Two Different Paths
The path you are going to take depends on whether you emphasise concentration or mindfulness. Concentration is holding the mind to the object. Mindfulness is observing the nature of the object carefully. Herein lies the difference.
Let's take the example of holding a mirror up to your face. When you hold the mirror to your face and you can look into it for a long
A disciple of the Buddha, Concentrated, clearly comprehending And mindful, knows searches And the origin of searches, Where they cease and the path That leads to their full destruction. With the destruction of searches a bhikkhu, Without longing, has attained Nibbana.
time, that is concentration—holding the mind to an object. If you keep on holding your mind to an object and emphasise more on concentration, your meditation will proceed or develop onto the path of tranquillity meditation, which goes into deep states of concentration
On the other hand, when you hold the mind to the object and you observe carefully the features that are found in the mirror, for example the long nose, moustache, buck teeth, bald head and so forth, you realise that this is the face of a demon. You ask, "This is the face of what? Of a human being?" This means you have observed carefully, you take note of the nature of all the features of the face in the mirror. That is mindfulness.
When you have taken in all the details and you can understand what it means—the essence of it, the mindfulness becomes wisdom. When you emphasise on mindfulness, and you observe with careful mindfulness the nature of the object, all the different things that occur there, the processes there, the mind will progress or proceed in the way of insight or vipassana.
The two different paths you can take become clear when we use the example of anapanasati.
Some people do anapanasati by counting the in and out breaths at the nose tip and concentrate on that. The mind becomes very peaceful. As the concentration deepens, you may see or feel the point of contact there as if of very soft cotton wool. You continue to watch it more carefully with some mindfulness but with more emphasis on concentration. You will stay with it for a long time because the mind is so peaceful and calm. So the mind goes into deep concentration and tranquillity meditation. The object, as the mind becomes deeper, will become subtler and more still.
However, if one wishes to proceed to vipassana from there, it is not just a matter of keeping the mind still. You have to push the mind to note very clearly all the sensations that occur at the nose-tip. In which case, you will see many processes and changes, especially those relating to the heat element at the nose-tip, arising and disappearing.
Thus you will not go into the pure tranquillity states of the absorption, but will proceed by way of insight.
Even when practising "rising" and "falling," some people tend to go into the direction of tranquillity meditation. This may be because they did not emphasize the practice of mindful observation. Rather they emphasize fixing on the mind and following it in the "rising" and "falling."
Usually the "rising" and "falling" of the abdomen—as a meditation object—is more gross and the changes are more obvious. Therefore, it is selected as a more suitable object for the development of insight. But even then because the development of the observation of insight is quite unique and you need a lot of energy, people sometimes fail to notice the changes. Therefore they just concentrate and feel the peacefulness.
Even though they may be able to notice some changes, it is not sufficient. Mindfulness is not enough and concentration is being developed and emphasized instead, and they still go into a form of tranquillity meditation.
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