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Step Four - Stabilizing Concentration and Finding Balance - Focus, Concentration and Balance

visual demarcation

Homework

Now in your daily sitting, after a body scan (brief scan or long depending on what is possible for the day), do a little breathing with the whole breath and body, but begin to hold very close attention to the anchor in the breath.

Choose to be deeply interested in subtleties of experience in the breath. Now the attention is more like a cat waiting for a mouse to come out of the mouse hole...very attentive, returning again and again to the point of focus whenever there is a distraction from the primary object.

Though our intention is focus, we are still kind to ourselves. Too much pressure on attention is not helpful and actually causes restlessness and greater difficulty staying present to the primary object of attention.

Continue to make notes about what you are using for an anchor point, where your attention goes, but add something about the quality of attention, the degree of focus and what happens to your attention as you experiment.


visual demarcation

Going Beyond What You Believe To Be True - First Steps
A meditation course from Mary Rees
Citta 101 and Nutshell Publications™
Copyright ©2004-2006 Mary Rees
ISBN-13: 978-0-9760036-1-8 ISBN-10: 0-9760026-1-9
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