How to improve mental concentration?

Whether it is our day to day life or be it professional life, good mental concentration is a must for achieving best results. So also for meditation. Without first developing good mental concentration, you cannot successfully meditate even. 

How does one improve mental concentration? Let us hear that right from the horse’s mouth.

In one of the Suttas in the Tipitakas (DN 22: Maha-satipatthana Sutta), Buddha talks of very simple ways of developing good concentration. This, he says is essential before one embarks on meditative practices. (I have talked about it in my earlier post “You need to practice before”).

Buddha’s methods are quite simple (it just appears to be so, but not really!) and needs no external means. These techniques are called Sati in the Pali language. The word Sati is normally translated as “Mindfulness”. There are different types of Sati.

1. Änäpäna Sati – Mindfulness of breath:  The word änäpäna means breathing in and out. This has some similarity with Pränäyäma of Yoga. But neither the technique nor the way it works are identical.

What you do is – breathe in and breathe out consciously, without changing the pace in any way. When you breathe

• Watch how the air flows into your nose, lungs and so on. And when you breathe out, watch how the air leaves the lungs, nose etc.
• Watch the sensation the air creates while it moves in and out. Is it warm?, cool?, and so on. Just be focused on the air and its flow. 

That is all. Do this, sitting in a quiet secluded place, at least for few tens of minutes everyday. And most importantly, on a regular basis.

You may be surprised, just this simple method can improve your concentration in a matter of just one month. Not only that, it can even reduce your mental stress and improve your health. What is more, you don’t need to enroll yourself in some Guru’s retreat paying through your nose! Needless to say that there are absolutely no harmful side effects!

Just for those with analytical mind -

The Pränäyäma of Yoga (I am talking about Patanjali Yoga and not Hatayoga), works by controlling your breath willfully. When you do that, your attention gets focused automatically, as I have explained in my book “How and Why of Yoga and Meditation”.

But in Buddhist technique, no such force is used. You are merely watching some autonomous activity, namely the breath, that keeps happening in your body all the time.

The end effect is the same – a trained attention system.

2. Käya Sati – Mindfulness about body - Even here, the idea is quite simple and needs no external means. All that you do is to be watchful when you make any body movement. 

• For example, when you walk, observe how you lift your legs, how you fold various joints, how you support them, and so on. Also, be mindful about various body sensations produced when you are in the process of moving your legs.
• Do the same, when you sit or for that matter, when you make any body movement.

Looks quite simple and too simple to believe, isn’t it? But take my word – or rather, Buddha’s word; these simple things do really work. You can verify it right ‘here and now’! 

You can extend this to whatever you do whole day. That is what I was talking about in my post “Do you meditate?”

Results can come, not necessary by paying hefty fees, while sitting and listening to a Guru in a posh auditorium ;-) 

Isn’t that amazing?