Types of Concentration? My field of perception is very wide. It often becomes so wide that it loops back onto itself in some odd kaleidoscopic fashion.
This has rendered my previous methods of concentration unhelpful. Previously concentration was very deliberate and contrived and my surroundings would phase off into obscurity in favour of a pin-point focus on my chosen object. It opened up some interesting doors.
The application of attention on a particular event such as breathing is very different. It is different because it is inclusive of all other phenomena, like the universe is doing the concentration from which no personal claims can be made. I find this to be a distraction but there is a part of me that wants to embrace this inclusiveness. This leaves me with some dissonance between the previous method - in particular my attachment to the results incurred from that method. Moreover, when I try to apply myself in the previous way, I suffer - I guess I've just answered my own question in some ways.
Is this change in concentration to be expected?
Can you share any resources from either Theravada, Mahayana or Zen that would help me further my understanding of this matter?
Best wishes
It might be difficult for readers to understand exactly what you're experiencing in your meditation. You learn techniques of meditation to get you started on a path, but eventually that path must be understood by you, personally. You become like a scientist experimenting with what works and what doesn't work. For that you have to know what &quot;working&quot; even means... as you develop your path, this is an essential aspect to understand. What am I trying to achieve here when I sit down to meditate?
The path the Buddha described made Tranquility and Insight the markers of progress. If what you are experimenting with, within your own mind and body framework, moment to moment, is (over time) leading you to more and more calmness of mind, calmness of body, then you might be able to consider whatever methods you were employing successful.
Similarly, if whatever you are experimenting with, within your own mind and body framework, moment to moment, is (over time) leading you to deeper and deeper understanding of the nature of reality (three marks of existence), causing you to see more finely these qualities, subtler and subtler in your experience, then you might be able to consider whatever methods you were employing successful.
Both these two developments, Tranquility and Insight, should lead to letting go, fading away, cessation of your experience, in a gradual way.
AN 4:170
Mindfulness of the breath is a common practice that can develop both of these to their fruition.
SN 54:13
As you practice in this way, the Four Establishments of Mindfulness should simultaneously be developed.
MN 10