What is the relationship or difference between meditation and concentration? Is meditation a concentration technique or does it favor it? An article that tells you everything you need to know about the subject.

Concentration in the practice of meditation

What you need to know about concentration and meditation is that meditation is not a concentration technique. We can never say it enough; the purpose of meditation is to awaken our attention to a clear perception of our true nature .

Concentration, on the other hand, is a “focusing” of our attention on an object or a specific point. We can, in fact, focus on an external object like a mandala, a candle flame, a statuette, but we can also focus our attention on an internal “object” such as a part of the body, an organ, the respiratory flow or still on a particular thought.

Concentration therefore consists of a narrowing of the field of consciousness during which we obscure all that is not related to the object of our attention, which is not the case in the practice of meditation (see below). ).

However, concentration can be useful for deepening our perception and knowledge of a subject.

Concentration is also a prerequisite for meditation since it will allow our consciousness to gain stability.

But beware: Concentration training, if done excessively, can lead to “bindings”. In fact, people with an obsessional tendency (for example) or perfectionists may reinforce this trend. The concentration should be practiced without forcing and intensity, especially when using a fixed outdoor object. There must be no tension; you have to learn to combine relaxation and concentration.

In fact, we must be careful not to turn our concentration training into an object of repression – which would create delusions. The benchmark for knowing if one practices correctly, it is the pleasure and the positive effects. If one is “too concentrated”, it will generate agitation instead of calm. More production of thoughts is likely to occur. In this case, it is better to stop and even to “deconcentrate” voluntarily while playing, dancing, walking, etc.

Meditation

It is very difficult, or even impossible, for the beginner to actually practice meditation without having a base and a minimum of concentration. In the ordinary state, our consciousness is identified with our thoughts and we literally live our emotional states instead of just feeling them or experiencing them, which implies a certain distance from ourselves.

Pre-concentration training will help the beginner to maintain stability when emotions rise to consciousness.

In the method of personal development of Resources & Refreshing, we always start with a concentration training, while flexibility, to precisely avoid the fixations and the obsessional states. The goal is to free oneself, not to lock oneself into states. The practice should always be pleasant not to become a constraint, which would be a shame in such an approach. Meditation is, in fact, made much easier and easier.

It is important to understand that the purpose of meditation is to help us to anchor ourselves more in the moment, and not, as some authors claim, to experience particular states of consciousness. it is about being “a little more there” to fully benefit from its existence at every moment.

In the ordinary state, we are in the grip of our thoughts and emotions. Meditation allows us to free ourselves by accessing a clearer view of reality in itself.

The practice of meditation, when performed on a regular basis, allows us to become familiar with our inner world and thus to free ourselves from the fear of the unknown. Under the light of our consciousness, the phenomena that could frighten us appear as they are, the fear dissolves then.

Learning to meditate is a pledge of happiness and fulfillment in life. Learning that is accessible to everyone, regardless of age, social category, level of education etc …

Caution

Today, we want everything to go fast and this area is no exception. We want quick results, no matter what the consequences are on our balance and our long-term health, which is nonsense and above all perfectly useless. Like a plant on which you can not shoot to grow faster, we can not burn the steps without disturbing our balance.

Unfortunately, some resort to practices aimed at provoking particular states of consciousness by modifying, for example, the breath or inducing alpha states as in 3G meditation , or by the rise of kundalini. Such practices are dangerous and can disrupt your balance in the long run.

We can not tear off a result, it is the fruit of our personal efforts, of our patience and our perseverance. What is a plant that has been forced to grow by artificial means? What is our achievement worth if we forced it?

The law of cause and effect is patent: our realization will always be the fruit of the seeds that we have planted. If we sow in a state of openness, calm, peace, joy, patience, perseverance, we will obtain exactly the result corresponding to what we will have put in it.

In practice, we find exactly what we put there, nothing more, nothing less.