{"id":882,"date":"2009-10-22T09:58:53","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T09:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/10\/concentration-effort-meditation-practice.html"},"modified":"2009-10-22T09:58:53","modified_gmt":"2009-10-22T09:58:53","slug":"concentration-effort-meditation-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/concentration-effort-meditation-practice.html","title":{"rendered":"Concentration Without Effort: Meditation Theory vs. Actual Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Kirsch<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

I recently developed a mild but irksome
\ncase of writer’s block. I dreamed someone important in my career had
\nbuilt me a tightrope.  I like when dreams are so explicit as to
\nrequire a minimum of parsing: This person supports me,
\nshe has constructed a means for me to get from A to B. I’m safe.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

Okay: Not to look a dream gift horse
\nin the mouth, but wouldn’t a bridge be even more<\/i> safe, more
\ngenerous? Why a tightrope? Why the most precarious means of transport?
\nCome on, dream benefactor, let’s make this easy. A tightrope? It’s
\na dream–surely you could have hailed me a cab?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The tightrope walker is often conjured
\nas the perfect example of “concentration without effort.” One
\nfoot in front of the other: just this step, just this moment. Rush to
\nget to the end too quickly and you’re down. Too tentative, too fearful,
\ntoo shaky and you’re plummeting for the net. Balance, equanimity,
\npresent moment, the Middle Way. I get it. <\/font><\/p>\n

I got it even more (and synchronistically,
\nI might add) last night at the Interdependence Project<\/a> where we discussed Thich Nhat
\nHahn<\/a>‘s chapters in The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings<\/i> on
\nRight Effort and Right Mindfulness. That delicate balancing act of not
\nstraining too hard to “get it” while meditating. Ethan described
\nthe futility of trying to sail by blowing on the boat. You change the
\nposition of the sail: Right Effort. He conjured Thich Nhat Hahn sitting
\ndown to write at the computer with the same open, relaxed demeanor with
\nwhich he approaches teaching bodhisattvas. Oh, to be open and relaxed,
\nneither straining mightily for the end of the paragraph nor burying
\nmy face in my hands at the impossibility of the perfect turn of phrase.
\nAttraction and aversion, the same old dance, it’s everywhere.  <\/font><\/p>\n

A tightrope. Concentration without
\neffort. We don’t always–or ever?–get the paved highway from struggle
\nto liberation. Where do you find yourself endeavoring to maintain balance
\non your own tightrope? How do you keep putting one foot in front of
\nthe other without attachment to outcome? How do you overcome your (if
\nyou’re anything like me) terror of not getting to the end, but equally
\nfear-inducing terror of how on earth you’re going to get there?<\/font> \n<\/p>\n

For further
\nexploration: Check out readings on Samyama, the practice of Dharana,
\nDhyana and Samadhi–or, in reductive English, concentration, contemplation
\nand (for lack of a better word) unity. <\/i><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Kirsch I recently developed a mild but irksome case of writer’s block. I dreamed someone important in my career had built me a tightrope.  I like when dreams are so explicit as to require a minimum of parsing: This person supports me, she has constructed a means for me to get from A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditation"],"yoast_head":"\nConcentration Without Effort: Meditation Theory vs. Actual Practice - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/concentration-effort-meditation-practice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Concentration Without Effort: Meditation Theory vs. Actual Practice - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Melissa Kirsch I recently developed a mild but irksome case of writer’s block. 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His writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications. He is the founding director of the Interdependence Project and the host of the I.D. Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popular weekly podcast (available on iTunes). He is currently on the part-time faculty of Eugene Lang College at New School University in NYC, where he teaches Buddhism. Ethan lectures regularly at universities and venues around the country on Buddhism, meditation, contemporary culture, and activism.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/enichtern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}