Secular Buddhism Podcast

Episode 218: Skillful Concentration

Welcome back to another episode of the Secular Buddhism Podcast. This is episode 218. It's the final part of an eight-part series that I did of Dharma talks on the eight aspects of the Eightfold Path. So today's talk is around concentration, right concentration, or as I like to say, skillful concentration. I hope you enjoy this Dharma talk.

The Road Trip Analogy

We've been discussing for several weeks now the various aspects of the Eightfold Path, and today we're going to conclude that discussion with the eighth and final topic. Hard to believe it's been multiple months now of going through this.

I love learning through stories, metaphors, and analogies. A lot of the concepts that have stuck with me, whether through Buddhist teachings or other teachings, it's usually a visual, an analogy, or a story that stays with me. Like the elephant and the rider was a way to really understand what's going on in my brain, how my brain works, or visualizing the lizard brain. Concepts like that.

As we've been going through the various aspects of the Eightfold Path, I've been trying to put it all together as a visual in my mind so it makes sense to me. And what started to develop was this visual of being on a journey. You have these eight aspects of what would make that journey skillful. In this case, I'm visualizing a road trip.

Similar to the idea of the elephant and the rider, where there are two components of your brain (the more instinctual autopilot, which would be like the elephant, and then the more analytical part that's like the rider), I visualize that like the relationship of a vehicle and the person driving the vehicle.

We started with the first few aspects of the Eightfold Path representing wisdom. That was like having the map, which is right view. A compass that's going to orient your direction, that was right intention. The aspect of the path that I like to think of as the vehicle is ethical conduct: right speech, which is learning how to communicate with the other vehicles on the road, you know, using your turning signals, things like that. How to steer properly with right action. How to fuel the vehicle with right livelihood.

And then the last few weeks we were talking about us as the drivers, and that's mental discipline on the Eightfold Path. There we had right effort, which I like to think of as the brake and the accelerator. And then the general awareness as we're driving on the road: looking through the rearview mirrors, the side mirrors, just the general awareness. That's right mindfulness.

Now today, finishing up this analogy, we're talking about right concentration. I like to think of that as simply the ability to have steady hands on the wheel that keeps us centered in our lane for the long haul of the journey.

This visual works for me because we've all been on long road trips. Maybe it was a family trip or a cross-country move or something like that, and we know that road trips can go smoothly sometimes, and sometimes they don't. I like to picture myself on this journey of life, driving down the road, where one scenario is I'm just gripping that wheel with all the strength in the world, tensing every moment a car passes me, maybe being a little bit jerky with the manipulation of the wheel or overcorrecting. That's one scenario.

And then there's another scenario where you get really comfortable with your ability to drive and you're enjoying the road trip. Maybe you have sturdy hands on the wheel, but you're able to skillfully navigate the roads and enjoy the view and the scenery around you. That's kind of the difference between the two scenarios. I picture myself on this journey of life trying to be the most skillful driver that I can be.

So that's how I like to think of this final aspect of the Eightfold Path. Concentration is not the forced kind where you just grip it and force things. This is more of the ability to be just aware enough, and not too much. The middle way, kind of. And with this analogy of a road trip, we all know that if you spend enough time on the road, you're going to encounter obstacles, whether that's traffic or potholes or construction, whatever it might be.

Misconceptions About Concentration

When we think about concentration as a skill in the Buddhist context, there are some misconceptions that come up, and I want to clear some of these up right away.

The first one is that concentration and mindfulness are not necessarily the same thing. You could think of it like this: if mindfulness is what we talked about last week, that's knowing where you are and what's happening around you. Concentration would be the ability to maintain focus, to stay within your lane. Mindfulness: I know what other cars are doing around me. I can see what's coming up ahead, looking at the signs. But concentration is more about keeping that vehicle exactly where I want it to be. Concentration without mindfulness is like staying perfectly in your lane but totally oblivious to what's happening around you.

The second misconception is thinking that in order to concentrate well, you need to sit in meditation for hours. This is kind of where we start to picture the monk on the mountain scenario, thinking, "I'll never have that kind of concentration." Yeah, formal meditation can develop concentration, but it's not the only way. We're talking about a quality of mind that can be cultivated anywhere. I know I've experienced moments of deep concentration not meditating, but paragliding, or sometimes while having a meaningful conversation with a loved one, or at moments playing with the kids. So the formal practice does support the informal practice, but in order to experience concentration, you don't need to move to a mountain or into a monastery.

And then the third misconception is that concentration means or equates to seriousness and suppressing emotions. This might be a damaging misconception because people sometimes imagine concentration as a joyless state. In a lot of Buddhist teachings, concentration is actually characterized by joy and ease. It's not the kind of concentration you think of when you're cramming for a test. It's more of the concentration that you see in a child who's totally absorbed in playing, or an artist who's totally absorbed in creating a song or a painting, or an athlete who's completely in the zone. That's the kind of concentration we're talking about here. I think there's a brightness to it and a quality of being fully alive.

The Five Hindrances

In classical Buddhist teachings, there are also what are called the five hindrances. These are the obstacles to being able to achieve concentration. Using the analogy of the journey and the road trip, I like to think of these hindrances as road hazards that we're going to encounter. And again, if you're on the road long enough, you know that you will eventually encounter road hazards. It's the same with concentration. If you start to put the time and effort into the practice, you're going to eventually encounter these hindrances.

Sensory Desire

The first one would be sensory desire. To me, this is like you're driving along, totally concentrated on the drive, but then you look down and you see your phone and it's just sitting there, urging you to pick it up and maybe get a little bit distracted. "Let's see what's going on on social media." It's that sudden desire to be doing something other than what you're doing or to be somewhere other than where you are. I'm sure we've all experienced that, whether sitting in meditation or doing anything that requires prolonged concentration. The mind starts to wander and say, "Hey, maybe I could be thinking about this other thing."

Aversion

The second hindrance is aversion. Thinking about this as the road trip analogy, this would be like those moments where suddenly you just have a little bit of road rage. You're trying to concentrate, but you keep thinking about the annoying conversation from yesterday, or how uncomfortable your seat is, or maybe it's the annoying sound coming from the radio or the engine. Whatever it is, you start to have this sense of aversion, a simple irritation with what's happening. And then once you recognize that you're irritated, it's hard to stay concentrated, right? Because now you're focused on whatever's causing the irritation.

In classical meditation, sometimes that could be the discomfort of the pillow you're sitting on or the dog barking next door while you're trying to concentrate on your meditation. Things like that.

Dullness

Then we have the hindrance of dullness. Here you can think of a heavy, dull mind that starts to zone out. You can experience this if you're tired. If you're driving drowsy, you know that feeling. The mind gets a little bit foggy and you're not quite asleep, but you're also not completely awake or aware. It's very difficult to concentrate during that time. There's a mental sluggishness where everything feels like too much effort, and it's a big hindrance to concentration. Will you encounter that eventually? Yeah, if you didn't have a good night's sleep, the next day when you're thinking "I'm gonna sit and meditate," it might be very difficult.

Restlessness

Then we have the hindrance of restlessness. This is just a jittery, impatient mind that can't sit still. I think we've all experienced this as well. If you were driving, it's like constantly changing lanes, constantly looking at the GPS, continually flipping through different radio stations trying to find the right one. The mind doesn't settle. It's just jumping from thought to thought, sometimes from concern to concern. It's like a little hyperactive squirrel in the mind that happened to have Red Bull that day. And of course, that's going to affect concentration.

Doubt

And the fifth hindrance is doubt. This is questioning whether the effort of trying to concentrate is even worth it, or if you're even capable of it. I think a lot of us start out with this one, thinking, "I'm not going to try to be better at concentrating. I have a monkey mind. There's no way I could do it." You start out with doubt. We doubt if we're even capable of it, or we doubt if we're doing it right. You sit there thinking, "I'm gonna try to practice concentration," and then the first thought is, "I'm not doing it right. Maybe I should try a different technique." And then you end up going through all the various ways you could try to practice it, never settling on one. Kind of like when you open up Netflix to pick a movie and an hour later you haven't picked one but you've gone through a hundred different options.

And then you kind of end up with this thought of, "Maybe I'm not cut out for this. I'm not cut out for concentration."

Working with the Hindrances

Remember, these five hindrances are not states of mind that you're trying to defeat. You're just recognizing them when they arise as obstacles. And everyone knows that you're eventually going to encounter obstacles on a road trip, and it's fine. That's part of the journey.

So when you do notice it, the skillful action becomes: what do I do now that I've noticed this obstacle? If I notice my mind is foggy and I'm a little bit tired, maybe I can pull over and do some stretching or take a nap or whatever it is that I need to do. If you encounter doubt and you're not sure which path you're on in the road trip, just check the GPS. Okay, yeah, I'm on the right path. I'll keep going this way. And then your mind can settle.

Think of these hindrances as information. They tell you what adjustments you need to make as soon as you notice one of them has arisen.

The Jhanas: Progressive States of Concentration

In classical teachings, you have kind of the flip side of the hindrances. As you start to practice concentration, you go through various mental states, and these are called the jhanas. Some traditions have four of them, or five, or seven, but these are progressive states of mind that a practitioner starts to go through when practicing concentration.

Some people will approach it kind of like you would a video game, thinking, "All right, I got to level one, now let's go beat level two," and think of it as something you're trying to level up with. I don't know that it's helpful to think of them that way. I think it's more helpful to think of them, again, as when you're on a road trip, there are portions of the trip where you're in the zone and everything's working well. You have the right amount of rest, the right amount of concentration, and everything's flowing. And you might have other parts of the road trip that aren't going as well. And that's fine. It's not like on the road trip you start and it just gets progressively better and better.

But just to give you a little bit of background on some of these teachings, the first one is typically joy. The idea here is that when your mind can settle on something for a moment, like your breath for example, there is a little bit of joy that arises because you realize you have the ability to concentrate on something. This would be kind of like recognizing, yeah, there's still mental chatter. You're driving in the car and the radio is still playing, but it doesn't really bother you. There's a pleasant feeling, a little bit of a sense of joy. Maybe it's because you just got out of stop-and-go traffic and now you're on the road thinking, "Okay, here I go. Now I'm making progress on my trip."

The second one is a state of mind associated with tranquility. Here you realize, "Okay, I'm settling into my journey." That mental chatter is fading away a little bit. Maybe you've turned off the car radio. You're just enjoying the stillness of the quiet portion of the journey, and you don't feel that need to actively be monitoring and adjusting things.

And then you experience a sense of peace, which is kind of how they describe this third jhana. This is where you start to experience something beyond the joy or the tranquility. A genuine settling and peace where you realize, "I'm making good progress, the trip's going by quickly. I'm not excited on one end of the pendulum or bored on the other. I'm just peacefully enjoying the journey."

And then the fourth stage is equanimity. Now you're completely present to what's going on. You're not pushing or pulling towards any specific sensations. If you were to sense boredom, it wouldn't bother you. Whatever it is you're sensing, you're just totally balanced.

I tried to compare those to the analogy of the road trip, but you can always explore those or read into them more. There are a lot of teachings about the jhanas.

Developing Concentration as a Skill

When it comes to concentration as a skill, how do we develop it? How do we keep our hands steady on the wheel for a very long time if you're on a long journey?

I think the first thing to recognize is that concentration, like any other skill, is developed gradually. I like to think of it like going to the gym. You wouldn't decide, "Okay, I'm going to the gym," and on your first time there put on all the weights and try to do the most you can do. That's just not how that works. You would recognize you're going to start with a smaller amount, and then if that works, next time add a little bit to it. You go progressively. With concentration it's the same. Don't start out thinking, "I'm gonna sit here for two hours and concentrate." You might start out with a goal of sitting for five minutes and concentrate. Over time that turns into ten or fifteen minutes and so on.

Find Your Object of Focus

The second part of the understanding here is that you need to have an object that you're concentrating on. So find your object. In formal meditation, this could be focusing on your breath. When we do the centering breath at the start of the call, that's just one brief moment of a few seconds of focusing on one thing: your breath. In other practices, this could be a mantra or a visualization. It could also be an activity, like when you're gardening or drawing or playing music. The key is to choose something that's interesting enough to hold your attention but not so stimulating that it agitates the mind.

Gentle Redirection, Not Force

When you start to focus on that object, you want to recognize that you're not fighting, because the mind will wander. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. So don't make it a battle.

Concentration is kind of like teaching a puppy to stay. What's the puppy eventually going to do? It wanders off, and then you just gently get it to come back. You don't have to yell at it or drag it. You just gently guide it back to its spot and say, "Stay." That's how the mind is. You can guide it back, observing when it wanders, and then slowly bring it back. That's how you develop the skill over time.

Recognizing Progress

Recognize these stages: at first when you try to concentrate, it might seem like this is going to be impossible because it's ten seconds and boom, there goes the mind wandering into a different thought. That doesn't mean you're bad at concentrating. It means that you are actually starting to notice. Because if you notice that the mind wandered, then you've already achieved the most important part of the practice, which is learning to recognize when the mind has wandered.

As you continue through this process of trying to be better at concentrating, you'll start to notice moments when the mind wanders, but you'll also notice moments when the mind settles. Maybe if it's just for a few seconds at a time, you'll recognize that resting moment where the mind is just, "This is all I'm focused on. I'm looking at this one particular thing." And then that lengthens over time. You can sustain that concentration for longer and longer.

How the Path Works Together

Remember, this is one aspect of the path where all the other aspects come into play. Concentration doesn't exist in isolation. Your ethical conduct creates the conditions for a settled mind. It's hard to concentrate if you're dealing with the turbulence of some harmful actions or words. Effort comes into play, knowing when and where to apply energy: when you should try and when you probably shouldn't. Mindfulness keeps you aware of what's happening around you so you can make all the judgments.

That's what brings us back to this picture of the overall path, and that's why we've been exploring it week by week. But it's not meant to be practiced in sequential order. It's not like first you gotta master right view, and then if you do that, move on to right intention. It doesn't work that way.

It's more like when you're learning to drive. Suddenly you're doing all of it all at once. You get in the car and it's like, "Okay, here we go." And maybe for those first little while, you're not great at using your rearview mirror or you're not great at one aspect of it, but you're still doing all of it. And little by little you gain experience and you start to be more skillful at the overall process.

So again, if we think of these aspects of the path compared to this overall journey: you have right view, which is showing you the map and the terrain. It helps you see what's out there. Where do I want to go? And that's where intention comes in. That's the compass that's going to say, if that's where you're trying to go, here's the compass that will point in that direction. If you're oriented to wanting to be more kind or more compassionate or something like that, now you've got your little compass guiding you in that direction.

Then you have speech. I like to think of that as the communication system in the vehicle. How effective are you at signaling to others what you're doing, or reading what others are doing? When a car in front of you has their turning signal to get in your lane, do you let them in or do you speed up a little bit? That's all in terms of communication.

We have action, which is what are you actually doing? How are you steering the vehicle? Effort, which is knowing when to speed up, when to slow down. Mindfulness, your complete awareness of the overall process, aware of the cars in front of you, behind you, on the side of you, your blind spots. And then concentration, which is the steady hands on the wheel that are going to ensure I can arrive where I'm trying to arrive on my journey.

You need all of it. Each section of the path supports the other sections of the path. When your hands are steady on the wheel, it's easier to check your mirrors. It's easier to be mindful when you can concentrate well. When you're signaling and communicating to others with right speech, there's probably less chaos to navigate.

When you know where you're going (you have view and intention), it's easier to maintain concentration because you know where you're headed. So you can see how they all start to support each other.

The Paradox of Concentration

And then we have the paradox that kind of kicks in here. I've noticed this in my own practice and in a lot of teachings about these topics. There's this paradox: okay, now you know all this, but also be careful because you can't force it. The harder you try to concentrate, the more elusive it becomes. But also, if you make no effort to concentrate, well, nothing will ever happen. You'll never be able to do it.

It's kind of like when you're trying to fall asleep at night. You can't will yourself to do it. You can't just say "sleep" and then fall asleep. But what you can do is create the conditions that make falling asleep more likely. You're going to lay down, you're going to close your eyes, you're going to make sure you drink water if you needed to, things like that, so that you can relax and then you fall asleep.

I think concentration is similar in that you need to create the conditions for it. You need to have a gentle effort in the practice to return to the object of your focus, but you also can't just force it. You can't force the mind to settle. You can't say, "Hey, mind, quit thinking thoughts." It doesn't work that way. So you allow it to be something that happens because the causes and conditions for it are there.

Concentration in Daily Life

You may be thinking, "Okay, this all sounds great for when I do have time to sit and meditate, but what if I don't?" Maybe you're in a busy stage of life where sitting down to meditate just doesn't seem very likely right now. And that's okay too, because concentration can show up in your everyday practices.

You've heard probably about the myth of multitasking, where for so long there was this discussion that multitasking is something we can actually do, but the studies show that it's actually not multitasking. It's rapid task switching. It's always one task that you're doing.

I think right concentration in daily life, outside of meditation, could look like just trying to focus on one thing at a time and prolonging that amount of time. When you're talking to someone, are you only talking to them, or are you also on your phone? I know that's one that's become difficult in our day and age because we have these little devices that sit there in our hands demanding attention. I struggle with it sometimes, like with my kids, for example. They might want to tell me something: "Guess what happened at school today," and it's kind of like, "Okay, can you tell me the short version?" because I was in the middle of scrolling. And that's a moment where I can say, "Oh wait, no, I'm practicing concentration here. I don't need to go sit in meditation. Let me just focus on the story that's being told."

Moments like that. Another time that's been helpful for me is thinking of the transition times that happen in the day. Transitions are a great place to practice concentration. The moment I sit at my desk. When we start this call, right, we start it with a centering breath and say, "Okay, this is what I'm focusing my time and energy on for the next hour. This is what gets all of my concentration." The moment you get in your car and you're driving home from work, that's a transition. When you're washing the dishes, that's a transition time. Use those as opportunities to say, "Okay, while I'm washing the dishes, I'm only going to focus on washing the dishes. That's my object of concentration."

Then just find these different activities. It could be when you're cooking, when you're chopping the vegetables, when you go out for a run. Whatever it is, you decide: for this particular activity, I'm going to be fully present in this experience of what it is that I'm doing. Those are moments where you learn to increase your ability to concentrate.

The Joy of Concentration

As I mentioned before, in a lot of the classical teachings, it talks about joy as something that you experience in the midst of all this. I want to emphasize that again because it's not like, "Okay, I'm gonna go sit and concentrate and it has to be this boring thing."

Some of the times that I have experienced a tremendous amount of joy have been moments where I was completely absorbed in whatever it was that I was doing. Like I mentioned before, whether that was paragliding, or a deep conversation with a friend or a loved one.

I guess I just want to end it with this thought: concentration is not the concentration of a prisoner sitting in a cell staring at a wall, thinking, "I have to focus on being good at concentrating." No. It's the concentration of a master craftsperson absorbed in their work. It's the concentration of a curious child who's totally engaged with the toys they're playing with. That's the kind of concentration we're talking about here.

An Invitation for the Week

Hopefully for the week, my invitation to you is that you'll be able to pick a simple task that you can really concentrate on. Pick an object of your focus, whether that's your breath or while you're out walking, something simple, and see if you can do it. Detect how many times the mind wanders while you're doing it. Not because you're thinking, "Oh, that's how bad I am at it. My mind wandered ten times." No, it's just that you're becoming better at noticing it and allowing the mind to gently return back to the object that you're trying to concentrate on.

There's no judgment with the process because there's no right answer. You observe whatever the mind is capable of. Let's just observe it and see what happens if I'm tracking it. And maybe next time it's nine times. But it's not like, "Oh, I have to arrive to where it never gets distracted." That's not the point. That's not going to happen. Because the mind will wander in the same way that the heart will continue to beat. The mind does what the mind does.

Just take that with you throughout the week and see how it falls in line with all the other aspects of the path as you're trying to practice what we constantly talk about here: we're just trying to be a better whatever we already are. But there isn't an actual end goal where you say, "Okay, I did it, I achieved it, I've arrived." Remember, it's not about perfection. There's no finish line that you'll cross at the end.

All right, so that's what I wanted to share with our discussion around concentration.