Excerpt From: Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. “Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.

Excerpt From: Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. “Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.

“People who struggle to gain concentration in order to help their insight meditation sometimes worry when they cannot concentrate. Don’t feel discouraged! It can take many years to reach full concentration. If your practice of awareness is guided by mindfulness, you can be content whether or not you gain full concentration. Don’t try to force it. 

Each time you meditate, you are getting closer to concentration. How long it takes depends upon how often you meditate and how well you practice the other steps of the path.

Some days you may have better concentration and some days better mindfulness. If you have gained full concentration in the past but did not practice it every day, and did not fully master it, then you may sometimes have difficulty when you try to achieve it again. It may even seem impossible, if latent hindrances have become active, or if you have become involved in unwholesome activities. On days when concentration is more difficult, you should simply be mindful of your active state of mind without worrying or verbalizing that you cannot concentrate. The mindful observation of what is happening sharpens your penetrating wisdom into the reality of your experience. So long as you keep practicing all the other steps of the path and keep trying — without attachment — to gain concentration, you can trust that Skillful Concentration will come eventually, and that by using this powerful tool, you will achieve ultimate happiness.”

Excerpt From: Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. “Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.”