentration and
away from the body, nor a strong sense of concentration being
embodied. In this case simply stay with the mindful breathing or
with the blended samadhi-breath, however you experience it. You
are entering a subtle realm, where the distinction between embodied
and disembodied concentration may not be easily discernible.
There may not be much experience in your body to connect with
because everything may be so quiet and still, but you will still have
some sense of knowing there is a body, or that you are losing that
awareness. The normal sense of solidity can dissolve as you begin to
perceive your body as being composed of energy, vibration, or light.
Everything can become so tranquil and still that, while you are still
connected with and have a sense of the body, there is not much hap-
pening to experience.
You may need to purposefully turn away from exclusive concen-
tration and steer yourself in the direction of inclusive samadhi. If the
sensations of breath take on a body of their own or begin to feel
disconnected, you are heading into a purely mental experience. That
is the time to incline your mind or coax it back and suffuse your
awareness throughout the body. If meditation is unfolding this way
for you, once the experiences of concentration become quite com-
pelling, rather than having all your attention absorbed or pulled into
them, do precisely the opposite—pull them into and suffuse them
throughout your body.
85
You can do that by turning your attention back to your body. Put
your awareness on your body, connecting with it wherever and in
whatever way you experience it. Because the power of your concen-
trated mind is so strong, simply by placing your awareness on your
body, consciously turning your attention to it, the concentration will
turn in to the body with you and will pervade throughout your body
on its own.
You do not want to do this too early in the process. You will
know when the time is right by paying attention to what happens.
You will know if it is too early; if you were not that concentrated, in
turning your attention away from the samadhi or the samadhi-breath
and toward awareness of your body, you will tend to lift out of the
concentration. You will clearly see that your mind is less settled.
And you will know if you waited too long because you will have
become fully absorbed into the mental samadhi experience and all
awareness of your body will have vanished. Do not worry if this
happens. You will have gained experience for the next time to better
know when to turn back to your body before the connection is
severed. You will know if you turned your attention back at the right
time because the experiences of bliss, energy, light, or peace will go
into your body and fill it, and it will continue opening in that direc-
tion on its own as you settle further in concentration.
Deepening of Letting Go
Bring however much effort is needed to your meditation but no more;
use the lightest touch of attention necessary for staying present and
connected. Balance making effort with letting go, so that the build-
ing momentum takes over and does more of the work for you. Let the
concentration itself carry you further into the practice. You may
86
have a feeling of wanting to try harder and push with the mind. This
is not a physical sense of pushing; it is increasing your effort beyond
simply connecting with and sustaining your attention on the medita-
tion object—going beyond that to a mental feeling of working harder
to press your attention and immerse awareness even more fully into
the meditation object. If you try pressing with your awareness, pay
attention to whether it causes agitation or helps you deepen.
At some point you will have to let go of pushing. It is too much
mental doing and ultimately hinders the subtler stages of letting go
required to drop into jhana. We sometimes have a tendency to keep
increasing effort as concentration strengthens, but this can be coun-
terproductive. The deeper stages of samadhi are stages of letting go,
not stages of more doing. Let the momentum take over and carry
you. This is the doorway into jhana.
87
Chapter 7
Strong Energies
and Challenging
Experiences
I
f you meditate you are going to get more concentrated, and with
concentration come both opportunities and challenges.
Deepening concentration brings new possibilities for growth,
but we need to acknowledge and be respectful of the very real and
powerful energies, emotions, memories, and somatic experiences
that can accompany the growing steadiness and clarity.
We cannot fully know all that might arise in our practice, so we
need to have the skills and tools to work with anything that happens.
We need to learn to navigate the terrain, familiarizing ourselves
with the landscape of consciousness with appreciation for both its
potential and pitfalls, and we need to bring an open, receptive atti-
tude and a willingness to stay present with what is happening for us.
With guidance and experience we develop resources and skills to
meet anything we encounter—listening carefully, paying attention,
and acknowledging our limitations and knowing when and how to
back off.
The progression of deepening samadhi is highly individual. For
some people meditation unfolds in a way that is very smooth and
calm from beginning practice through the subtlest stages of jhana,
without a lot of strong energetic experiences. For others the progres-
sion of meditation can be quite powerful and dramatic.
Working with the Pleasure

The pleasure of concentration helps loosen our mundane attachments
and the pull of ordinary sense pleasures. As the pleasure of concentra-
tion strengthens, sensual desires begin to lose their grip on us. Because
the contentment of a quiet mind is more satisfying than ordinary
worldly enjoyments, the power and allure of worldly pleasures start to
diminish, without us having to do much to make it happen.
But because the pleasure of concentration is so compelling, we
may begin meditating just in order to have more. This is why some
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Strong Energies and Challenging Experiences
teachers invalidate these experiences or would have us avoid them,

concerned that they will serve only to increase craving. But just as
we should not make too much of them, neither should we deny the
pleasure and profundity such experiences offer.
We should not be afraid of the pleasure of concentration; the
pleasure serves an important function in furthering the deepening
process. The Buddha called jhana the pleasure associated with
renunciation, seclusion, peace, and enlightenment. He said we
should seek out and develop this kind of pleasure, that it should not
be avoided or feared.
Deepening concentration offers us challenges and opportunities.
When we touch it we are happy; it feels right and good. The art and
skill of meditation rests in understanding how to employ this plea-
sure as an aid for immersing ourselves more fully, more deeply into
the meditation without turning what is a wholesome, skillful, and
powerful aid on the path to enlightenment into a source of craving.
Chasing after or clinging to some experience is a sure way to increase
your suffering and to cut yourself off from the very meditative states
you seek to develop.
This is the time to recollect and connect with your intentions,
enlisting all the supports you have been developing. If we do not
know what our intentions are, our actions are liable to be dictated by
our feelings and moods, especially when the power and energy of a
situation is strong. Let your wholesome intention act as a touch-
stone. Make it the standard by which you make decisions, instead of
following after the moment’s appeal.
The natural tendency to be drawn toward pleasant experiences
is deeply ingrained in all of us. But even during the most intense
times, when the pleasures enthrall us, we can avoid becoming
seduced by them. Gather all the mindfulness and clarity of aware-
ness you are able to access, and rest in the protection of your whole-
some intention.
91
When we are clear about our intention, fascinating experiences

do not delude or deceive us. We remember that our intention is the
liberation pointed to by the Buddha, not to collect one more exciting
experience that is only going to come and go like all the others
before it.
You never have to worry about being too concentrated as long
as that concentration is Right Concentration. Remember that
samadhi, the term we translate as “concentration,” actually means
“undistracted.” You can never be too undistracted as long as you
have an inclusive awareness along with mindfulness and equanim-
ity to the extent necessary for meeting whatever degree of concen-
tration there is.
Balancing Energy
While you cannot be too concentrated, you can have the wrong
kind of concentration or an unbalanced concentration. Energy, or
any of the experiences we are talking about that are associated with
concentration, can be too strong for us or of a quality that we are not
able to handle.
After discussing some of the ways unbalanced concentration can
manifest, we will examine various approaches for working with
them. Anything that can arise in meditation can be worked with.
With proper tools you will learn to navigate all of meditation’s ups
and downs, meeting whatever happens with confidence and clarity.
Strong energies can course through the body, and can be associ-
ated with pleasure, bliss, or light, or they can be highly unpleasant or
agitating. Some meditators may experience loud inner sounds. These
experiences can be agreeable and satisfying, or they may become
unpleasant or too much for us to handle. These energies can remain
localized in one place, or they can move around or permeate the
92
entire body. They can remain at the same intensity, weaken, or grow,
and their location and strength can fluctuate in regular cycles or
appear sporadically. All of this is dependent upon our individual dis-
positions, the sensitivities of our nervous systems, and our psychoso-
matic conditioned patterns.
Concentration tends to suppress the hindrances, gladdening our
hearts and calming our minds. Unpleasant or challenging thoughts
and feelings tend not to come up when our minds are settled. But
being concentrated can also have the opposite effect. Concentration
tends to permeate and pervade whatever experience is most promi-
nent, so difficult states of mind may become magnified rather than
suppressed.
As your experiences of concentration become stronger and your
mind becomes increasingly focused, the concentration tends to
enhance those experiences. A memory or story can become blown
up and because your perception has been altered you may not be
able to tell. The exaggerated version becomes your reality and you
believe it.
A student once told me of a time on a meditation retreat when
she went looking for something to eat in the community refrigerator,
a place where extra food—fruit, bread, cheese, and nut butters—was
made available for anyone who got hungry between meals. Just as she
opened the refrigerator she noticed a disapproving look from one of
the retreat center staff who happened to walk past.
She had gotten into a very quiet, concentrated place and from
that one glance tumbled into a story that she had done something
terrible, had somehow broken the rules by being in that refrigerator,
that she was being judged for eating between meals when she should
be meditating and, finally, that she was going to be kicked out of
the retreat. Nothing came of it and at the end of the retreat she
asked the person about it. That staff person had no recollection of
the incident. An incidental glance, of no consequence but perceived
93
in a certain way, got interpreted and ascribed with a world of

meaning.
We tend not to notice when our minds go into this kind of pro-
liferation. We can just believe the stories we are making up, imagin-
ing the worst possible reasons or motives and the most terrible
outcomes, spinning out more stories from the stories, without recog-
nizing the process that is going on. We create entire realities and
proceed to live in those worlds as if they were real.
You can be resting peacefully in meditation when some old, for-
gotten memory suddenly pops into your mind. Maybe you recall
something you did that caused harm to others or pain for yourself
and you are filled with regret, guilt, or shame. And because you are
so concentrated, that hurt becomes magnified and fills your con-
sciousness, and you are completely back reliving that old experience,
submerged in the old feelings.
Old traumas can be activated in concentrated states, triggering
upsetting memories of physical injury or emotional, psychological,
or sexual abuse. Or patterns of fear, worry, self-judgment, or any
parts of your life you deal with regularly can come roaring up, seem-
ingly stronger than ever. Desire or longing in some part of your life,
something you struggle with daily, can feel like it is going to over-
whelm you.
Entering Unfamiliar Territory

We may enter new territory of consciousness where familiar refer-
ence points start to disappear. For many people this never happens,
but for some, deepening concentration can open to altered experi-
ences in which their normal sense of reality begins to break down.
We may perceive our body as being composed of energy, vibra-
tion, or light, and the border between our inner and outer world may
become less obvious. It can be disconcerting to feel the solidity and
94
boundary we are used to experiencing begin to melt. You might

sense your body grown to many times normal, perhaps feeling as if it
fills the entire room. The feeling can be so real that you are con-
vinced you have actually physically expanded, and you have to open
your eyes to see that your body is actually normal size.
Through the power of our concentrated mind we may open to
perceptions of impermanence where our body and the external
world, everything that had seemed solid and stable, now appears to
be in constant flux. You may find yourself on a knife-edge between
past and future as the present moment dissolves right out from under
you. We can become frightened if our perception of impermanence
gets ahead of our equanimity.
If we find ourselves in terrain with which we are unfamiliar, we
may become disoriented. If anything happens that we are unaccus-
tomed to, we may feel shaky or fearful. Though these occurrences do
not happen for everyone, any of the experiences associated with con-
centration can become strong and we need some skillful means for
working with them when they do.
Two Main Approaches

For all of these reasons, we need to be respectful of the potential for
anything to happen, and we need to develop our capacity for dealing
with whatever might arise.
There are two main approaches for dealing with any strong or
unfamiliar conditions we may encounter in meditation. We can
bring down the intensity of the situation or we can bring up and
strengthen our mindfulness, equanimity, and ability to be present
with those experiences. Knowing which approach to take, when to
turn toward a situation and when to change our circumstances or
move away, is an art—an art that we can develop with experience.
95
Bringing Up Ability to Be With

Strong Experiences
When the situation is within our capability but we just do not
like what is happening, we have to find a way to wait for it to subside
on its own. We need confidence in our ability to learn how to be
with things, developing patience and a capacity to hang in there
through the turbulent times.
Cultivating self-reliance may require some trial and error, but
over time and with experience we know we can trust ourselves. We
know we do not have to believe our stories, fears, perceptions, or
moods, because we recognize that these things come and go. We
have seen over and over that every experience we have ever had has
passed. And we know the same is true for every experience we are
ever going to have. Because we have seen that these things come
and go, we know how to be with them all and we know we will
emerge from them in time.
One meditator, some days into an intensive retreat, reported
having a song suddenly pop into his mind. The song kept looping,
repeating over and over, and this went on for two days. He pushed
against it, struggling to turn it off, but he found that pushing only fed
it, giving it energy. After half a day he was crying for mercy and
finally he gave up, let go, and just waited. After two days it disap-
peared on its own.
Sometimes, all we need is simply to identify what is happening,
acknowledging if the energy feels strong or edgy, or if it feels like too
much. Just by recognizing our experience and how we are relating
with what is happening, we are able to summon the resources needed
to meet these challenging forces, strengthening mindfulness and
resting in the undistracted knowing while the process unfolds.
If mindfulness is well established and stability is firm, it does not
matter how powerful the samadhi experience is because we are steady,
96
we are undistracted, and we can take refuge in the mindfulness itself.

Mindfulness and equanimity help create the container to hold
samadhi experiences. When there is too little of either, we are liable
to be pulled out of a balanced presence; but these experiences do not
bother us if we can meet them with equanimity and clear awareness.
We do not have to do anything with them. When mindfulness is
clear and balance is strong, we can perceive that whatever happens is
just another experience that arises and passes away, without grasping
at it or pushing it away.
Try bringing in a quality of observing, rather than becoming
caught up, lost, or identified with the experience. You can notice
that there is awareness or mindfulness and that you can relax back
into and rest in the pure knowing of the experience. You are still
having the experience but you are aware of being aware. You know
that you know. And that can often be a very strong stabilizing force
to help work with what is happening.
Resting in the knowing does not mean being a disconnected or
detached witness, untouched by what is happening. You are fully in
the experience, but in a way that is disentangled and unfettered.
Such an untroubled and unburdened abiding can act as the safe con-
tainer for letting go. You can be more deeply present without agita-
tion and can more fully know, not as a concept but as directly
experienced, that this mental, physical, or emotional phenomenon is
just another part of the stream of consciousness that arises and
passes away due to its own causes and conditions.
Taking refuge in the knowing and in the letting go, we gain
access to a clear, quiet strength and fearlessness, enabling us to be
present and to let go even more fully. We can be fearless because we
know we are protected, no matter what happens. We have estab-
lished a secure footing for venturing forth.
Sometimes we are able to be present with whatever is happen-
ing, but we are afraid of what might happen next. For many people
fear is highly unpleasant. Noticing that fear is present and how
97
unpleasant it is may be just enough support for us to stay with the

experience more fully.
I have had very powerful experiences arise while meditating, fol-
lowed by fear that those experiences were going to keep intensifying.
But then I would remember to drop back and rest in awareness as a
refuge. From that place all the experiences could arise and pass away
and whatever happened was not a problem.
Bringing Down Intensity

Along with broadening skills for how to be present with some-
thing, we must learn how and when to interrupt the process. If you
have tried working with the meditation and it still feels like too
much, you may need a break. We need to be respectful of samadhi’s
power and of our boundaries and capabilities. Being honest about
what is happening includes being honest about our ability to relate
to what is happening.
Use your best judgment on how to proceed and try not to dispar-
age yourself as a bad meditator, thinking that you should stay with
an experience when in reality dealing with it is beyond your capacity.
If your mindful presence or equanimity is not sufficient to meet the
concentration, find a way to limit or stop the process. If you are not
able to be clear, mindful, steady, and present, you need to acknowl-
edge that fact. You may need to bring down the intensity, smooth
the rough edges, or pull out of the meditation entirely.
From the beginning days of your meditation you have been cul-
tivating the ability to direct your awareness by returning over and
over to your breathing. Now, use the skills you have developed to
redirect your attention away from the intensity and toward some-
thing nurturing and sustaining.
Try putting your attention to some place in your body that feels
steady. Feel your body sitting in the chair or your bottom or legs
98
pressing on the cushion or bench wherever you are sitting. Feel your
arms and legs. Put your attention anywhere you can in your body to
help yourself feel more embodied and grounded. If the energy is
strong, let it flow out your hands and feet and drain into the ground.
Take some calming breaths, breathing in a sense of peace and calm
and breathing out the energy. Or try opening your eyes and looking
around to reconnect and get back into the normal world. Perhaps get
up and walk around, go outside, or engage in mundane activities,
feeling your feet or legs as you move. Try anything like this you can do
to be more grounded and get back to your ordinary, everyday reality.
And then, when you are ready, if you are ready, you can come
back, either in this session or another—back into the practice. In
this way we learn with experience when it is time to bring the energy
and intensity down, when it is time to back off and come out of the
meditation, and when to stay with it by strengthening the presence
of mind and equanimity, the pure mindfulness that enables us to rest
more fully with whatever is happening.
We want to be respectful and not push ourselves into anything.
Sometimes you touch on something and then you pull back. But
then you touch it again and pull back over and over until you gain
some familiarity, letting mindfulness be your refuge, so that even if
something is completely unfamiliar and you do not know what is
happening, you can rest at peace in mindful presence.
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Chapter 8
Jhana: The Culmination

of Concentration
A
fter embarking on his spiritual quest, leaving home, family,
and the comfortable, secure life he had known, Siddhartha
Gotama, the Buddha-to-be, spent the next six years engaged
in a variety of stringent spiritual practices. You will sometimes see
statues and images of a skeletal Buddha, representing the ascetic
Gotama, emaciated through years of austerity and self-denial. He
almost died before realizing that ascetic practices and self-
mortification were dead ends that did not lead to liberation from the
human condition.
As he had this realization he remembered a time from his child-
hood, sitting in the shade of a rose-apple tree watching his father
plowing a field, when he spontaneously entered a deep state of
samadhi, the first jhana. He was feeling happy, relaxed and at ease in
the beauty of that orchard, and naturally fell into this blissful state of
peace and calm.
And now, his body wasted and near death, he considered whether
that same state of clarity and ease could be the way forward. Realizing
that jhana was where the path to enlightenment lay and that it
would be hard to attain that state in such an emaciated condition,
he began to eat, caring for his body and regaining strength. He then
turned his attention in a new direction, to the cultivation of Right
Samadhi—tranquility and insight yoked evenly together in jhana.
It is hard to overstate the significance of jhana in the Buddha’s
path of meditation. Over and over the Buddha emphasized its impor-
tance. He practiced jhana on the night of his enlightenment, he
taught jhana to his students, and after his enlightenment he would
sometimes withdraw his mind in jhana. He had developed the ability,
the mastery, to access these absorption states whenever he chose.
A mind well concentrated is purified, bright, unblemished, rid of
imperfection, flexible, steady, and attained to imperturbability. Such
a mind has a penetrative power far surpassing ordinary awareness; it
can perceive reality on whole new levels and, when turned toward
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Jhana: The Culmination of Concentration
awakening and liberation, can see the subtle places of suffering and
the ways we can truly rest in the stream of nonclinging.
What Is Jhana?
Jhana is dramatically different from the ordinary daily consciousness
in which most of us spend our lives. For many, jhana seems exotic
and far away from any experience they can relate to or imagine
attaining. But as your practice matures, you come to know the extent
to which meditative consciousness can evolve. If you have ever sat
an intensive meditation retreat, you see how far your practice can
develop in just a few days. Jhana is not only for ascetics living in
caves. Real meditators just like you have realized the benefits jhana
has to offer.
Recall that as meditation progresses, the unfolding of undistract-
edness can diverge, heading either toward increasing disconnection
from or toward enhanced awareness of your body and mind. Jhana is
the culmination of samadhi that is connected. Jhana is a state of
deep calm, undistracted clarity, and enhanced connection with and
profound insight into the nature of the body and the mind.
Because in jhana your mind is so highly attuned and sensitive,
you are opening to perceptions on much more refined levels. You
may perceive your body as being made of energy vibrations or light.
You become effortlessly aware of subtle thoughts or impulses. At this
stage your body and mind may be calmed to such a high degree there
is not a lot of mental and physical activity to experience, but you do
not need much to be aware of since the mind is so sensitive and
attuned. Heightened awareness of and connection with the body is
both an essential characteristic of jhana and, as we shall see, a way
leading to it.
103
Defining Jhana
Four jhanas are described in the Buddhist texts, comprising pro-
gressively subtler stages of increasing calm, clarity, and peace. The
four jhanas are not actually four separate discrete states; each is a
marker along a continuum. While some of the attributes of the first
jhana drop away as you progress through the stages, others are
retained, though they may become smoother and subtler from one
jhana to the next.
To understand the nature of jhana and how to access and prog-
ress through the stages, we will begin by exploring the first jhana.
Once we understand the first jhana, what the experience of it is like
and how to attain it, we will examine aspects of jhana in general.
Then we will come back to the four jhanas in sequence, proceeding
from the first jhana through the even subtler stages of concentration:
the second, third, and fourth jhanas.
The first jhana is defined by this formula:
Quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from

unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first jhana
[which is characterized by] rapture and pleasure born of
seclusion, and accompanied by thought and examination.
“Secluded from sensual pleasures” means having established sup-

portive conditions for entering the deeper stages of samadhi. We can
meditate in any surroundings, but our minds will not settle down
easily if we are flooded with a constant stream of sense inputs. To
cultivate internal seclusion we must create the proper environment
for it, and promote wholesome qualities of our hearts and minds. We
need to find a time and place best suited to meditation within the
constraints of our life circumstances. All the qualities we have been
cultivating throughout the course of our meditation—living ethi-
cally in accordance with the precepts, balanced effort, ease and
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relaxation, and a sense of self-compassion—now come to fruition,

arriving to meet us as supporting allies.
Through our many encounters with difficulties in meditation we
have learned to set aside sensual desire and craving for pleasure,
aversion toward difficult and unpleasant experiences, restlessness,
sloth and torpor, and doubt. As we near jhana our mind has become
even more quiet and calm. This is called “secluded from unwhole-
some states” because as we approach jhana our mind is so still that
the hindrances cannot arise.
Factors of the First Jhana

The four qualities listed in the definition of the first jhana—
rapture, pleasure, thought, and examination—along with a fifth
factor identified elsewhere in the source texts, unification of mind,
comprise the standard list known as the five jhana factors. All five
of these factors are present in the first jhana.
The Pali term piti, which is translated here as “rapture,” is also
translated as “bliss” or “joy.” It refers to all the various experiences of
samadhi we have been discussing throughout this book, which can
appear as bliss or pleasant experiences of energy, light, or sound. As
we have emphasized, how rapture manifests itself is highly individ-
ual. Sukha, translated here as “pleasure,” and sometimes as “happi-
ness,” refers to these same experiences when they have smoothed out
and subside in intensity. Some people have very dramatic experi-
ences of rapture in the first jhana, while for others it is very smooth,
even, and calm. The happiness or pleasure of jhana can be thick like
honey or, as the jhana progresses, thin out to be very light and sweet.
“Thought and examination” does not refer to thinking in the
ordinary sense that we are used to in everyday life. In the first jhana
some thoughts can arise, but they are greatly diminished—they are
quiet and subtle, and are seen and known as they arise. We are never
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lost in or identified with them. Thought and examination here

involve unifying the whole mind—bringing all its capacities, includ-
ing its thinking capacity, together in undistracted awareness. They
include directing and sustaining attention to the meditation object.
This kind of mental activity is self-sustaining and self-directing, like
a gentle guiding or inclining of the mind. In any of the jhanas,
though the undistractedness of mind is unshakeable, a slight amount
of directing of attention can happen. As factors of jhana, “thought
and examination” entail directing this attention to the meditation
object so that the mind can be applied to and sustained on that
object.
Using stock phrases, as is common in the Pali texts, the jhana
definitions are often accompanied by beautiful similes that expand
upon and illuminate the meaning. The similes not only complement
the description in the definitions, they also explain the way to realize
jhana and how to advance through the successive stages.
The simile for the first jhana is:
He makes the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion drench,

steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of
his whole body unpervaded by the rapture and pleasure born
of seclusion. Just as a skilled bath man or a bath man’s
apprentice heaps bath powder in a metal basin and, sprin-
kling it gradually with water, kneads it till the moisture wets
his ball of bath powder, soaks it and pervades it inside and
out, yet the ball itself does not ooze; so too, a bhikkhu [monk]
makes the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion drench,
of seclusion.
In the first jhana awareness is deeply immersed in and suffused

throughout the body, as clearly expressed in the simile. But though
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you are profoundly connected and intimate with the body, the expe-
rience of the body is altered from what is accessible through our
ordinary sense perceptions. The sense of solidity may give way to
subtler sensations of vibration or a sense of the body dissolving away.
The Experience of Jhana

We have seen that the quality and intensity of deepening concentra-
tion can manifest in a variety of ways, differing greatly from one
person to another. You might experience the jhana factors rapture
and pleasure as blissful bodily sensations of energy, vibration, light,
or sound. The feelings can be very powerful, pouring over you like a
waterfall, or may only be very soft and light.
Meditators sometimes judge their progress solely in terms of the
presence of the jhana factors and the absence of the five hindrances.
Because jhana is defined by a standard formula, they may believe
there are certain milestones to be met, well defined and common for
everyone along this path. They may think they are in jhana if rapture
and pleasure are strong.
It is a mistake to see the jhana factors as the sole criteria for
judging whether or not you have attained the first jhana. Even in the
beginning stages of meditation, when concentration is just begin-
ning to blossom, you can feel pleasure. Your mind can be more
unified and less distracted. As samadhi strengthens, the jhana factors
may become more pronounced, but even in jhana how the factors
present themselves is highly individual. We cannot say jhana is
marked for everyone by any particular expression of rapture and
pleasure. If you have a preconceived idea of what kind of or how
much rapture or pleasure you are supposed to have, you may find
yourself striving for that. Remember that the stages of jhana are
stages of letting go, not of gaining. If you find yourself comparing and
judging, try to let it go. You will suffer less and progress faster.
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Three Essential Characteristics of Jhana

Jhana is a distinctive state marked by three universal qualities.
These three qualities are hallmarks of all four stages of jhana. For
anyone in jhana the mind is utterly undistracted and incapable of
wandering even for a moment, it is extraordinarily lucid and clear,
and the meditation proceeds entirely on its own, with no sense that
you are doing anything to sustain it. Whenever these three aspects
are present, regardless of the experiences accompanying them, jhana
has been reached. If these are not all present and fully developed you
cannot call the meditative state jhana.
Unification of Mind
The first quality of jhana is sustained, unbroken mindfulness. An
untrained mind tends to be easily distracted, never really settled, and
quick to jump from one thing to another. It is striking, and a big relief,
when our mind first begins to quiet down in the early development of
concentration. Once concentration is very strong, our minds may not
wander much—perhaps only for a moment or so, in the deeper stages,
before we come back. Perhaps the mind does not wander at all and
there is only an impulse for the mind to start to drift or a slight agita-
tion or instability within awareness. Once you are in jhana all of that
movement is gone. The mind cannot wander or even have an impulse
to wander at all as long as you are in that meditative state.
As autumn gives way to winter, snow can turn into a slushy
mixture of water and ice, thicker than liquid, before finally freezing
completely. The icy water is undoubtedly freezing, but there is no
mistaking slush for solid ice. If your mind can move even a slight
amount, you are not in jhana. You may be close, but once in jhana
your mind will be immovable in sustained undistractedness.
Though your mind in jhana cannot move from unbroken mind-
fulness, there remains a part of your mind that can move, to incline
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your attention in particular directions. This is a very subtle movement.

We will explore this in detail later in this chapter and in the next.
Heightened Clarity
The second quality universal to everyone in jhana is increased
clarity of mind. Compared to ordinary states of mind, we can see
how much more aware we naturally are of subtle aspects of experi-
ence when concentration is very strong. Once you have entered
jhana, that clarity of awareness is heightened to a whole new level
that was previously inaccessible.
You may notice the genesis of thoughts (in the first jhana—
thoughts do not arise in the other jhanas), the first impulse for them
appearing even before breaking to the surface of consciousness. In
jhana your body and mind are tranquilized so that there may not be
a lot to experience beyond the jhana factors themselves. But your
perception is so clear and bright that you are keenly attuned to what-
ever does arise. It is like bringing a light to a darkened room. Where
you previously could only make out shadows or vague forms, now
you see everything in sharp detail.
Self-Sustaining
The third central jhana quality is a sense of self-sustaining. Not
only is the mindfulness unbroken, the mind unwavering, but the
process of meditation is unfolding on its own without you doing any-
thing to make it happen or keep it going. As concentration builds,
meditation starts to feel more effortless. Even in the early stages,
meditation feels easier when you are settled and clear compared to
the times when your mind is hazy and you cannot focus. The momen-
tum of the concentration carries you and there is not so much you
have to do to keep the practice going. You are still putting in some
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amount of effort, you still incline your mind to connect with objects
of meditation, but with a lighter and lighter touch. Perhaps there is
only a slight turning of your attention to connect with your
breathing.
In jhana, the sense of having to do anything to maintain the
meditation, even on the subtlest levels, is gone. As long as you are in
jhana the meditation is completely effortless and self-sustaining.
These three aspects of jhana—the unbroken awareness, the
heightened clarity, and the self- sustaining or effortlessness— are
common hallmarks for everyone. Along with these there may be
other experiences, such as the jhana factors, which can vary greatly
from one person to another. Some people may not experience much
else besides the sustained clarity and a sense of calm and stillness.
For others jhana can be accompanied by very powerful lights, ener-
gies, or other blissful experiences.
As you get close to jhana it is important to distinguish between
the experiences of concentration—the bliss, light, or energy—and
the undistracted clarity itself. Deepening stages of samadhi and
jhana are not stages of gaining new experiences, but stages of letting
go. Some people become caught up in or fascinated with these dra-
matic experiences. But ultimately they all drop away, especially when
you get to the third and fourth jhanas, leaving only the clear, bright
mind. Be aware of how the jhana factors are arising for you, but
mostly stay attuned and interested in the three main qualities that
will help you attain and then advance through the progressive,
subtler stages of jhana.
How to Attain Jhana

Meditators will sometimes wonder: Is this jhana? You can be sitting
right on the doorstep and not know. You cannot know how close you
are until you have made the transition and see what it looks like on
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the other side. Once you enter jhana, there is no longer any doubt.
Once you cross the threshold, you access a degree of steadiness and
self-continuation that is striking, a qualitative shift to an entirely
new level of clarity, steadiness, and self-sustained presence.
Maturing of Right Effort

Sensing they are close to jhana but unable to take hold of it,
people can sometimes become more frustrated or impatient.
Agitation can feed back onto itself, pulling you out of concentration
and causing even more aggravation as any remnants of clarity and
calm melt away.
Nonclinging is the fruit of dharma practice, but is also the way
forward itself. By remembering to meet your meditation with an
experimental attitude, a willingness to stay present and learn what
works and what does not, you have gained wisdom and skill. From
all the times you kept sitting through worry, frustration, or pain you
have developed the capacity for patience. Kindness for ourselves, dis-
cernment, and mindfulness are all essential for attaining jhana. But
these qualities are not merely tools to aid us in our journey. The
wholesome qualities we have been developing to reach jhana are
their own reward; they are themselves the fruit of our practice.
Embracing an attitude of the path as the goal supports us to relax
and be at ease, makes the qualities of a liberated mind come alive for
us now, and offers the fastest way toward realizing jhana.
If you have never played the piano, you would not expect to have
any skill at it. But by just beginning, though you have no ability
whatsoever, your playing will improve. The same is true in medita-
tion. By applying yourself, doing the best you can, you move from
tenuous first steps to competence and skill. Reflect on and acknowl-
edge what you have learned. You have put in time and energy, sitting
when you were inspired and carrying on when you didn’t want to,
through all the ups and downs, and you are learning how to do it.
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Entering the First Jhana

Entering jhana happens on its own. You cannot make it happen.
The stages of jhana are not progressive stages of doing or gaining;
they are deepening levels of letting go and simplifying the mind. We
cannot force the blossoming of jhana any more than we can force a
flower to open—the very act of trying is too much mental activity
for the mind to settle down completely. But while we cannot force a
flower to open, we can provide everything the flower needs to
blossom. Similarly, there are things we can do to facilitate the process
of jhana, and to create the conditions necessary for the mind to drop
into jhana when it is ready.
Stay aware of how much effort you are making and in what direc-
tions your effort is aimed. Like the Buddha, we can learn this skill if
we apply ourselves with patience. The key to doing this is not com-
plicated. Just carry on with the simple form of connecting with your
body breathing and let the process continue to unfold.
Use the breath as skillful means in support of letting go. Do not
try to press or force yourself to attain jhana, or any other state of
meditation. Pushing is counterproductive because it is too much
doing, too much activity, when what we want is for the mind to
settle, not do. Try to let go of your struggles and let go of clinging to
pleasure. Simply attend wisely to whatever is happening moment by
moment. Practicing in this way aims us toward jhana with a relaxed
attitude that does not overstrive and allows the experiences of
samadhi to develop organically.
You still have to make some amount of effort until you are in
jhana, but it becomes an ever lighter touch until finally you have let
go completely as the stream of samadhi carries you. You put in the
work, make the effort toward building momentum, and then let the
meditation’s own power engage and take off.
You will know if you are striking the right balance between effort
and letting go by paying attention to what happens as the momentum
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builds. If you are making too much effort, you may feel more agitation
rather than more peace. Notice if you feel tense or tight or restless.
Drop back and let go so that the momentum can take over. Shift
from doing to feeling yourself being pulled in.
Similarly, notice what happens when you let go too soon. See if
your mind wanders or moves more. If you let go too much before you
are ready, you will feel yourself lifting out of the meditation. You will
not be as concentrated. If this happens, bring back the effort and
intention to direct the process more.
As the jhana factors strengthen, some teachers will advise letting
go of the breath and shifting your attention solely to the pleasant
aspect of your experience itself as your meditation object in order to
bring you into jhana. However you are experiencing rapture and
pleasure, connect with the pleasure itself as your meditation object.
This may be helpful for some people and you can try it, but pay
attention to what happens if you do.
Sometimes letting go into the pleasant feeling can help bring us
further in, while for others staying with the breath works best. In any
case, you cannot turn away from the breath and place your attention
on pleasantness too soon or else you will lift out of the samadhi. By
taking your attention away from the meditation object too early and
putting it onto the pleasantness itself, you can feel yourself lifting
out. You will not be as deeply concentrated. In this case bring your
attention back to the samadhi- breath or the samadhi suffused
throughout the body or whatever other meditation object you may
have, letting go into that experience to take you deeper. You have to
stay attuned and see what works best for you.
In previous chapters I discussed how, as concentration deepens,
we can head in one of two directions, either more deeply immersed
in body awareness or disconnected from consciousness of our body.
Stay attuned to how the process is unfolding. As long as you have a
sense of being connected with your body, though it may be quite
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subtle, continue practicing as you have been, either more narrowly

focused in the area of the breath or opened up to the whole body.
This will be your doorway into jhana.
If you feel like you are becoming disconnected from your body,
then this is the time to intentionally turn your awareness into the
body and, making as much effort as necessary but no more, suffuse
the experiences of samadhi throughout your body. Let that be your
doorway into jhana.
Recall the simile for the first jhana:
He makes the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion drench,

of seclusion. Just as a skilled bath man or a bath man’s
apprentice heaps bath powder in a metal basin and, sprin-
kling it gradually with water, kneads it till the moisture wets
his ball of bath powder, soaks it and pervades it inside and
out, yet the ball itself does not ooze; so too, a bhikkhu [monk]
makes the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion drench,
of seclusion.
What is the bath man doing in this simile? He is making soap.

He is combining water and bath powder, mixing and kneading them
together until you no longer have two separate things. You have just
the one thing, soap. Water and powder have unified into something
new.
In precisely the same way, you make the rapture and pleasure,
however you experience them, born of seclusion “drench, steep, fill,
and pervade this body.” You are bringing them into the body. This is
a very clear, precise, and accurate description of what happens.
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Rapture and pleasure suffused throughout the body is both the

way into jhana and the nature of the state of the first jhana. You
have been staying with the breath and now the instructions have
changed. Notice there is no mention of the breath in the definition
of jhana. The breath has done its job and now awareness has spread
throughout the whole body. The meditator makes the rapture and
pleasure drench, steep, fill, and pervade the body. You are consciously
bringing it into the body if it is not happening on its own.
Entry into jhana is marked by an absorption into the rapture and
pleasure suffused through the body. We are immersed in it. It perme-
ates and soaks every part of us. For some, when the mind is ready it
will drop into jhana of its own accord. Others may need to purpose-
fully suffuse the samadhi experiences throughout the body, just as
described in the simile. Stay with the process if it suffuses on its own,
and guide it; suffuse it throughout the body if you need to.
Stabilizing Jhana
When you first touch jhana you may only stay in it for a short
time before you are lifted right out. You may not know how you got
in, how to stay in, or how to find your way back. Remember patience
and try your best to let go of struggle or of trying to force the process.
With time and experience you will find the way to jhana more con-
sistently. As you take your time with each jhana, you will get to
know it and learn how to move in and out of it.
As you begin to stabilize in jhana, you can hang out there and
check out what it is like. How do you experience jhana? Is the rapture
strong or light, edgy or smooth? Are there any thoughts? Notice the
part of your mind that is unmoving and the part you can incline to
investigate your experience. With only the barest, lightest touch,
examine and get to know the surroundings. Do not be in a hurry.
Without trying to get to the second jhana, spend some time noticing
how things unfold.
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Progressing Through the Jhanas

We move through the jhanas either by doing nothing and letting the
process unfold on its own, or by doing something and engaging in
the process of letting go.
For some, once the first jhana has been attained, progression
happens on its own. If moving through the jhanas is going to happen
on its own, you will feel yourself dropping down into deeper states.
Whether the progression happens in a single sitting or over the
course of months, you will not have to do anything and your mind
will naturally settle, moving to the second jhana and beyond. Others
may turn their minds toward simplifying and letting go to progress
further. This can be a sense of letting go of the coarser experiences
of the present jhana or of leaning into the subtler experiences of the
next.
Directed Attention
The use of directed attention may be important for some people
in order to progress through the jhanas, just as it was important
throughout our meditation leading up to jhana. I have been empha-
sizing that, once in jhana, awareness is so stabilized there is not a
sense of doing anything to keep the process going. The mind is
undistracted and unmoving, and because it is absorbed in a steady
awareness you cannot make mental effort in the ordinary sense. As
you are carried with the unfolding progression, there is no sense of
any activity on your part making it happen.
But even in the still places of meditative absorption and jhana
there remains a part of the mind that can be inclined in certain
directions. It sounds paradoxical that the mind is unmoving yet
there is some part that can move, that our awareness can be directed
somehow.
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This is a subtle place in the meditation. A slight amount of

knowing and directing of attention remains. The inclination of
awareness is extremely delicate, but because your perception is so
keen you do not need much other than a subtle awareness.
Second Jhana
With the stilling of thought and examination, he enters and
abides in the second jhana [which is characterized by] rapture
and pleasure born of concentration, and accompanied by
inner composure and singleness of mind, without thought
and examination.
The stars are always above us, but are obscured by the sun’s bril-
liance by day. Only when the sun sets do the stars reveal themselves,
coming to prominence in a powerful display against the night sky.
The subtler features of jhana emerge as the coarser qualities fall
away. This pattern will characterize progress through each of the
jhanas.
The second jhana is more quiet and still than the first. The
thought and examination of the first jhana have fallen away, rapture
and pleasure remain, and other qualities, inner composure and sin-
gleness of mind, begin to emerge.
In the first jhana there can be some thoughts. With the stilling
of thought and examination, the verbal process of thinking settles as
you enter a wordless realm. The connecting and sustaining function
of thought and examination is no longer necessary and drops away.
Your awareness just is connected and sustained without the necessity
of any mental function to sustain it. Inner composure and singleness
of mind become more prominent as we find ourselves in a quieter,
simpler place.
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Listen to the simile for the second jhana:
He makes the rapture and pleasure born of concentration

drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no
part of his whole body unpervaded by the rapture and plea-
sure born of concentration. Just as though there were a lake
whose waters welled up from below and it had no inflow
from east, west, north or south and would not be replenished
from time to time by showers of rain, then the cool fount of
water welling up in the lake would make the cool water
drench, steep, fill, and pervade the lake, so that there would
be no part of the whole lake unpervaded by cool water; so
too, a bhikkhu [monk] makes the rapture and pleasure born
of concentration drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so
that there is no part of his whole body unpervaded by the
rapture and pleasure born of concentration.
Notice the shift from the first to the second jhana in the descrip-
tion of what happens. Just as in the first jhana, the rapture and plea-
sure drench, steep, fill, and pervade the body, but the image is
different. To get to the first jhana we are working and kneading, like
the bath man, putting in some amount of effort to suffuse the rapture
and pleasure throughout the body. The precise amount of effort
varies for each of us, depending on how the process unfolds on its
own, but there is some sense of directing the process.
Now, in the second jhana, the process of suffusing throughout
the body is still happening, but it is coming from a deeper place. It
feels a lot quieter. Instead of the external effort and energy of the
bath man, the infusion is welling up deep from within out of the
momentum and concentration of the first jhana.
Take some time and get to know what the second jhana is like.
Notice the wordless quality—you will not be thinking thoughts
about having no thoughts. This is a nonverbal knowing. Notice the
sense of inner composure and the undistracted singleness of mind.
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Third Jhana
The third jhana is similar to the second, except it feels even
smoother and more refined as rapture fades, leaving only pleasure:
With the fading away of rapture, he abides in equanimity,

mindful and clearly aware, feeling pleasure with the body, he
enters and abides in the third jhana, of which the noble ones
declare: “equanimous and mindful he abides in pleasure.”
At some point the rapture we previously suffused throughout the

body to access the first jhana begins to feel too energetic and coarse.
The mind wants to settle further, and rapture gives way to a quieter
pleasure in the body and happiness in the mind. For some, the
rapture fades on its own as the third jhana begins to reveal itself. If
this does not happen for you on its own, try inclining your mind,
seeing if you can let go into the feeling of happiness or pleasure,
something lighter than the rapture. If you are aware of your breath-
ing, you can use it to help dissipate the rapture if that is strong.
Equanimity, mindfulness, and clear awareness are highlighted in
the third jhana’s definition. Our consciousness can be so filled by
the rapture of the first and second jhanas that we may not notice the
stability and clear awareness of our minds. As rapture subsides,
mindfulness and equanimity come to prominence.
With attainment of the third jhana, the simile changes quite a
bit:
He makes the pleasure divested of rapture drench, steep, fill,

and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole
body unpervaded by the pleasure divested of rapture. Just as
in a pond of blue or red or white lotuses, some lotuses that
are born and grow in the water thrive, immersed in the water
without ever rising out of it, and cool water drenches, steeps
and pervades them from their tips to their roots, so there is
no part of those lotuses unpervaded by the cool water, so too,
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a bhikkhu [monk] makes the pleasure drench, steep and

pervade the body.
There is no sense of doing here at all. There is more a sense of

being. These lotuses are born, live their entire lives and die com-
pletely suffused in the water. They do not have to do anything to
make it happen. In the third jhana the pleasure is suffused through-
out your body without you doing anything to make it happen. It is a
state of being, not of doing.
Fourth Jhana
Here is the definition of the fourth jhana:
With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the pre-
vious disappearance of joy and grief, he enters and abides in
the fourth jhana, [which has] neither-pain-nor-pleasure and
purity of mindfulness and equanimity.
And here is the simile:
He sits pervading this body with a pure bright mind, so that

there is no part of his whole body unpervaded by the pure
bright mind. Just as though a man were sitting covered from
head to foot with a white cloth, so that there would be no
part of his whole body not covered by the white cloth; so,
too, a bhikkhu [monk] sits pervading this body with a pure
bright mind, so that there is no part of his whole body unper-
vaded by the pure bright mind.
With the abandoning of pleasure and pain you enter a state of

great balance. There is no sense of doing, only a sense of being, and
you just remain there. In the fourth jhana you are powerfully
immersed in body awareness, a state of profound connection. With
the settling out of rapture and pleasure, perceptions of your body
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become quite thin, and what remains is resting at peace in a bright,

inclusive, equanimous awareness. Your experience of your body may
be subtle; there may not be much to experience in the body at this
point as the previous, coarser perceptions melt into vibration or
light.
After Jhana
Once we are in any of the stages of jhana, our practice includes times
of doing nothing and allowing the experiences and insights to reveal
themselves, and times of inclining our minds toward investigation
and inquiry. In the next chapter we will explore the various ways
insight arises and its place on the path toward the ultimate goal of
meditation: awakening and liberation through nonclinging.
As our familiarity with jhana grows, we learn to navigate the
terrain, exploring the landscape of consciousness with increasing
skill. We gain facility in moving about among the various levels and
how to access and use pleasure to gladden our hearts and minds. As
we touch the pleasure of concentration, the allure of worldly pleasure
fades. A contented heart and mind are subtler, yet more satisfying,
than anything that can be found through the ordinary senses. We
see that we do not have to go looking outside ourselves. Worldly
pleasure loses its attraction as we learn to let go into the more refined
pleasure of concentration.
Jhana, like every other experience we can have, is not a reliable
place to seek happiness. Though all of the jhanas are highly pleas-
ant, even the purified realm of the fourth jhana contains the seeds
of potential suffering. Each jhana has its own level of subtlety and
satisfaction, but they all contain a degree of dissatisfaction. From the
perspective of the earlier stages in meditation, the first jhana is
appealing. From the perspective of the fourth jhana, it can feel rather
crude.
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By the time you have reached the fourth jhana your mind is
keenly aware and you are able to perceive clinging on the subtlest
levels. The jhanas are temporarily satisfying, but not ultimately sat-
isfying; and clinging to jhana, or to any meditative state, plants the
seeds of suffering.
And so jhana flows us toward awakening. Previously you realized
that ordinary worldly pleasure is not fulfilling; now you realize that
the pleasure of meditative states is not going to do it for you either.
None of these states last, and once the energy of the meditation melts
away, we are lifted out and back into the ordinary world. Now there
is no turning back. This mind, which is purified, bright, unblem-
ished, rid of imperfection, flexible, steady, and attained to imperturb-
ability, now turns in a very profound way toward liberation.
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Chapter 9
Insight
I
n the beginning instructions you were advised to find a posture
where you could be as comfortable as possible. You could sit in
a chair or even lie down, finding whatever best supported you to
be relaxed, easeful, and alert. You did not have to make anything
happen; all you had to do was be with your experience. By now you
have seen how hard this simple notion, just to sit quietly and be
present with yourself, can be.
The idea of nonclinging is simple, but one of the first insights we
have is that this seemingly straightforward instruction, to be with
ourselves, is hard to do. Letting go and nonclinging is easy when
things are going your way, but you soon find all the ways you are
unable to be present. You begin to uncover layer upon layer of reac-
tive patterns pushing and pulling you in all directions. From all the
times of sitting through knee pain or backache, staying with the
practice when your mind would not cooperate or when you were
visited by old memories or emotional pain, you learned to find
moments of freedom in the midst of it all. And you discovered your
edges, the places where you were not yet ready or able to let go of
struggle, and learned how elusive the happiness of nonclinging can
be.
Insight into anything means understanding its true nature. It is
an intuitive knowing, direct perception of what is essentially true
beyond mere intellectual understanding. To progress from a concep-
tual understanding of how dharma teachings and practice might
help us to actualizing the dharma as a lived reality, we need help to
realize the potential for quieting our minds and opening our hearts.
We need to find the tools for meeting our self face to face. Through
wise discernment we penetrate beneath surface appearances to rec-
ognize what is real and true about our world and ourselves.
Whenever you are suffering, it is a signal that you need to back
up and look at what is keeping you from being present. And if you
cannot be with that, you need to back up again, and keep doing so
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Insight
until you find what you can be present with. Insight is the discern-
ment of your suffering, its cause, and a way to its end in order to
more fully realize your capacity for letting go.
Insight is whatever perception or understanding sheds light on
the places we create suffering and how to let that suffering go.
Sometimes, when the light of awareness illuminates previously
hidden corners of our psyche, old destructive patterns can fall away
on their own. The grip of self-judgment, criticism, or doubt can
loosen simply through mindful presence. Other times, mindful rec-
ognition is just the first step, a jumping off point for delving into
something more deeply, thinking it through or feeling into it to
untangle its knots.
How Insight Leads to Liberation

Just as we suffer in many ways and in many areas of our lives, so there
are many forms insight can take. We can directly perceive the
ephemeral nature of life through insight into impermanence and
change. We can have psychological insights, insights into the nature
of our body, and insights into emotions and thought patterns. Insight
can manifest as the solution to a problem as we comprehend the web
of causal relationships and conditioned patterns influencing our
thoughts and behavior. All of these insights can be in service of
deepening liberation through nonclinging.
Insights can come on their own as a result of your having calmed
your mind, like stilling the wind that ruffles the surface of a lake so
you can see the bottom clearly. And you can aim for insights by
turning toward any experience to investigate its qualities and how
you are relating to what is happening.
You do not have to see farther than you can see. You do not have
to know where the process is leading or how to proceed. If you stay
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open with and receptive to the process as it unfolds, letting what

happens guide you organically and using your best judgment for how
to meet it, the way forward will reveal itself.
You can be sitting quietly in meditation and an old memory, long
forgotten, may suddenly pop into your mind. By staying present with
that memory, you may become aware that there is a feeling associ-
ated with it. Or perhaps you have a sense, maybe only a vague feeling,
of something lying just below the surface of your consciousness. You
might hang out with that feeling or memory, or purposefully turn
your attention toward it to look closer. You might then notice a body
sensation connected with the feeling or memory, maybe tightness in
your belly or shoulders or contraction in your heart, and by staying
with the feeling in your body you become aware of an emotion.
Looking more closely, you remember a painful time from your child-
hood when you felt unsafe, and how that unsafe feeling has been
simmering beneath the surface of your consciousness to this day.
Insights such as these promote deep psychological healing,
revealing and loosening the knots of unconscious forces that drive
us. In the same way, insight into thought patterns can help us break
unconscious clinging and identity. There is not much to a thought.
Thoughts seem to come from nowhere, persist for a moment—float-
ing through the mind like the wisp of a cloud—and are gone.
Mundane thoughts about buying groceries or remembering an
appointment do not bother us. But as insubstantial as they are, when
they are not noticed, thoughts of self-criticism and judgment, views
and opinions and self-images—they all generate a world of self-view
and suffering that we proceed to inhabit as if it were real.
We can easily mistake our critical, judging mind for wise dis-
cernment. We believe our thoughts, not seeing that they are our own
creation fueled by unconscious habits and patterns. These destruc-
tive attitudes and thoughts would not be so detrimental if we could
see them for what they are. This is where we need the clarity of
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Insight
insight, because it is only through discernment itself that we learn

the difference between judging and discernment.
The critical mind is like a computer program, which only knows
how to do one thing, the function for which it is programmed.
Clicking on the icon for a word processor will never run a video
game. When you click on the computer icons in your mind—when
you encounter certain people or situations and the right conditions
come together—self- judgment, shame, anger, or fear are set in
motion, running through the course of their programming.
The critical mind is not interested in giving you an accurate
assessment of yourself or others. It is only interested in carrying out
its function: to criticize. And it doesn’t care what it lands on; it is
happy to land on you or anyone else.
You are the expert on the lived experience of your life. But when
you identify with your experience, you may be among the least quali-
fied to judge yourself because you cannot see objectively. You are too
caught up, too entangled in your own life to assess it properly. Once,
with discernment, you see these forces for what they really are—just
conditioned patterns that run through their program when set in
motion, you do not have to believe them anymore. They begin to
lose their grip on you and ultimately fade away completely.
The Ways Insight Arises

Insights come from within jhana and other meditative states, as a
direct result of the deeper stages of samadhi. Insights also come
during times in meditation when you cannot concentrate, when it
feels like the meditation is not going easily or well, or you are dealing
with hindrances and learning how to be present with something dif-
ficult or painful. And insights come in the experience of daily activi-
ties when you are not meditating at all. Meditation practice serves to
support all of these.
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Three Marks of All Experience

Insight is traditionally understood as directly perceiving one or
more of the three characteristics of all experience: impermanence;
the ultimately unsatisfactory nature of all things due to their being
impermanent; and the selfless nature of your own being.
When we perceive clearly, not as a concept but as part of our
lived experience, that things do not last, we tend not to chase after
or cling to them so much, knowing that they are just going to change
or be lost. Because all things are changing, if you identify with or
cling to anything at all—to having or not having any experience, to
your body, your mind, or anything that is bound to change—you
either suffer or plant the seeds of future suffering. Knowing directly
the suffering that comes from clinging because all things are imper-
manent helps us to let go. When you start to understand more accu-
rately the nature of your mind and body—the fact that in essence
you, too, are a collection of changing experiences—you can rest
more at peace within the unfolding of your own being.
We may understand all of this very well conceptually, but we do
not live our lives as if it were true. This is why it is so important to
perceive these characteristics directly. Ignorance and delusion mani-
fest in many ways. We take what must change as lasting. We seek
happiness in what is bound to be lost. And we cling to our minds
and bodies, even though we know they are destined to old age,
illness, and death. If you cling to your youth you suffer. If you are
enslaved to your desires, constantly chasing after pleasant experi-
ences and avoiding the unpleasant ones, you suffer—or set yourself
up for future suffering.
Have you ever tried to hold water cupped in your hands? No
matter how hard you try, it inevitably drips away through your fingers.
Pressing your hands and fingers together more tightly does not help;
it hurts, and the water is lost nonetheless. Everything is a changing
process. Everything will pass away right through your fingers.
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Insight
This is not meant to make you sullen or disheartened. Life is not

a mistake and nothing is going wrong. It’s just the way things are. If
you release the grip and stop fighting yourself and the world, it
relieves the pain. What you are left with is ease.
Very young children immerse themselves in play, creating whole
worlds of trucks and trains, dolls and playhouses. They are deeply
engaged and absorbed in their imaginations. As they get older the
things that had been so enticing no longer hold any fascination.
They did not have to do anything to make this happen; their percep-
tions gradually shifted, simply as a result of a more mature perspec-
tive. What had previously captivated their attention no longer seems
of interest and simply drops away on its own.
Just as we lose our fascination with childhood toys as we grow
older, when we see how things are, as we begin to understand imper-
manence and the suffering that comes from trying to hold on to
anything, our clinging and suffering start to drop away.
The more deeply we really get it, the more we are able to let go
of the subtler places of clinging. When your mind is free from cling-
ing, the pain of pressing your fingers together too tightly stops and
an inner peace arises as you allow the water to drip through. The
happiness of inner peace is subtler than sense pleasure, but more
deeply satisfying. This is a place of stillness, of equanimity, and of
peace. In order to know the subtler places of clinging, you need
mindfulness, clear awareness, and an undistracted, concentrated
mind.
Insight That Arises from Within Samadhi

Stages of deep concentration sharpen the mind’s perceptive
ability. When you become concentrated your mind is less distracted
and naturally more clear and aware. And if you take that to the level
of jhana, you attain a level of clarity and undistractedness that was
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previously inaccessible. Remember what happens in the jhanas. The

mind is extremely lucid and undistracted in unbroken mindfulness,
with awareness suffused throughout the body.
The more present, awake, and undistracted your mind is, the
more clearly it perceives what is most deeply true about your world
and yourself: the fact that all conditioned phenomena, all that can
be known or sensed, are impermanent and that, as such, they are
ultimately unreliable sources of happiness. These insights may come
on their own simply as a result of having a concentrated mind, or
you can choose to look for these insights within states of samadhi by
turning your mind to more deeply investigate and perceive the
nature of your body and mind.
Naturally, without your having to do anything, these insights
will become clearer. You become increasingly aware of the changing
nature of phenomena, recognizing the suffering that comes through
clinging, and you come to know more deeply the nature of your
heart, mind, and body—the fact that they are also a collection of
changing experiences. These insights are great aids in letting go of
clinging and helping you rest more equanimously and at peace.
At this stage, the mind has reached a profound degree of clarity
in jhana, but things have gotten very still so you have less changing
experience to be known by the clear mind. The ability to penetrate
into experience has gotten extremely powerful, but the actual expe-
rience is so subtle there is not a lot of experience there to penetrate
into. The sense of the body can feel quite thin and subtle at this
point. You may experience the body dissolving into pure energy or
light.
Though it may feel like not much is going on as you rest in the
stillness and clarity of mind, you do not need a lot because the power
of knowing, seeing, and perceiving is so strong. You penetrate what-
ever experience there is very clearly and deeply. The characteristics
of impermanence and selflessness, the empty nature of the body and
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Insight
the mind, are all directly experienced as a fruit of a concentrated

mind. The insights present themselves.
There may be times in jhana or other deep stages of meditation
when you choose to consciously, actively turn your mind toward
investigation. I have described the mind in jhana as absorbed and
undistracted, but while the mind is steady in unbroken mindful
knowing there remains part of the mind that you can incline in
certain directions. This is a very subtle pointing of awareness, not
the gross movements we are used to in ordinary consciousness. You
can look for the changing nature of experience, the cause of suffer-
ing through clinging, or the nature of your own being.
Insight in Meditation When You

Cannot Concentrate
The times when you cannot concentrate, when you are strug-
gling and it feels like the meditation is falling apart, are important
for the cultivation of insight—at least as important as the times of
extreme clarity in samadhi, and perhaps more so. Our first instinct
is to think we have to get back to the good meditation. We think
something is going wrong. But nothing is falling apart and nothing
is going wrong. There is simply the arising and passing away of the
present moment’s experience as it has changed. Where there was
peace and happiness, now we experience physical pain or emotional
stress.
These are special, important times in meditation and we do not
want to miss the opportunity for growth they have to offer. If you
want to free yourself from suffering then you have to understand
your suffering, and if you want to understand your suffering you have
to experience the ways your mind creates suffering. If you want to be
free, you would rather see your greed, your hatred, and your delusion
than not.
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You do not have to seek suffering out; it will find you. And when
it does, you should appreciate that it is a necessary and important
part of the process of insight and welcome the opportunity to change
your relationship with the suffering being presented. Watch your
mind when you are struggling or suffering in some way. There is a lot
of dharma right there in the places where you get caught. That is the
place to look—to learn where you cling and how to let it go. That is
how the wisdom and insight come in.
Notice how your mind responds to whatever is happening,
whether it is resisting or is buffeting around or being reactive in some
other way. Watch what is happening. Come to know the suffering
quality of a reacting mind. This is a really important place to pay
attention. Pay attention to what you do in those times.
Everything you need for learning and growth is there. You expe-
rience the First Noble Truth directly, the suffering that arises because
of clinging. The Second Noble Truth is illuminated—the fact that it
is your craving that is leading you to cling, craving for pleasant expe-
rience and wanting to get rid of unpleasant experience. You directly
experience what conditions your mind to cling. Everything you need
to learn about suffering, its cause, and its cessation presents itself.
And you find out whether or not you are yet skillful enough to let go.
Try not to judge the benefit of meditation just by how pleasant or
unpleasant it is. Meditation is like riding a bicycle. Think about what
it is like riding a bike: You go up and down the hills. Going up can
hurt and not be much fun. Going down the hills feels great; you feel
the wind and it is easy and pleasant. It feels better going down, but
which one do you get the most out of? You get a lot going down from
the pleasure and the beauty, but it is the uphill that builds up your
endurance and your legs the most.
The path of meditation is sometimes called the path of purifica-
tion. As you turn your attention inward, connecting deeply and inti-
mately with yourself, parts of you that may have been hidden or
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Insight
covered over begin to be made conscious. Simply by cultivating

steady presence, the practice actually brings them up in cycles of
purity and purification, and this process only accelerates as you
become more collected and settled. In this way, the path of insight
and the path of concentration are the same path.
You will enter the deeper stages of samadhi and then will go
through cycles or times when it is not so easy, when you do not have
the support of the concentration. Rather than react with and push
away those experiences, you need to use those times. They serve to
unmask levels of clinging you may not have been aware of. You get
to find out how you can be with this unpleasant experience and if
you can find a way to let go of your suffering around it.
When the hindrances are strong and you cannot find your
breath, your ability to work with what is happening can feel feeble,
as if you are not really able to practice. It is true that in those times
you may not have the strength of clarity and steadiness. But you are
practicing fully and well as long as you bring your mindful attention
the best you can to meet your experience. Just do the best you can;
that is enough. Think of how you get good at anything. It is through
practice and experience. Learning happens through the struggle;
your ability to let go will grow.
Insight in Daily Life

There can be a tendency to view daily life practice as somehow
less important than formal meditation. You may think the real ben-
efits come mainly through exceptional states of deep samadhi, but
the insights that come in daily life are at least as important as those
from the subtle stages of concentration, and perhaps even more so.
There are so many opportunities for insight. You get to find out
how you are in relationship to the people at work, family, neighbors,
and friends. You get to see when you are able to move through life
133
with a balanced mind and what causes you to close off from situa-
tions or people. As you find what helps you live in a balanced way
and learn how to let go, there is no disconnection between medita-
tion and any other aspect of your life.
As the fruits of meditation carry into your life you start to notice
thoughts and feelings previously covered over by busyness or distrac-
tion. It can be alarming when you first begin to wake up to what is
really happening in your mind. You begin to see how much of your
thoughts are some version of Am I okay? or How am I going to be
okay? or How am I going to get this? or How am I going to avoid that? By
bringing the mindfulness and clear awareness you have been culti-
vating in formal meditation into ordinary life, it becomes clear how
much of your life you spend in peace and fulfillment and how much
time is marked by worry or stress.
Dharma practice seeks to shift reactive patterns of grasping and
aversion. When your habitual tendencies of chasing your likes and
running from your dislikes begin to loosen, you are left to rest peace-
fully within the ever-changing flow of your life. In order to do this
you must come to understand these patterns, and to understand
them you have to experience them.
If you want to free yourself from suffering, you need to under-
stand the forces that create suffering responses to life. But you cannot
see your conditioning directly. In order to understand these patterns
you have to bring them into the light of awareness, and that only
happens when the proper neural pathways are activated. The seeds
of your reactive habits lie dormant, waiting for the opportunity to
sprout when you encounter challenging people, places, and situa-
tions. Only under the right circumstances, when certain causes and
conditions come together, do they spring forth and grow.
Many of these tendencies only have an opportunity to become
conscious in the course of daily activities. You can be sitting in medi-
tation, heart open and mind quiet, happily unbothered by anything
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Insight
because you are secluded from the stresses of your normal interac-
tions. Then you get up from meditation to begin your day and
encounter a person you dislike or hear a news story that upsets you.
You gain valuable insights into the ways you fall into reactivity or
where your heart closes off, opening you to the possibility of freedom.
See them as the opportunity for learning how to live in equanimity
with a peaceful mind and an open heart.
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Chapter 10
Equanimity
T
he entire teaching of the Buddha can be viewed as making
a radical shift in how we seek happiness—a shift that has
far-reaching and profound consequences for our well-being.
This process of transforming our relationship with our life and our-
selves culminates in a mind of inner peace and nonreactive pres-
ence, a state of equanimity.
Without equanimity we tend to meet situations through unseen
filters of reactivity, causing us to deny our experience or pull away
from anything we dislike or chase after what we want. When you are
balanced you neither push away nor cling; you don’t suppress your
feelings or thoughts, but you also don’t get caught in or identified
with them. Between reactions of grasping and aversion lies the
freedom to choose your own way, how you will relate and respond to
life.
Equanimity is both the path and the fruit of the path. You
employed equanimity the first time you sat to meditate as you tried
to let go of grasping and aversion and sit quietly with yourself. You
may have felt tenuous and unsteady, but you did the best you could
and it was enough. Through those initial efforts equanimity matured
and your capacity for meeting your experience grew. As you became
increasingly able to turn toward and work with whatever arose in
meditation, mindfulness and steadiness grew.
It can seem so hard to live with a peaceful mind, an open heart,
and compassion for others and ourselves. Equanimity acts as an ally,
support, and shield against the “eight worldly concerns” of gain and
loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, and pleasure and pain.
These four pairs of opposites are powerful incentives driving most
human behavior. We are constantly judging and comparing our-
selves and our situations. You can appreciate success, but if your
sense of well-being depends on it you are setting yourself up for dis-
appointment when the situation changes. If you are attached to
honor and approval, it may feel good until you are faced with criti-
cism. If you become egotistical, your self-worth can be based on
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Equanimity
comparing yourself to others. The more deeply you identify with

your successes, the more profoundly you will identify with failure.
With equanimity you remain unshaken. Your peace and happi-
ness are not left to chance forces outside your control and you remain
independent, gliding over the bumps of life’s ups and downs.
Equanimity should not be mistaken for passivity. It does not
mean you are no longer engaged in life or should stop trying to
change your circumstances when appropriate. But you should do all
this from wisdom, not from reactivity. If you think you are supposed
to stay with something when it really is too much to deal with, you
fall into struggle.
An acorn will eventually grow into a great oak tree, able to with-
stand powerful storms. When the sapling is small it is weak and
vulnerable, so one builds a fence to protect it and guard against
animals or wind. There is no need for a fence once the tree has
matured. Until equanimity is well developed, you are more easily
blown by the winds of bother or stress. As wisdom grows and your
boundary point moves out, your heart and mind can rest freely in
the midst of ever more turmoil. Until then you must find a way to
back off or bring down the intensity to within a range in which you
can work.
Stress can be defined as the gap between your experience and
your ability to be fully present in the midst of that experience without
struggle. The wider the gap, the more you suffer. Equanimity means
closing the gap. We create suffering through our inability to be with
life as it is, and through our aversion to unpleasant, unwanted expe-
riences. There is no problem if we do not think life is supposed to be
any way other than it is.
The Buddha expressed this using an analogy. He said both the
ordinary and the enlightened person experience the full range of
physical and mental processes, all the pleasant and unpleasant feel-
ings available through the senses. Both experience the unpleasant-
ness of painful physical sensations, which the Buddha likened to
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being struck by an arrow. The ordinary person then creates another

extra layer of suffering, in addition to the painful experience itself,
by clinging to the pleasant or fighting against the unpleasant. This,
said the Buddha, is like being struck by a second arrow, whereas the
enlightened person, for whom there is no gap, is struck only once.
Ending Destructive Impulses

The equanimity of the Buddha is described as a destruction of three
fundamental forces that lead to reactivity and stress. When these
deeply conditioned patterns are no longer operational, you will have
arrived in a state of balance and inner peace beyond any method or
technique.
These three tendencies of mind are closely related and reinforce
each other. The first of these is ignorance, not understanding the
truth of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its
cessation: the Four Noble Truths. The insight into suffering that
dispels ignorance is beyond mere intellectual understanding; it is an
immediate knowing that manifests moment by moment within the
reality of your life.
When immersed in our pursuits we cannot see the tension or
anxiety that may be right in front of us. We experience a lack, a
sense of something missing, or we are unable to let go of our aversion
to whatever is difficult or painful. Always seeking satisfaction in the
next great experience, we are so caught we cannot see the stress
inherent in looking for happiness outside our self. It is due to igno-
rance that we do not perceive the suffering inherent in giving our
well-being over to whether or not our experience is to our liking.
Once we begin to wake up more fully to what is happening, to what
is right in front of us, we directly experience the clinging that comes
from craving, and the suffering that ensues.
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Equanimity
The second tendency that destroys equanimity, seeking happi-

ness by fulfilling sense pleasures, comes directly from ignorance.
There is little or nothing we do that is not an effort to increase pleas-
ant feelings and to decrease or avoid unpleasant feelings. This fun-
damental motivating force to seek happiness and avoid pain is deeply
ingrained in our conditioning.
It may seem counterintuitive that seeking happiness by fulfilling
desires does not work in the long term and, in fact, creates precisely
the suffering we are trying to avoid. But gratifying desire rarely
delivers its promise of happiness. It may elevate us momentarily to a
state of satisfaction and contentment—certainly there can be the
immediate pleasure of fulfilling desire—but once the initial excite-
ment or pleasure wears off, we are left back in our usual, ordinary
state of mind.
Desires seduce us by their promise of happiness, by the anticipa-
tion that by satisfying them we will feel more fulfilled. We believe
that if we could only discover the right things to go after, and then
apply ourselves properly to the task of getting them, we could attain
some sort of enduring happiness that until now has escaped us.
In addition to making our happiness dependent upon circum-
stance and creating, at best, a temporary happiness destined to
change, seeking happiness by fulfilling desire conditions the mind
for further craving. The objects of our desire can be difficult to
secure; once acquired they often provide less pleasure or happiness
than expected; and when clung to they cause us grief when condi-
tions inevitably change. Then, feeling empty or in need, we are once
again driven to repeat the cycle.
How many desires have you filled and how often have you filled
them, only to have them return, putting you on a constant treadmill,
always having to satisfy them again? Alleviating the cravings associ-
ated with desire by fulfilling desire is like drinking seawater to allevi-
ate thirst: it can be a great relief for a short while, since for the time
being it eases the suffering inherent in craving, but it has the more
141
fundamental effect of conditioning the mind to crave more. We are

satiated for a while until the next craving, often for the same object
or experience of the previous desire.
The third force aiming us away from equanimity is called
“becoming.” It is the drive to be something. It is not that you need to
stop having a mind, a body, and a personality. It is having to be some-
thing, and clinging to an identity through which you judge and
compare yourself to others, that plants the seeds of suffering.
Just as the potential for sense pleasure to bring lasting happiness
is limited, clinging to an identity is not a reliable way to inner peace.
If you are identified with your youth, you suffer when youth and
beauty fade. If you are identified with your achievements, job title, or
role, or to the opinions of others, your peace of mind is in the hands
of forces outside your control.
You do not have to stop living. You can continue to be involved
with those things that bring you meaning—work life, family or
friends, creative expression, and involvement in the affairs of the
world. The shift is in your priorities, where you look for meaning and
happiness, and in the motivating principles upon which your life is
based. As you move forward in life, to the extent you are consumed
by your goals and bound up in having to have them, your happiness
and well-being are dependent upon them and you will suffer when
they are not realized or when the situation inevitably changes.
With a mind of equanimity, you find the balance between being
connected and engaged in your life without clinging to any of it.
Becoming Disentangled
Equanimity is often misunderstood as being a state of indifference.
We may think we are supposed to be detached witnesses removed
from the concerns of others or the world. But equanimity does not
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Equanimity
mean being numb or untouched by anything, or that no feelings

can arise.
Equanimity means remaining poised and centered within what-
ever happens. The ability to let go has nothing to do with being
unfeeling or unconcerned about others, and everything to do with
meeting life with balance and composure.
The ability to let go comes through disenchantment and dispas-
sion. Disenchantment can carry a negative connotation, conveying
a sense of being disappointed or let down. If people invested time
and effort into something and it did not work out, we may say they
gave up and moved on to a new endeavor because they became dis-
enchanted or disillusioned.
But disenchantment does not mean disappointment. It means to
be free from enchantment. To be disillusioned does not mean to be
let down. It is to be no longer caught in illusion. In the old fairy tales
when a sorcerer casts a spell people become enchanted. They no
longer have a sense of reality and are enmeshed in a spellbound
world of confusion. Once the spell is broken and they are no longer
enchanted, they see the world as it really is. Only then have they
reconnected with reality.
Similarly, dispassion can connote a feeling of impassivity or
indifference. But dispassion does not mean you are detached from
yourself or those around you. If you are passionate about something
or someone you are tied to them with strong emotions or desires.
You are not only interested or committed; you are swept up in the
intoxicating allure of those emotions and desires. To be dispassion-
ate means you are no longer ruled by the passions or caught up emo-
tionally. If you say to loved ones that you are detached from them, it
probably is not going to be received very well. If you tell them you are
not clinging to them, they will probably appreciate it.
Humans are hardwired to attach. It is built into our DNA.
Infants must attach to a primary caregiver or they will not thrive.
143
Healthy attachment is an essential part of early childhood develop-

ment, and those with ambivalent attachment as children may find it
hard to form satisfying relationships as adults, or may face other psy-
chological or emotional issues.
We are not aiming to disconnect. In fact, we are doing the oppo-
site—connecting with our bodies and minds profoundly, beyond the
surface appearance normally accessible. Reflect on how you have
been meditating. You close your eyes and draw your attention inward.
You cultivate mindfulness and concentration, and turn that clear,
undistracted awareness directly toward connecting deeply with your
body and mind.
An equanimous mind is open to all of life, including all parts of
you. It does not suppress anything. By now you have seen how beau-
tiful your mind can be, and you may also have touched places within
that you wished were not there. There is no experience you are sup-
posed to have or not have. This is a path of connecting with your-
self, deeply and profoundly, but remaining disentangled in the midst
of it all.
Many people find that as equanimity matures they are more
interested in the lives of others and the world around them than ever
before. When you are not consumed by the eight worldly concerns,
you are not preoccupied with yourself. When you are not reacting to
a situation, you are able to be more present and connected, not less.
Rather than feeling detached, you find yourself able to open to and
be present with all sorts of situations and people. A mind of equa-
nimity is not consumed with what it can get, but is deeply interested
in what it can give.
Factors Supporting Equanimity

The dharma qualities that support and grow from meditation are
like sides of a multifaceted jewel, each reflecting and magnifying
144
Equanimity
light from all the other surfaces, the rays feeding back on each other
in a positive reinforcing cycle. Any one of them is an access point for
the others.
Intention
All along we have emphasized the central role intention plays in
the course of dharma practice. Especially in those times when you
are pulled by forces of desire, negativity, or doubt, keeping in mind
wholesome intentions for how you want to live and act provides a
refuge, helping you stay balanced through the many challenges and
rewards of a meditative life. Rather than being caught up and swept
along by a situation, the clarity of your intention acts as a touch-
stone, anchoring you in wise and skillful action.
Virtue
All of your actions are born from intentions, whether you are
aware of them or not. Out of your sincere, wholesome intentions
comes virtuous action. By aiming to live with integrity you dwell
peacefully with others, and when your interactions are harmonious
your mind is not agitated by conflict. This leads to a quiet confi-
dence in knowing there is a blameless quality to your life.
Gladdening Your Mind

Living virtuously in alignment with your intentions, you are
more happy and at peace. It is reassuring to know you are on a posi-
tive track, using your time well by aiming to create less suffering and
more well-being for others and yourself. You feel the goodness of your
intentions and the happiness of knowing you have put those inten-
tions into action. Being reassured leads to relaxation and ease, and
145
when you are at ease, not stressed or worried, you feel a sense of
balance and calm.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness provides a space between what happens and your
response to it. Within that space rests the freedom to decide whether
you will react on impulse or respond through wisdom. It is a moment
of choice in the midst of any situation. With mindfulness, when
equanimity is present you know it. When you are thrown off balance
you know that, and can employ the tools you have built to help you
regain composure.
Steadiness
As concentration becomes established, equanimity is not so
easily shaken. Concentration strings moments of mindfulness
together. You can go for long periods caught up in life, going through
the motions unaware of what you are doing. But if you maintain a
state of steady undistractedness throughout the day, you become
increasingly awake to the present moment.
Discernment
Supported by mindfulness and steadiness, you begin to see things
as they are without getting caught up in stories about them. You
have the experience to choose the appropriate tools and apply them
skillfully in any situation. As patterns of reactivity are recognized
through mindfulness and steady presence, the knots of aversion and
stress, desire and attachment, begin to unravel. You are naturally
open to more happiness, contentment, compassion, wisdom, and
peace.
146
Equanimity
Finding the Teacher Within

Regardless of your situation, you can begin cultivating a quiet mind
and an open, compassionate heart. With intention you can start to
use your time more wisely for mindfully connecting with your expe-
rience in order to explore the potential for freedom within your life
circumstances. With practice you begin, bit by bit, to awaken to and
live more fully in alliance with your own inner wisdom.
There comes a time when you are no longer a seeker. You will
have arrived at a place of knowing and being, the confluence of the
path and the goal.
This is not an egotistical place, in which you think you have
learned all there is to know and no one can tell you anything. It is
not saying there is no longer a path to follow or no further work to
be done. We cannot see our own blind spots. It would be a mistake
to think you never need the guidance and advice of those who have
traveled further along the path. We do not want to become arrogant
or complacent, thinking we do not need mentors. Otherwise we risk
running into unnecessary cul-de-sacs or bad neighborhoods that
would be better avoided altogether.
Ultimately, we go from being students to becoming our own
teacher. As the dharma comes alive in you, you will have less need
to rely on any outside authority. With time and experience you will
learn to trust your own inner guidance. Your experience will be your
guide. The times, in any situation, when you clearly know what is
happening and it is obvious what to do, will increase. You will not
need to look outside of yourself.
The person who splashes in the shallows of the ocean does not
find the pearls. If you want to understand you have to dive deeply,
and then you will find them. Through meditation you open to the
deeper truths of yourself and the world around you. You go from
being a seeker to resting in the stream of knowing and being, as you
learn to live equanimously with a quiet mind and an open heart.
147
Richard Shankman has been a meditator since 1970, and teaches at
Dharma centers and groups internationally. He is guiding teacher of
the Metta Dharma Foundation, and cofounder of the Sati Center for
Buddhist Studies and of Mindful Schools. Shankman is author of
The Experience of Samadhi.
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“What a joy to read The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation.

“A wonderfully clear, simple yet thorough book on how to practice

“In simple, clear language, [Shankman] shares how mindfulness,

“A brilliant introduction to meditation practice. Infused with

“This book is like having a skilled meditation coach by your side.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Translations in Chapter 8 of the jhana definitions are by the author.

Translations of the jhana similes are reprinted with permission:

Cover design by Amy Shoup; Interior design by Michele Waters-Kermes;

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Printed in the United States of America

1 Establishing the Foundation for Meditation 15

3 As Concentration Begins to Grow 47

4 Working with Difficulties 59

7 Strong Energies and Challenging Experiences 89

8 Jhana: The Culmination of Concentration 101

for others and ourselves. We can learn to respond skillfully to any

The Buddha’s Teaching

of the moment will ultimately be lost. On some level we know that

The Building Blocks of Meditation

Loving-­Kindness and Compassion

aversion. We learn how to engender kind thoughts and feelings and

In the Buddha’s path of awakening we seek to strengthen mind-

In the path of concentration meditation, you are concerned with

How to Use This Book

bounce around from one thing to another, but we do want to remain

As you begin, take some time to reflect on your aspirations and

As your practice develops, the times when concentration is

are on the concentration side of the practice or when the emphasis

What Does a Healthy Meditation

This seeming contradiction resolves itself when we understand

Ease and Relaxation

beginning by bringing in a sense of relaxation and ease, just the best

Opening to the Present Moment

In the late sixties and early seventies it was common to see

Working with Hindrances

bother us. When concentration is quite strong the hindrances

Doubt, which can be the most insidious of the hindrances, colors

intoxication that leads to heedlessness. There is no doubt of the crit-

present to our experience with an open heart without judgment or

Mindfulness of Breathing: Our

Variation: Whole-­Body Breathing

When the Mind Wanders

away in thoughts of planning, worry, or fantasy, completely forget-

Alternative Meditation Practices

the auditory experience. If you practice mindfulness of sound, just

energy moving in their body. Others see lights or images, or hear

Foreground and Background

mantra. Sometimes the experiences of concentration and breathing

Broadening and Narrowing the

progression of awareness gets even subtler, you will plainly perceive

following the natural progression. Look to see what disturbs your

More Subtle Awareness

conducive to the deepest stages of concentration. For now, just

starting to notice what is happening. Our practice can lead in many

many situations we will encounter and learn to navigate in the life

Turning into the Skid

want, we can fall into a negative reinforcing spiral of frustration,

Noticing the Changing Nature

Knowing Your Limits

intensity or find a way out. We need a tremendous amount of com-

Pleasant and Unpleasant

1 Establishing the Foundation for Meditation 15

3 As Concentration Begins to Grow 47

4 Working with Difficulties 59

7 Strong Energies and Challenging Experiences 89

8 Jhana: The Culmination of Concentration 101

Loving-Kindness and Compassion

Variation: Whole-Body Breathing

relaxation, and a sense of self-compassion—now come to fruition,