Concentration - Deconstructing Yourself

Dropping the Ultra Ball April 26, 2025 - Notice that each time an object fades, a perception vanishes, dissolves, relaxes, lets go, reveals its emptiness, shows its dream-like nature. Each time that happens, there is a similar relief,… Read More »

Awakening, Cessation, and Vulnerability, with Stephen Snyder February 12, 2025 - Host Michael Taft speaks with Stephen Snyder Sensei about practicing the Pa Auk jhanas, the importance of vulnerability in finding authentic strength, his two paths for awakening: the Theravada cessation… Read More »

Jhanas, Technology, and Tradition with Stephen Zerfas May 1, 2024 - Host Michael Taft speaks with entrepreneur and meditator Stephen Zerfas on using technology to potentially enhance the learning of the jhanas, Zerfas’ background in meditation and jhana practice, and the… Read More »

Taking the Mind as Path May 21, 2022 - Remain uninvolved with anything. Awareness is bright and clear. It's very very awake. It's also vast. It's spacious. It's open. It's at ease. It's restful. There's a sense of space,… Read More »

Jailbreak! Escape the Cage of Your Mind May 10, 2022 - We're bringing kindness, and caring, and a sense of dignity, and equality to even all the animals on the earth, and every river, and every stream, and every rock, and… Read More »

Total Relaxation May 7, 2022 - So we want that in our practice both in our body and even in our mind, where the mind is relaxed, the mind is open, the mind is at ease.… Read More »

Short Shamatha Smorgasbord May 1, 2022 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEJhWCSo1RQ Guided Nondual Meditation with Michael Taft Streamed live Dec 3, 2021 So, let's begin. We're not going to do most of our usual lead-in today. I just want you… Read More »

The Mountain of Awareness April 21, 2022 - https://youtu.be/YcLw1o0YBHY Streamed live on Nov 4, 2021 Guided Nondual Meditation with Michael Taft Let's begin with our setup. What's the first part of our setup? The first part of our… Read More »

Dimensions of Nonduality, with Tina Rasmussen June 30, 2021 - Host Michael Taft talks with meditation teacher and author Tina Rasmussen about ways to understand nondual awareness and the progress of nondual meditation, including her own unique comparison between the… Read More »

Shamatha and Vipashyana Support Each Other June 23, 2021 - https://youtu.be/7A9F_-Srot4 Nondual guided meditation by Michael Taft Shamatha (i.e. calming and focusing) and Vipashyana (special insight) are two different practices that can be used in combination to increase the effectiveness… Read More »

Using Emptiness to Cut Through July 13, 2020 - https://youtu.be/PKIGqa4ZJuo Nondual Guided Meditation with Michael Taft One hour meditation: 2:58 - Meditation begins (shamatha with an object)17:45 - Dissolving with the Out Breath32:11 - Dropping the Ball (i.e. shamatha… Read More »

How to Jhana June 14, 2020 - https://youtu.be/0K5ypXyF3dY Jhanas are special states of deep absorption that make a wonderful setup for doing awakening practices. In this video, meditation teacher Michael Taft describes what jhanas are, and clarifies… Read More »

Just Shamatha March 28, 2020 - https://youtu.be/re7ZuK3frdQ An hourlong guided meditation on the breath and pleasant sensations in the body, by Michael Taft for the San Francisco Dharma Collective. Often Michael's guided meditations begin with 15… Read More »

Thanksgiving Guided Meditation on Gratitude December 1, 2019 - https://youtu.be/Ipi7BnlZA-s Michael W. Taft leads a 30 minute guided meditation on gratitude. Begins with shamatha on thoughts and feelings of gratitude. Then switches to nondual awareness of gratitude. Although this… Read More »

Vajrayana, Engineering, and Jiu Jitsu, with Rin’dzin Pamo—Transcript September 16, 2019 - A Transcript of the Podcast Interview You can listen to the original interview here. Michael: Rin’dzin, welcome to the Deconstructing Yourself podcast. Rin’dzin: Hi Michael, it’s great to be here,… Read More »

The Liberating Practice of the Fire Kasina – with Daniel Ingram March 27, 2019 - Author and meditation teacher Daniel Ingram speaks with host Michael W. Taft about how the Fire Kasina practice can be used as an insight practice. Subjects include: the background of… Read More »

How to Enter Jhana – a Guided Meditation March 10, 2019 - https://youtu.be/7mkYlus3ZLY In this program at the San Francisco Dharma Collective, Michael Taft leads a guided meditation (approx 44 min long) on the method for getting into the first jhana. Then… Read More »

Awareness and Attention December 30, 2018 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3O56G06WJA Michael Taft leads a guided meditation (about 40 minutes) and then answers questions from students. Topics center around aspects of attention in practice, using Zoom In and Zoom Out… Read More »

Fire Kasina Hints for Shinzen Meditators November 10, 2018 - by Michael W. Taft I recently went to the Fire Kasina retreat on Denman Island, in British Columbia. The group was hosted by Lama Shannon Stein, at a tiny Tibetan… Read More »

Doubt, Faith, and Fun in Meditation Practice – with Daniel Ingram October 22, 2018 - Daniel Ingram and Michael Taft talk about the Fire Kasina practice, how making mental objects the focus can lead to deep awakening, balancing wisdom and faith, processing trauma with meditation… Read More »

Diving Deep into the Jhanas, with guest Leigh Brasington February 4, 2018 - Concentration master Leigh Brasington talks with Michael W. Taft about the jhanas, a Buddhist system of eight altered states of consciousness that arise in states of high concentration. The conversation… Read More »

Culadasa Interview: Attention, Awareness, and the Great Adventure December 14, 2017 - A transcript of episode 10 of the Deconstructing Yourself podcast. Taft: Welcome to Deconstructing Yourself, the podcast for modern mutants interested in mindfulness, meditation, awakening and more. My name is… Read More »

Attention, Awareness, and the Great Adventure, with Culadasa December 4, 2017 - Culadasa talks with Michael W. Taft. After decades of Buddhist practice, Culadasa exploded on the scene a few years ago with his groundbreaking book The Mind Illuminated, an incredibly comprehensive… Read More »

Meditation, Magick, and the Fire Kasina, with Daniel Ingram September 27, 2017 - In this session, host Michael W. Taft and radical dharma author and practitioner Daniel Ingram discuss the Fire Kasina practice, meditation and magick, working with archetypal forces and entities, Daniel’s… Read More »

Am I Mindful Right Now? with guest Kenneth Folk May 21, 2017 - Pragmatic dharma teacher Kenneth Folk and host Michael W. Taft discuss what it means to be mindful, various definitions of being mindful in the moment, the trouble with remaining mindful… Read More »

Dimensions of Focus and Concentration April 25, 2017 - Want to learn how to focus and concentrate? Start here What do you think of when you think of focusing? For most people it means narrowing the attention to a… Read More »

What Is the Meaning of Concentration and Focus? April 10, 2017 - More than you ever wanted to know about the etymology and history of words for attentional stability by Michael W. Taft The Oxford English Dictionary defines the meaning of concentration… Read More »

Pain Relief with Mindfulness: The Safe Haven January 29, 2016 - by Michael W. Taft I remember throwing out my back one time, which caused terrible pain in one leg. I went to doctors, chiropractors, took medications, all of which helped.… Read More »

The Meditation Induction — How to Meditate Deeply November 13, 2015 - by Michael W. Taft Mindfulness is awesome because it features a few simple rules that can be recombined to create thousands of different meditation techniques. You could practice a different… Read More »

Meditating with Distraction September 6, 2014 - by Michael W. Taft When I first started meditating, one of the hardest things was trying to stay focused. There were just so many things to do, people to interact… Read More »

Concentrative Or Nondirective Meditation? May 16, 2014 - Which Does Science Say Works Better? Concentrative or Nondirective meditation? Mindfulness. Zen. Meditation drumming. Chakra. Buddhist and transcendental meditation. It evokes eastern mystics and hip elites in California pretending to to… Read More »

Concentration and Love November 13, 2013 - by Michael W. Taft I remember the first time I fell in love. I wrote her name in my notebook over and over, repeating the name as if the sound itself… Read More »

Undoing Distraction, Technology Edition November 2, 2013 - by Michael W. Taft Does anyone you know not have a problem with too many distractions? Here in the Bay Area at least, it seems to be an epidemic—many people… Read More »

One Thing at a Time October 28, 2013 - All of us have had the experience of doing too many things at once. Of driving while listening to the radio, eating a burrito, and talking to a friend all… Read More »

Breathe and Relax for Better Concentration October 24, 2013 - by Michael W. Taft As meditation experts the world around have noticed over the millennia, relaxing makes concentration much easier. If you are too amped up, your system will be… Read More »

Create a System of Rewards to Increase Your Concentration October 9, 2013 - by Michael W. Taft “Yeah when you call my name I salivate like a Pavlov dog...” — Rolling Stones Concentration is natural, but many of us struggle to concentrate better… Read More »

Five Amazingly Powerful Secrets of Concentration March 22, 2013 - by Michael W. Taft Are you having trouble staying focused on your tax return? Is texting so fascinating that you can’t keep your eyes on the road? Concentration can be… Read More »

Concentration: Light as a Feather November 4, 2011 - by Michael W. Taft I was in Paris recently, and visited the Rodin museum. I’ve always loved his work, and some of the best pieces are at this gorgeous 18th… Read More »

How to Enter a Flow State: Finding the Goldilocks Zone of Peak Performance August 6, 2011 - by Michael W. Taft Have you ever been so involved in doing something that the rest of the world just kind of went away? Or time slowed down and even… Read More »

Concentration and Silence July 21, 2011 - by Michael W. Taft Yesterday I was deep inside a website, working on a project that took my full attention. Just as I was getting really focused, a neighbor busted… Read More »

Concentration with Shinzen, Part I July 7, 2011 - We've been discussing concentration lately on the blog. Here, meditation teacher Shinzen Young shares his views on concentration. Fascinating and helpful. Part one of a three part series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq1IL_DnC98 Read More »

Concentration: Why Bother? June 1, 2011 - by Michael W. Taft In the last three articles, I wrote about concentration as an iterative process, the activity of listening, and the skill of breaking things down into smaller,… Read More »

Concentration: The Hammer May 26, 2011 - A good friend of mine recently returned to school. As an adult learner, he set a goal for himself to do the best job possible, to ace every class he… Read More »

Learning to Listen May 23, 2011 - by Michael W. Taft You're having complex feelings about the things that happened with your partner yesterday. You feel upset and confused, there's so much going on. You meet your… Read More »

Concentration: An Iterative Approach to Focusing the Mind May 21, 2011 - by Michael W. Taft Concentration is the eternal secret of every mortal achievement - Stefan Zweig There is an ancient story from India that tells of five young princes who… Read More »

Multitasking Fail May 18, 2011 - by Michael W. Taft You're working on a paper, and the kids need dinner. Music is playing in one room, and the tv is on in the other. You don't… Read More »