A Guide to Focused-Attention/Concentrative/Concentration Meditation?
December 26, 2015 7:01 PM Subscribe
I am looking for a guide to focused-attention, aka concentrative, aka concentration, meditation. This guide should be practical with no mumbo-jumbo, and this guide should be effective and efficient. I don't trust any random person on the internet, I want someone who is a researcher and has fine-tuned their system over the years (like Jon Kabat-Zin except for FA meditation).
I know such a guide already exists for mindfulness aka open-monitoring meditation: Jon Kabat-Zin's MBSR program as outlined in Full Catastrophe Living. But I am asking about FA, not mindfulness.
I know such a guide already exists for mindfulness aka open-monitoring meditation: Jon Kabat-Zin's MBSR program as outlined in Full Catastrophe Living. But I am asking about FA, not mindfulness.
In my experience, this is pretty much what Shamantha is all about. Have you checked out Alan Wallace? I don't know if he has a single guide as such, but I've been slowly going through his podcasts which are recordings from his Shamantha retreats, and his teachings really connected with me, especially in regards to his four modes focused-attention. Good luck!
posted by LongDrive at 7:42 PM on December 26, 2015
posted by LongDrive at 7:42 PM on December 26, 2015
I'll second the Mind Illuminated, recently published, though it's not peer-reviewed/evidence-based. It's quite long but organized, detailed, and comprehensive. The main author has a neuroscience background (and this is reflected in all explanations and models), decades of meditation teaching experience, and, as far as I know, is "authorized to teach" in two separate lineages. The book is aimed at "classical buddhist enlightenment," but, in any case, the progressive stages are extremely concentration-heavy.
posted by zeek321 at 8:45 PM on December 26, 2015
posted by zeek321 at 8:45 PM on December 26, 2015
As far as I know, there's very little reputable scientific knowledge about what I'd consider to be the real meat of concentration meditation, which is (in Buddhist terminology) the jhana/dhyana states. So if you're beholden to a scientific standard of evidence, I doubt you'll find enough trustable instruction to reach the "access concentration" necessary to enter those states. Basically, the most effective literature right now is religious. Fortunately, in recent years a body of literature has emerged that despite being based in Buddhism are still written in a way that makes sense to secular people. Examples include
For example, Gunaratana's book focuses on metta meditation as a way to attain access concentration, and this involves repeating mantra-like phrases of expanding loving-kindness. That might seem mumbo-jumbo-esque or at least kind of silly to some people, and it's not "value-free" in the scientific sense, but it's recommended simply because the repetition has psychological effects, and loving-kindness leads to good feelings that help in many ways when establishing concentration.
These jhana states supposedly predate the Buddha's teaching and were seen as somewhat standard yogic techniques. So you can read these books in the same way you'd read yoga instructions. If you sniff out any metaphysical presumptions, or if you disagree with the aspiration for nirvana, you can just apply source criticism realizing that these authors are Buddhists and thus committed to the "Noble Truths." Yet the methods for doing jhana aren't particularly religious; the religion comes in when you talk about the fundamental reasons to follow the instructions.
I don't know if this is just my speculation but it seems pretty reasonable: religions have functioned as sanctuaries for the preservation of knowledge in the absence of scientific proof. Scientific proof for meditation-related stuff is very difficult, and even the mindfulness literature is kind of groping in the dark. Alan Wallace has talked a lot about the difficulties of the "first-person science" needed to really discuss meditation scientifically. So both science and religion are institutions of knowledge-preservation. What science is trying to do now is to take the religious knowledge of Buddhist meditation traditions and create theoretical frameworks and experimental verification. That's a huge project and if you want to get practical instructions right now, it's probably practical to buckle up and hold your nose while reading stuff that comes out of practically oriented religious teachers.
posted by mbrock at 6:09 AM on December 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
- Shaila Catherine's Focused and Fearless,
- Leigh Brasington's Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhanas, and
- Henepola Gunaratana's Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English.
For example, Gunaratana's book focuses on metta meditation as a way to attain access concentration, and this involves repeating mantra-like phrases of expanding loving-kindness. That might seem mumbo-jumbo-esque or at least kind of silly to some people, and it's not "value-free" in the scientific sense, but it's recommended simply because the repetition has psychological effects, and loving-kindness leads to good feelings that help in many ways when establishing concentration.
These jhana states supposedly predate the Buddha's teaching and were seen as somewhat standard yogic techniques. So you can read these books in the same way you'd read yoga instructions. If you sniff out any metaphysical presumptions, or if you disagree with the aspiration for nirvana, you can just apply source criticism realizing that these authors are Buddhists and thus committed to the "Noble Truths." Yet the methods for doing jhana aren't particularly religious; the religion comes in when you talk about the fundamental reasons to follow the instructions.
I don't know if this is just my speculation but it seems pretty reasonable: religions have functioned as sanctuaries for the preservation of knowledge in the absence of scientific proof. Scientific proof for meditation-related stuff is very difficult, and even the mindfulness literature is kind of groping in the dark. Alan Wallace has talked a lot about the difficulties of the "first-person science" needed to really discuss meditation scientifically. So both science and religion are institutions of knowledge-preservation. What science is trying to do now is to take the religious knowledge of Buddhist meditation traditions and create theoretical frameworks and experimental verification. That's a huge project and if you want to get practical instructions right now, it's probably practical to buckle up and hold your nose while reading stuff that comes out of practically oriented religious teachers.
posted by mbrock at 6:09 AM on December 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
Further to mbrock's comment, which I agree with, I found Practising the Jhanas a good guide: clear, detailed, grounded in tradition and scripture (and thus cross-referenceable), and short/to the point.
posted by lokta at 6:43 AM on December 27, 2015
posted by lokta at 6:43 AM on December 27, 2015
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posted by ch1x0r at 7:20 PM on December 26, 2015 [1 favorite]