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Access Concentration
You are sitting, struggling to pay attention to your primary object, assaulted by sounds from the outside and thoughts from the inside. It gets worse. You feel an almost unbearable tension and anxiety and you have to resist the urge to get up and run screaming from the meditation hall.
Suddenly, just when you think you can’t stand it any more, everything gets quiet. You might feel a quick, short vibration in your leg or foot, you might hear a sudden ringing in your ears or a feeling similar to the moment when they pressurize the cabin in an airplane. You might feel as though you are inside a car and somebody just rolled up the car windows. Sounds become muted, thoughts are no longer compelling, and you are able to easily maintain attention on your meditation objects.
What happened? You just entered access concentration. Think of access concentration as a protective membrane, bubble, or force field. It wraps around you and insolates you from distraction and helps you meditate. From within the safety of access concentration, you can either note the changing phenomena of mind and body (vipassana) or become absorbed in the sensations and mind states that arise due to concentration (samatha).
Access concentration is a natural function of concentration (samadhi) and occurs whenever the mind settles down and gathers together in one place. The mind may be focused down to a small point or it may have a very diffuse focus like a wide angle lens; both of these situations are possible within concentration.
Any exercise that coaxes the mind into settling in one place can bring about access concentration. You might be following the breath at the area around the mouth and nose or at the abdomen. You might be gazing at a kasina object. Sometimes, access concentration might occur spontaneously during a conversation with someone or during lunch, when you didn’t even realize you were concentrating. Here is just one exercise to help you cultivate access concentration. It’s useful to do this at the beginning of a sitting so you don’t spend too much of your sitting time distracted by thoughts and sounds.
Count the breath from one to ten, counting only on the exhalation. If you get lost, start over at one. Be gentle and persistent. Don’t be frustrated when you have to start over many times during the exercise; this is natural, even for experienced meditators. It can take time for the mind to settle down and gather itself together. Read my essay on chicken herding to understand how this works. About the time that you can count to ten without losing your place three times in a row, you are probably in access concentration and have enough momentum to effectively do vipassana or samatha meditation.
Try not to make too big a deal out of this concept. In other words, don't make it yet another attainment to strive for and feel bad about if you think you aren't getting it. Often you will be in access concentration and not know it. At times there won't be any overt signs that you have entered; you'll just feel able to meditate well. The important take-away here is that when you are sitting and feeling a lot of anxiety and building tension, it may be that you are just on the verge of passing inside the bubble of access concentration. Be patient and don't get up or start distracting yourself every time it gets a little difficult. Take an interest in the process and see if things get better just when you think they couldn't get any worse. Be kind to yourself and think tortoise, not hare, constancy, not heroics. It's the gentle pressure of applying attention over extended periods of time both on and off the cushion that does the most work, as opposed to short periods of intense effort.
Kenneth Folk
March 2010
(Animations courtesy of AugustLeo)
Suddenly, just when you think you can’t stand it any more, everything gets quiet. You might feel a quick, short vibration in your leg or foot, you might hear a sudden ringing in your ears or a feeling similar to the moment when they pressurize the cabin in an airplane. You might feel as though you are inside a car and somebody just rolled up the car windows. Sounds become muted, thoughts are no longer compelling, and you are able to easily maintain attention on your meditation objects.
What happened? You just entered access concentration. Think of access concentration as a protective membrane, bubble, or force field. It wraps around you and insolates you from distraction and helps you meditate. From within the safety of access concentration, you can either note the changing phenomena of mind and body (vipassana) or become absorbed in the sensations and mind states that arise due to concentration (samatha).
Access concentration is a natural function of concentration (samadhi) and occurs whenever the mind settles down and gathers together in one place. The mind may be focused down to a small point or it may have a very diffuse focus like a wide angle lens; both of these situations are possible within concentration.
Any exercise that coaxes the mind into settling in one place can bring about access concentration. You might be following the breath at the area around the mouth and nose or at the abdomen. You might be gazing at a kasina object. Sometimes, access concentration might occur spontaneously during a conversation with someone or during lunch, when you didn’t even realize you were concentrating. Here is just one exercise to help you cultivate access concentration. It’s useful to do this at the beginning of a sitting so you don’t spend too much of your sitting time distracted by thoughts and sounds.
Count the breath from one to ten, counting only on the exhalation. If you get lost, start over at one. Be gentle and persistent. Don’t be frustrated when you have to start over many times during the exercise; this is natural, even for experienced meditators. It can take time for the mind to settle down and gather itself together. Read my essay on chicken herding to understand how this works. About the time that you can count to ten without losing your place three times in a row, you are probably in access concentration and have enough momentum to effectively do vipassana or samatha meditation.
Try not to make too big a deal out of this concept. In other words, don't make it yet another attainment to strive for and feel bad about if you think you aren't getting it. Often you will be in access concentration and not know it. At times there won't be any overt signs that you have entered; you'll just feel able to meditate well. The important take-away here is that when you are sitting and feeling a lot of anxiety and building tension, it may be that you are just on the verge of passing inside the bubble of access concentration. Be patient and don't get up or start distracting yourself every time it gets a little difficult. Take an interest in the process and see if things get better just when you think they couldn't get any worse. Be kind to yourself and think tortoise, not hare, constancy, not heroics. It's the gentle pressure of applying attention over extended periods of time both on and off the cushion that does the most work, as opposed to short periods of intense effort.
Kenneth Folk
March 2010
(Animations courtesy of AugustLeo)
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Latest page update: made by kennethfolk
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| kennethfolk | Responses to "Access Concentration" | 2 | Mar 8 2010, 6:55 AM EST by Tina_A | ||
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Thread started: Mar 6 2010, 5:36 PM EST
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This is a place for questions and comments about "Access Concentration."
AugustLeo is working on some very fun and educational animated graphics to help illustrate the points made here and we'll post them soon. A big thank you to the yogi who came up with the car window analogy. (I've forgotten who said this, so please step forward and accept your accolades!) :-D Kenneth
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