Meditation Is the Opposite of Concentration: A Guide to True Awareness

The journey into meditation often begins with a misunderstanding. Many seekers start by trying to concentrate intensely on their breath, a mantra, or an object. Yet, true meditation actually moves in the opposite direction – toward an effortless, open awareness that excludes nothing.

The Paradox of Effort & Surrender

When we sit down to meditate, our first instinct is often to focus hard on something specific – usually the breath. We furrow our brow, tense our muscles, and attempt to block out all distractions. This approach, while well-intentioned, actually creates tension and resistance that prevent us from experiencing genuine meditation.

Concentration is like using a flashlight in a dark room – it illuminates one spot brilliantly while leaving everything else in darkness. Meditation, by contrast, is like gradually allowing your eyes to adjust to the darkness until you can see the entire room clearly, all at once.

While concentration is indeed a part of meditation practice, lets dive a little deeper into, understanding of meditation that evolves beyond pure concentration.

Let’s unpack this using your beautiful metaphor of the flashlight versus night vision. Concentration (dharana in Sanskrit) is often the starting point – it’s like learning to hold that flashlight steady on one spot. This focused attention, often on the breath, helps calm the rushing stream of thoughts and builds mental stability. It’s a crucial foundation, but it’s not the complete picture of meditation.

Transition from concentrated focus to open awareness

True meditation (dhyana) emerges when we begin to let go of that forceful concentration and allow a more broader & widening awareness to develop. Think about how your eyes naturally adjust to darkness – you don’t force them to see; you simply allow them to adapt. Similarly, as our meditation practice deepens, we learn to hold attention with less effort, creating space for a broader field of consciousness to emerge.

This transition from concentrated focus to open awareness reflects a fundamental principle in meditation: the paradox of effort and surrender. We start with deliberate effort (the focused flashlight), but gradually learn to relax into a more natural, effortless state of being present (the night-adjusted vision).

This progression often unfolds naturally as practitioners develop their practice. The tension and resistance – the furrowed brow and muscle tension – are indeed obstacles that many practitioners encounter. They reflect our conditioned habit of trying to “make something happen” in meditation.

As we mature in our practice, we learn that meditation isn’t about forcing or achieving anything. Instead, it’s about allowing our natural awareness to reveal itself.

The ultimate awareness is often called “choiceless awareness” or “pure awareness” in various traditions. It’s a state where we’re simply present with whatever arises in our field of experience, without trying to focus on or exclude anything. This is the state where the entire “room” of our consciousness is illuminated, not just the spot where we’re pointing our attention.

True meditation involves a radical shift from concentrated focus to panoramic awareness. Instead of excluding sounds, sensations, and thoughts, we learn to include everything in our field of awareness. When a bird chirps outside your window during meditation, don’t consider it a distraction. Let it become part of your meditation. When thoughts arise, don’t push them away – let them float through your awareness like clouds in the sky.

This inclusive awareness is actually our natural state. Think about how you experience life when you’re completely relaxed – perhaps watching a sunset or sitting quietly in nature. You’re not concentrating on anything in particular, yet you’re aware of everything. This effortless, open attention is closer to true meditation than any forced concentration could ever be.

The Role of Relaxation

Relaxation is not just helpful for meditation – it is essential. When we’re tense, our awareness becomes narrow and rigid. As we relax, our awareness naturally expands. This is why many meditation traditions begin with conscious relaxation of the body. As physical tension dissolves, mental tension follows, allowing awareness to flow naturally and effortlessly.

Think of awareness as water. Concentration is like freezing water into ice – it becomes hard, fixed, and limited to one shape. Relaxation is like allowing the ice to melt – the water becomes fluid again, able to flow and take any shape. In deep relaxation, awareness becomes like a vast, still lake that reflects everything perfectly without distortion.

Beyond the Watcher

As we progress in meditation, we often notice that there seems to be a “watcher” – someone who is doing the observing. This too is part of our journey. Initially, this watcher might feel separate, perched on a hill overlooking everything else. But as our practice deepens, even this separation begins to dissolve.

The ultimate state of meditation is not about maintaining a witness position, but about becoming so relaxed and open that the distinction between observer and observed naturally falls away. This is what the great spiritual traditions point to when they speak of non-dual awareness or unity consciousness.

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The Art of Living Consciously: Understanding True Meditation

The Practice of Non-Doing

The beauty of true meditation is that it requires no effort. In fact, effort only gets in the way. This can be challenging for our achievement-oriented minds to accept. We’re used to the idea that results come through effort, but meditation operates on a different principle entirely.

Instead of trying to achieve a particular state, we learn to let go of trying altogether. Instead of attempting to control our experience, we allow everything to be exactly as it is. This doesn’t mean becoming passive or dull – rather, it means becoming so deeply relaxed and alert that we can respond to life spontaneously, without the interference of a controlling mind.

The more we try to concentrate, the more we create tension. The more we try to control our experience, the more we separate ourselves from the natural flow of awareness.

True meditation cannot be disturbed because it includes everything. If you’re concentrating and someone makes a noise, your concentration is broken. But if you’re in a state of open awareness, the noise simply becomes part of your meditation. This is why realized beings can remain meditative in the midst of chaos – they’re not trying to maintain any particular state.

Conclusion

As you continue practicing meditation, you may notice that awareness naturally becomes clearer and more spacious.

Remember, true meditation is not a technique but a natural state of being. When we understand this, meditation becomes a joy rather than a task, a flowering rather than an achievement.

This understanding transforms not just our meditation practice but our entire approach to spiritual growth. Instead of striving for enlightenment, we learn to relax into our natural state of awareness. Instead of trying to become something different, we discover the peace and freedom that have been here all along.