How to enhance concentration

[Raptorsin7]

How to enhance concentration so I can achieve single pointed awareness on an object for long durations. I'm currently doing 20 mins of mindfulness meditation from an app in the mornings, and an hour of self inquiry later in the day but I feel like my concentration could be better and more effortless but i'm unsure how to go about improving it. Should I stop my 20 mins of mindfulness and do 20 mins of just concentration practice? Should I add a concentration practice on top of the meditation i'm already doing? Also, my goal here is awakening/enlightenment but I also value concentration as a skill in and of itself so even I don't need high levels of concentration for self inquiry I still think it would be valuable to improve. Thank you.

[Meditationdude]

@Raptorsin7 bump up meditations to an hour if you want better concentration results, and id turn off the guided part. Just pick one object like the breath and stay w it. 

Do Self inquiry as long as you can.

And you'll definitely  need concentration skills to do self inquiry. Why do you think you don’t? Curious. 

[Raptorsin7]

@Meditationdude  I read some posts where they said you don't need high levels of concentration to achieve awakening from self inquiry. Not that you don't need concentration but you don't as much concentration as one might think to get results from self inquiry.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Raptorsin7

[Meditationdude]

@Raptorsin7 what is self inquiry really but focused concentration on the Self...?

[Raptorsin7]

@Meditationdude  But how often your mind wanders and how often you get lost in thought is directly proportional to your concentration. Its a spectrum not black and white.

[Consilience]

You should pick up the book “The Mind Illuminated” 

The techniques outlined are incredible for the cultivation of concentration

[Lowerplanedweller]

Watch an interesting movie, and realize that your attention will be focused on the show not your thoughts, 

P.S. using the mind to control the mind is futile

You are an awareness unit, an should focus on everything that is around you in any given moment, 

[Raptorsin7]

@Consilience Ok thanks ill check it out

[Jordan94]

I think you actually need already really good concentration (can happen randomly if you're really interested in the inquity then you might be able to concentrate easily actually, but that's probably really rare and/or not gonna last more than a few sessions) to have self-inquiry be really effective

 

And to improve concentration, pick up the book "the mind illuminated" yea, nothing else to say

[Aaron p]

People like the "concentrate on candle" one more than I realised. Try concentrating on sahasrara, has combo effect

[supremeyingyang]

@Jordan94 and @Consilience , thanks for the recommendation of “The Mind Illuminated”, I'll look at it now.

Hey @Raptorsin7, for concentration as a skill to get something done I experienced the following as very rewarding:

1. Plan out every detail in you mind before you begin. If you plan repetetive Task this way, you become more focused and effective. Little building blocks one at the time.
2. Stop after some time (like 30 Minutes) and make a short Mediatation. I wrote about the benefits of that in this thread. However, this scope of that thread was more on the getting things done level, so it might not that interesting to you as you seek enlightenment as you told in your first post.

regards

[The0Self]

Read The Mind Illuminated. And/or listen to its audiobook! You can find part 1 and 2 on YouTube.

You won’t get very far with less than a 45 minute sit every day btw. Just so you know. Build up to 45min. Then build up to 1-2 hour sit once a day. If you want to split them up into 2 sits a day that’s fine as long as they’re at least 45min each.