Meditation and Concentration: Is Concentrating Beneficial?

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(Clip from episodes: K3699)
This podcast is brought to you by the Foundation of Human Understanding: http://www.fhu.com

Wondering what the difference is between meditation and concentration? Could over-focusing and concentrating too hard counteract the positive benefits of meditation?

On this free meditation podcast, Monty reports a painful pressure in his sinuses when he meditates. Meditation expert Roy Masters knew immediately what the problem was and fills Monty in on the proper way to meditate.

Unlike many meditations being taught and practiced today, Roy Masters does not promote a heavy concentration-based exercise. His exercise is a free guided meditation called "Be Still and Know."

“You are taking a journey to your true self, and it is a little painful, because you have to undo a whole lifetime of conditioning of who you are.”

If you are having difficulty concentrating in a productive way, listen to this podcast now!

Quotes regarding meditation and concentration from Roy Masters’ books:

“Concentration is the way you produce hypnosis; but observation is the way you produce meditation; Observation is the 'opposite' of concentration and is the way you free a fixated attention.

If you concentrate hard enough, you will become hypnotized; but if you can observe gently, you will wake up. A continuous process of observing self leads one out of the hypnotic state we all live in towards a source of knowing called understanding.

“Understanding is to meditation as knowledge is to hypnotism.”
- The Hypnosis of Life

“True awareness is a healthy, observing attitude that protects from all dangers. But in your subjective state of preoccupation with worry and ambition, you have fallen into ridiculous predicaments. You have had accidents and become involved with the wrong people. Frightened and realizing your need for greater awareness, you may have even tried to force awareness. You began by making sure you did not repeat the same mistakes. Unfortunately, this procedure leads to a limited, subjective state of mind. You become so suspiciously aware, so preoccupied with each incident that you tend to make even more mistakes than you otherwise would—and you are even more mystified by them in view of the fact that you are trying so hard.

For example, while at the beach you cut your foot on a piece of glass. The next time you are there, you are more cautious, ever conscious of the potential danger of glass lying half-hidden in the sand. You are so preoccupied with the fear of that possible danger that you fail to see a volleyball coming straight at you. The next time at the beach you are so worried about glass and volleyballs that you do not even see the dog that bites you after you have tripped over him.

This type of forced awareness, which results from concentration and self-effort, is really a diminishing awareness, increasingly preoccupied with more and more things and circumstances.You are taking in too much knowledge unbuffered by understanding.”
- How to Conquer Negative Emotions

“Be careful not to concentrate so hard, with so much emotional investment that you make a god of learning and intellectual achievement. If you feel driven to learn you may be using the acquisition of knowledge as an escape from the more important reality considerations with which you should be concerning yourself. Remember that anything you use as an escape corrupts and creates an addiction to the source of corruption, whatever it might be.”
- Surviving the Comfort Zone

“When you concentrate, or fixate away from Reality, toward goals and pleasures, you temporarily forget the condemnation of conscience and the ultimate penalty of death. Instead, you feel the stirrings of a new self-righteous, earthy creature life. You trade your true and eternal life for a selfish ego life.”
- Surviving the Comfort Zone

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