Differences Between Meditation and Concentration

There is a lot of confusion today about what true meditation is about.

Many people mistake concentration techniques like counting breaths or reciting mantras for meditation. There are also many apps and guided meditations on the internet who promote themselves as meditation apps, but actually they are concentration-focused apps.

Nowadays, there is almost no differentiation between those two at all. This leads to meditation being watered down from its true purpose.

So what is meditation, and how does it differ from concentration?

The easiest way to put it is that concentration is focus and meditation is awareness.

In my meditation journey, I have used various practices involving both meditation and concentration techniques. I will share all of these at the end, but first, let's clarify these two concepts.

Concentration Is Focus

Concentration involves narrowing our mind to focus intensely on a single object or task, excluding other thoughts and distractions.

It’s a kind of spearheaded focus that only points to one thing.

So whenever we direct our attention to a single object and keep it there, whether this object is inside or outside of our minds or bodies, we engage in concentration. I assume everyone is familiar with this concept, as any task we attempt to complete requires disciplining our minds to focus on the task at hand and eliminate all distractions that get in the way.

The same is true for many of the so-called “meditation practices” which are nothing else than concentration techniques. 

Let's consider a “meditation” many are familiar with: counting breaths. In this practice, you typically inhale and exhale naturally, silently counting each exhale. You either count up to a set number, often ten, and then start again, or you continue counting as far as you can without becoming distracted. When we closely examine this practice, we see aspects that show it's really about concentration.

There is a clear emphasis on directing your focus toward your breath and counting each breath, while excluding all other distractions that are unrelated to your breath or the counting process.

Another well known “meditation” practice is reciting a mantra.

It’s a practice where you recite a specific word, phrase, or sound to the exclusion of everything else. With each recitation, you redirect your mind from any distractions that may have arisen back to the specific mantra. Similarly to counting breaths, the practice involves elements of focus and exclusion.

Since I aim to explain the difference between concentration and meditation thoroughly, let me offer an even more radical perspective on this here.

Any time you shift your focus from one thing to another and try to keep it there, you are concentrating. Focusing on one thing inherently involves excluding everything else that is not that thing. 

Therefore, even if you sit down to “meditate” with a specific objective, even if that objective is to avoid concentrating, it still becomes a concentration practice due to the elements of focus and exclusion involved.

So whenever we try to control our experience, it’s concentration and not meditation.

Before explaining why concentration practices are still useful and important, and how we can integrate them to aid our meditation practice, let us first look at what I consider to be meditation.

Meditation Is Awareness

Conversely to concentration, meditation is a state of relaxed and open awareness, where we expand our consciousness and achieve clarity. While concentration is controlling our experience, meditation is the exact opposite.

Meditation is letting go of control.

Meditation is surrender.

In this process we do not confine our attention, but we welcome all aspects of our experience with an open mind. While concentration focuses sharply on a single point like a spearhead, meditation is like an ever-expanding circle that continuously grows to include everything it touches.

Instead of excluding anything, it’s about including everything.

A famous Zen teacher, Shunryu Suzuki, once said: “The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.”

When we look closely at the quote I just shared, we can see how it's different from concentration, focusing on including everything, seeing things as they are, not trying to control or change anything, and accepting everything as it is. Sounds simple, right?

Now try to meditate with the orientation of leaving everything as it is.

…and just in this moment, your meditation practice has become a concentration practice again. Does this sound familiar to you?

Where Meditation Meets Concentration

Whenever we engage in meditation we’ll see distracting thoughts arise. Now we might try to control and suppress them, because we think we are deviating from our meditation practice. And as easy as that, meditation becomes concentration. We reverse the ever-expanding circle of meditation to once again become a spearhead. Then, we're trying too hard to make our experience match our idea of what meditation should be. However, there is an easy solution to this.

In this meditation we do not confine our attention, but we welcome all aspects of our experience with an open mind.

What about welcoming the aspect of concentration with an open mind?

Whenever we realize that we're concentrating, we have already gone beyond concentration and now we are meditating. This means that the circle of meditation has expanded to include even the narrowing and focusing of our minds.

We just see reality as it is. In this case, we see ourselves concentrating. 

Meditation and Concentration Help Each Other

When you begin meditating, it's important to understand the purpose of each practice. There are many meditation techniques, each with a slightly different orientation. While they all aim to reveal our mind and our true self, they may appear different externally. In one meditation technique, you might repeatedly ask yourself, 'Who am I?' while in another, you might simply focus on 'just sitting.'

Regardless of the method, you can see that there is a small element of focus in each. Every technique provides some orientation that directs your awareness in a specific direction.

Whenever we meditate, we need to shift our focus from distracting thoughts back to the intention we set at the beginning of the practice. Perhaps the intention is simply to 'do nothing; just sit and be aware of what’s happening.' We often get caught up in our thoughts and internal narratives about ourselves and the world, losing sight of our intention. 

But the moment we realize we've become unconscious of it, we're back to meditation. This movement, this shift of awareness, requires some focus and concentration.

Whenever we stray off-track, we simply refocus our awareness through concentration. The more disciplined our minds are, the greater our capacity for concentration, making it easier to shift our focus back to our original intention.

Not Too Hard, Not Too Loose

Rather than getting caught up in an endless debate about meditation and concentration, I suggest we use these concepts lightly.

Whenever we intend to practice meditation, we focus on it and use as much concentration as necessary. When we practice concentration, we recognize that it involves narrowing our focus repeatedly, rather than expanding it.

I might also make the use case of concentration for beginning meditators. For beginners, I’d recommend using concentration primarily. When you're just starting out, it's helpful trying to focus your mind on more concrete concepts. Counting breaths or reciting a mantra are two examples. As your capacity for concentrated effort improves, you'll find that you need fewer focus points in your practice. If you are an advanced meditator, I recommend reducing your control over your experience.

Practices

Now let me share a few practices along with my view on where they fall between meditation and concentration.

Concentration

• Counting breaths
• Walking meditation (focusing in the body and the walking experience)
• Reciting mantras
• Body-Awareness meditation (focusing on certain parts of the body or the whole body)
• Energy Healing (Healing and releasing blocked energies and emotions within ourselves)

Meditation

• Just sitting
• Walking meditation (being aware of all experience)
• Self-inquiry (asking yourself “Who am I?” or “Who is having this thought?”)
• Koan/Kong-An practice (a riddle for zen meditation insight)

Please don’t see this as an absolute classification between meditation and concentration techniques. I just want to introduce you to these two concepts so that you can keep them in mind when you decide what practice you want to follow.

My suggestion is that you start with the practice that resonates most with you. 

It’s better to practice something continuously instead of making a decision of what you should practice, but not following it.

If you have any questions about certain types of practices, don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll be happy to help. 

In the future, there will also be guided meditation and detailed explanations of different practices so stay tuned.

I wish you all the best.

Your friend of the way.