..續本文上一頁ditation.

　　As I said, in the beginning we may be lacking in clear comprehension but later when our concentration develops we will be able to see things clearly and so on and these five components will be working in harmony. What if they do not work in harmony

　　 We are lost! When we are practicing, especially important is the balance of effort and concentration. If they are not balanced, if there is an excess of one or the other, we are lost, our meditation is nothing. The effort we make must be just enough, not too much, and not too little. Sometimes we tend to make too much effort because we want to achieve something; we become a little greedy and so we make more effort. When we make more effort, we become restless, agitated and then we lose concentration. So, too much effort will not work. What if there is too little effort

　　 We become sleepy, lazy and we cannot concentrate and cannot practice either. So, the effort we make must be neither too much nor too little. When there is excess of effort there is not enough of concentration. Among effort and concentration, when one goes up the other goes down. Too much effort, and concentration will go down. When you make too little effort, again concentration goes down. Concentration also must not be too much. When we have too much concentration we tend to become lazy. We tend to take it easy or we tend to slacken our effort.

　　Suppose we are practicing and we have good concentration. When we have good concentration we do not have to make much effort and so we tend to slacken the effort. When we slacken our effort the degree of effort goes down and we become lazy or sleepy. In that case we have to step up our effort, by making more effort and paying closer attention or sometimes by adding some things to note like three or more objects in succession at a time. So, the effort and concentration must be balanced so that we have good meditation and clear comprehension.

　　Sometime, say, we are practicing and we have good concentration and all of a sudden we lose concentration. Probably we have made more effort than is needed. We want to make it better and so we make more effort and the result is the opposite of what we want. Sometimes you are practicing meditation, your concentration is good and even though your concentration is good, you tend to go sleepy or nodding. That means you have too much concentration. If there is too much concentration you have to make the level of concentration go down by stepping up effort, by taking more objects at a time and so on.

　　So, meditation is not easy. I do not want to discourage you but meditation is not easy. It is very delicate. Just a little bit of an unbalanced mental state can destroy the concentration you have built up with great effort. So, these five mental states should be working simultaneously and also they should be working in harmony. Meditation practice is like a machine. There are many parts in a machine and each part must work properly. If one part does not work properly, the whole machine goes out of control. In the same way, if any one of the factors does not work properly, the whole work of meditation is thrown out of balance. Therefore, each one of these five mental factors must be working properly and harmoniously with other factors.

　　Here comes the value of mindfulness. Mindfulness is a regulating mental factor. So it helps to keep effort from becoming too much, it helps concentration from becoming too much and so on. So, the mindfulness factor is a regulating factor among these five components in the practice of meditation. That is why it is said that mindfulness is always needed, there can be no excess of mindfulness. Mindfulness is needed everywhere like the seasoning of salt in all dishes and like a Prime Minister who does all the …

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