Simple Meditation & Relaxation. Joel Levey

mental dullness where awareness fades, and sleepiness renders us unconscious to our life and world.

      To keep the mind balanced in concentration, you must learn to cultivate two qualities of mind: first, the stability and continuity of attention that can remain focused upon whatever you choose, inwardly or outwardly. Second, along with that stability is a quality of lucid clarity and presence that illuminates whatever you focus upon. This unusually balanced mental state is a rare fusion of high intensity with deep peace and stability of mind. Free from the disturbing habits of distraction and mental dullness, the concentrated mind is able to focus deeply into whatever it holds. This reveals a quality of extraordinary intuitive insight that frees us from the confusion generated by the habits of a dull and wild mind.

      MINDFULNESS AND VIGILANCE

      Two qualities of mind are regarded as necessary to develop the stability and vividness necessary for sustained concentration. The first is called mindfulness. Mindful awareness is the faculty of attention that is able to focus without distraction, without forgetfulness, and with continuity of awareness upon whatever you choose to attend to. The Sanskrit and Arabic terms for mindfulness are often translated as “remembering” or “recollection.” In Hebrew, mindfulness carries the meaning of “deep listening” or “giving your heart to something.” To the degree that mindfulness is strong, we are able to maintain awareness of whatever we choose without lapsing into distraction or forgetting what we were paying attention to.

      Though in recent years the practice of mindfulness has received considerable attention, mindfulness alone is not sufficient to perfect concentration. Mindfulness must work in tandem with a second quality of mind—vigilance or discernment. Sometimes also described as “introspective alertness,” this quality of mind serves as a metacognition that monitors our quality of mindfulness. Such an inner “quality control” function keeps us aware of the status of our mental balance, alerting us if the mind is congealing into dullness or churning with too much excitement. In practice, vigilance is like a mother who checks in frequently on her sleeping child. She isn't there constantly but checks in from time to time: “How is the baby? Is everything alright?” In the same way, vigilance checks to see if our attention is present or has gone out to lunch, or if our attention has forgotten our chosen focus and wandered off into memories of the past or fantasies of the future. If vigilance detects that either agitation or dullness are creeping into the mind and threatening mindfulness, it activates our will to apply antidotes to restore our balance of mind.

      CONCENTRATION AND INTIMACY