The value of Concentration or Focus?
All is Change
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,284
The value of Concentration or Focus?
The value of Concentration or focus?
One particular result of heavy drinking that I noticed fairly early on was the failing of short term memory. I'd go from one room to another and when I got there I could not remember what I'd gone there for. or, while I remember clearly the face and everything else about a person I could not remember the name. It's embarrassing and I try to hide this 'defect' of mind from others. Yet it's a fact it's there and it only gets worse with continued drinking. I stopped drinking about 15 years ago and the deterioration stopped and to some extent my memory improved. But only so much. Some of the ability to remember short term events seemed gone for ever. Now with advancing years dementia and alzheimers looms. My mum got dementia in her late eighties and she died in a care home last year at 93. She hardly ever drank so I as someone who has drunk very heavily am naturally concerned about my dotage.
The only antidote to further deterioration that I know of that not only strengthens the existing capacities but also seems to reverse then damage to some extent. Perhaps what's happening is that the damage is not reversed but rather the existing facilities are optimised. Whatever, it's a relief to have found something that helps.
What is this?
It is a meditation technique as taught by the Buddha.
Very simple instructions:
The continued awareness is the secret of success.
It is the breath as it is, naturally without any attempt to control it that is the object of awareness.
Maintain this awareness within the area of the nostrils.
Don't let the awareness drift to other parts of the body. If it does bring it back to the area of the nostrils.
Don't let the awareness be distracted by what happens in the mind. If it does bring it back to the area of the nostrils.
If you can maintain the awareness fixed in the area of the nostrils for a minute extend this awareness to 10 minutes, one hour, two hours and so on.
Success is dependent on how diligently one practices. How much energy one applies. The more right effort the better.
This is something where no intellectualising helps. You cannot think yourself to success. No one else can do it for you either. Each individual must practice this for them selves and it's only through doing this that the benefits are realised.
A time comes, sooner or later when the bridge is crossed. It's a bit like getting a foot stuck in the mud. Initially it is very hard to pull the foot out. Then, with effort, it starts to give and suddenly you're free.
In this way the attachment to that which is continually distracting you from anapana sati detaches and you are no longer distracted by that particular mental or physical phenomenon. It might be a pain or an anger or fear or pleasure or passion. It's still there perhaps but your relationship to it has changed. It no longer controls you. Instead you have gained the ability to observe it and you begin to see it coming and going and you realise its impermanence and its essential not-self nature. Likewise you become aware you have a tendency to drift to the future and to the past and now, in time, you are coming more and more into the present which is the only thing that actually ever exists.
In other words you move towards deeper truths. You learn to live with ( let go of ) uncomfortable truths which strengthens your sobriety, your concentration and focus.
This is the samadhi part of the eight fold noble path.
One particular result of heavy drinking that I noticed fairly early on was the failing of short term memory. I'd go from one room to another and when I got there I could not remember what I'd gone there for. or, while I remember clearly the face and everything else about a person I could not remember the name. It's embarrassing and I try to hide this 'defect' of mind from others. Yet it's a fact it's there and it only gets worse with continued drinking. I stopped drinking about 15 years ago and the deterioration stopped and to some extent my memory improved. But only so much. Some of the ability to remember short term events seemed gone for ever. Now with advancing years dementia and alzheimers looms. My mum got dementia in her late eighties and she died in a care home last year at 93. She hardly ever drank so I as someone who has drunk very heavily am naturally concerned about my dotage.
The only antidote to further deterioration that I know of that not only strengthens the existing capacities but also seems to reverse then damage to some extent. Perhaps what's happening is that the damage is not reversed but rather the existing facilities are optimised. Whatever, it's a relief to have found something that helps.
What is this?
It is a meditation technique as taught by the Buddha.
Minfulness (sati) of out and in breathing (anapana), or anapana sati.
Very simple instructions:
Be continuously aware of the natural breath in the area of the nostrils as it passes out and in.
The continued awareness is the secret of success.
It is the breath as it is, naturally without any attempt to control it that is the object of awareness.
Maintain this awareness within the area of the nostrils.
Don't let the awareness drift to other parts of the body. If it does bring it back to the area of the nostrils.
Don't let the awareness be distracted by what happens in the mind. If it does bring it back to the area of the nostrils.
If you can maintain the awareness fixed in the area of the nostrils for a minute extend this awareness to 10 minutes, one hour, two hours and so on.
Success is dependent on how diligently one practices. How much energy one applies. The more right effort the better.
This is something where no intellectualising helps. You cannot think yourself to success. No one else can do it for you either. Each individual must practice this for them selves and it's only through doing this that the benefits are realised.
A time comes, sooner or later when the bridge is crossed. It's a bit like getting a foot stuck in the mud. Initially it is very hard to pull the foot out. Then, with effort, it starts to give and suddenly you're free.
In this way the attachment to that which is continually distracting you from anapana sati detaches and you are no longer distracted by that particular mental or physical phenomenon. It might be a pain or an anger or fear or pleasure or passion. It's still there perhaps but your relationship to it has changed. It no longer controls you. Instead you have gained the ability to observe it and you begin to see it coming and going and you realise its impermanence and its essential not-self nature. Likewise you become aware you have a tendency to drift to the future and to the past and now, in time, you are coming more and more into the present which is the only thing that actually ever exists.
In other words you move towards deeper truths. You learn to live with ( let go of ) uncomfortable truths which strengthens your sobriety, your concentration and focus.
This is the samadhi part of the eight fold noble path.
sober style
Join Date: May 2016
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 2,387
It's sure helped me a lot, I know that! "I'm breathing in, and I know I'm breathing in. I'm breathing out, I know I'm breathing out." Back to that, over and over again. It was hard for me to believe something so simple could revolutionize my life so much, but seeing is believing. It's like by training my mind, it's made a lot of the useless anxiety that always threatened my sobriety into a minor player, not gone but now much more manageable.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: The Midwest
Posts: 649
This is great.
This has helped me in particular finding restful sleep without the aid of any substance. Without alcohol I was always trying something... benadryl, marijuana, over-eating... anything to help rest.
Meditation and exercise are so much better.
This has helped me in particular finding restful sleep without the aid of any substance. Without alcohol I was always trying something... benadryl, marijuana, over-eating... anything to help rest.
Meditation and exercise are so much better.
All is Change
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,284
Greetings all.
A few things to bear in mind...
...it is the continuity of practice that is the secret of success. In, say, ten minutes of practicing: If you continue practicing rather than stopping and breaking the continuity you will discover why.
No talking or thinking will teach you what real self realisation through walking the path will do.
...while the degree of success is related to the energy you bring to bear, be gentle. -your awareness has gone walkabout with the mind and you realise it- Bring the awareness back to the breath in the area of the nostrils without reacting with disappointment : "my awareness has wandered, now it is brought back" again it wanders, again it is brought back and so on and on...
A few things to bear in mind...
...it is the continuity of practice that is the secret of success. In, say, ten minutes of practicing: If you continue practicing rather than stopping and breaking the continuity you will discover why.
No talking or thinking will teach you what real self realisation through walking the path will do.
...while the degree of success is related to the energy you bring to bear, be gentle. -your awareness has gone walkabout with the mind and you realise it- Bring the awareness back to the breath in the area of the nostrils without reacting with disappointment : "my awareness has wandered, now it is brought back" again it wanders, again it is brought back and so on and on...
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