Why Concentration is Not Enough? - Attention & Awareness Dynamic Explained
We all have the experience of focusing on a task singularly and very intensely. From common meditation wisdom, you might think developing an exclusive state of intense concentration is what meditation is ultimately all about.
However, this is only a part of the picture. For all beginner meditators, mindfulness and awareness collapses instantly if you narrow down attention strongly and forcefully. 
This is one of the fundamental reasons why you still experience distractions and sleepiness while trying to be more mindful. Even after years of meditation.
Let me explain:
Paying attention to an object without greater peripheral awareness is how we normally live our lives. Even without mindfulness, we’re always paying attention to something.
But with mindfulness, we pay attention to the right things, and in a more skillful way.This is because being mindful actually means that you’re more fully conscious and alert than usual. 
As a result, our peripheral awareness is much stronger, and our attention is used with unprecedented precision and objectivity. 
Mindfulness is the skillful interaction of attention and awareness.  
Attention analyzes our experience, and awareness provides the overall context and background.      
When one or the other doesn’t do its job, or when there isn’t enough interaction between the two, then we respond to situations less effectively. We may overreact, make poor decisions, or misinterpret what’s really going on.
Awareness provides the context and the background of events and experiences. It is open,   inclusive, and holistic. It’s concerned with the relationships of objects to each other, and to the whole.
Why aren’t we naturally more mindful?
 Why does mindfulness have to be cultivated?
There are two main reasons.
1- Most of us have never really learned to use awareness effectively.
2- We don’t have enough conscious power to sustain mindfulness, especially at the times when we need it most.,
The result of this is something I like to call Awareness Deficit Disorder: chronic use of attention until awareness fully collapses.
For instance, do you experience the moving sensations on your left foot’s toe while watching Inception?
An advanced meditator can experience the body fully while also wholeheartedly engaging in the movie.Body awareness is only the first step. They can watch the movie intensely and also simultaneously examine their minds, habits and mental reactions.
As a beginner meditator, you are singularly focused on watching Inception, - which is a fantastic movie - trying to follow the sequences of events.But awareness is fully collapsed. You are not aware of the body sensations as much.
Final Advice:
The most deceptive beginner mistake while trying to balance attention and awareness is to quickly re-direct attention back and forth between the breath sensations and the body (or distractions of all forms).
This technique is called intentional attentional movement.It can be used effectively in adept stages of meditation.
However, at its currently applied form, it is not helping you to develop greater levels of awareness and mindfulness.
The Solution: You need to maintain the stability of attention first and while the attention rests on the breath, now you start to experience the entire body and mind with awareness. This is how you develop mindfulness.
You need to keep these two modalities of experience in metacognitive awareness.
Keep meditating with this in mind and you'll get to know your mind at deeper and deeper levels with diligent practice.
Much love,
Arda
 

Now that was wild!
Kinda brief, but epic!
I can still feel the afterglow... But I'm pretty much completely back at my baseline - if you will.
I did nothing fancy to attain this state. I wasn't even attempting to reach any state per se. Just felt like releasing some toxins from my body. Filling it with fresh oxygen.
I was breathing through my mouth the whole time. Nice and deep. Kinda fast, too. Eyes opened - staring into the distance. It felt real good, so I kept going. Soon my whole body was overwhelmed with this tingling sensation. It almost feels like a whole-body orgasm. But at the same time it feels like you're dissolving into nothingness.
A few more deep breaths and my vision starts fading to black. I knew I was close to passing out, but I kept going a bit longer. The whole time I'm being showered with this warm, fuzzy feeling. I started losing myself in the breath. I could not tell if I was breathing in or out. Shortly; I could not tell if I was breathing at all.
And then... it happened. I broke through. Enter 'the super-state'. 
I can only describe it as being sucked out of your body and spread onto everything. Yup! You're the whole thing now, baby! 
Perception no more. No need to see anything. I am what I see. No here and no there. No then and no later. In a sense; no now, either.
Yes, you guessed it. It was all Nothing. However, there's much to be said about it. Really; one could go on forever.
It just seemed so damn real. So much realer than where I'm at now. Yet at the same time; it was dreamy and magical. Totally unreal.
At this point I'm weightless. I'm floating. I'm experiencing myself as everything. Literally. I felt what it's like to be a chair. And a TV. And a bed. Even though; 'experiencing' is not the right way to put it, really. That implies a lag. There was no lag. No time and no space for anything to be experienced. No experience and no experiencer. Only Being. In real time.
You may think: 'but isn't everything always already in real time?'
Well yes... and no.
Think of yourself as an antenna. You are receiving the signals in real time... but it takes 'time' for you to receive, decode and process the information. To create a holographic representation of the signals you're receiving. To paint a picture.
It's a layer. A snapshot of Reality.
So that's the 'lag' I'm referring to. That's the 'veil of perception'. That's how the 5 human senses function, essentially. At least from what I understand.
In a sense; you are experiencing time (or anything else for that matter) simply because you use your senses to filter vibratory information. To make sense out of reality. Being 'human' is nothing more but a filtration system - if we go all technical.
So in that sense; you can only 'experience' real time in Absolute Unity. You do not know what the 'true now' is until you do not merge with God, completely.
Only when there are not two, but only One; you Are. 
Only when there truly is no before and no after; Now is.
Don't let yourself be deceived by thinking you're already IT, and there's nothing to do, nothing to attain, yadayada... Be real with yourself here. Be conscious of how conscious you are, right now. That's the only thing that matters. And also; breathing. Breathing is awesome.
So this experience got me contemplating a bit.
What is a state of Being? What is a breakthrough? And how is such a drastic jump even possible? Are there levels and degrees to this?
Well, to put it as simply as I can;
Being is Absolute. It cannot change, ever. It's eternal. 
While it itself cannot be altered, it can create an alteration within itself - so to speak. It can get drunk on itself. In a sense; you are constantly hallucinating. And that's how states come to be. They are like radio station. It's just a matter of tuning in. The possibilities are endless, really. There are infinite states. But only one Being. 
It could be also said that there are many, many qualities of Consciousness. And many, many layers and levels of Reality. All of those can be and are being experienced. But are not to be confused with Absolute Beingness. It's the difference between being sober and drunk, really.
A 'baseline' frequency is simply a frequency that your system is most comfortable operating on. It's most familiar with it. Any significant alteration in your baseline frequency can be considered a breakthrough. Or a break-down lol.
This shift can obviously be attained through various methods and practices. Meditation, breathwork, psychedelics... But one can also be triggered into it by random life-events.
Usually people tend to go slow, altering ever so slightly their baseline over time. So obviously when you take a psychedelic for example and it shoots you right through the sky it literally feels like you're breaking through a brickwall. When in fact you're only breaking through the limitations of your mind. Psychedelics are essentially super - accelerators. They alter the rate of the oscillation. They 'raise your frequency'. 
That's how 'hyper-awarness' comes to be. That's how you can go from ego or object to Love or God-consciousness. That's how there are levels, degrees and states. 
It's all fun and cool until you become conscious that you're making your own heart beat. And that you're generating the temperature of your body. That you're making your hair and nails grow. Right this moment. You're doing it all out of sheer wiil. You're making the clouds and the trees move. You're making the Sun shine. The wind blow. It's all you baby! One thing to think and talk about it... And another to be conscious of it. If you're not used to those hights, it can quickly become too much.
So be smart. Don't bite off more than you can chew.
Peace.

Hello loved ones.
I feel like sharing a few thoughts about The Almighty Shadow. Perhaps you'll find the information to be relevant.
I like referring to 'The Shadow' or 'Darkness' as just a 'different shade of Light'. Because it is, in fact, Light - unrecognized and unacknowledged by You.
The Shadow cannot help itself but be You. Be The Light. You cannot help yourself but be it. The Shadow's one and only job is... to maximize your ability to Love unconditionally and fearlessly. To accept and embrace fully and willingly. It's such a cleaver and powerful 'mechanism'. And in case you disagree with that; well, then you have not truly felt its claws. 
The Shadow has no more and no less power than The Light of God does. It is equally magnificent, equally intelligent and equally real. It is equally beautiful and divine.
But it does not know that. Thus it is 'The Shadow'.
It's always here, but not always active. As I said - it is just God being very cleaver and...well... a little bit gangsta.
The Shadow is patient. It has all the time in the world. It will wait and wait; until you think you've got it all figured out. And then it's going to jump out of nowhere and ruin your cute little enlightenment.
That's right. The Shadow doesn't give a flying fuck about your spirituality. It does not care about your realizations and insights. If anything; those are the very things it will objectify and use against you as a weapon in your darkest hour. There will be no mercy. No tolerance. One cannot bullshit their way out of darkness. No amount of spiritual concepts, methods or practice will save you. Darkness will swallow you whole. How willing or unwilling you are to surrender yourself to it...determines how painful, agonizing and persistent it will be.
So how do you accept The Shadow? How do you recognize it as The Truth of who You are? How do you escort it back into The Light of Perfection? 
It's simple.
Not easy. And not comfortable - at all. But simple.
The Shadow demands above and beyond all one thing, only. And that is... 
R E S P E C T 
Need I remind you just how exactly you're disrespecting The Shadow? Gladly; I will.
You are disrespecting The Shadow by hiding it. By hiding from it. By denying it. By demonizing it. By being ashamed of it. By thinking it's less than pure perfection. By acting like it's not even there. By neglecting it. By abandoning it. By putting everything that's nice and shiny before it. By surprising it. By forgetting about it. By fighting it. By silently hating it. By treating it as an enemy. By wanting nothing to do with it. By not having the balls to look right into its eyes. By judging the living crap out of it. By convincing yourself it is the reason for your failures and misfortunes. By blaming it. By resisting it. By negotiating with it. By manipulating it. By lying to it. By keeping your heart closed for it. By not inviting it in. By keeping it locked in the basement.
And if you think The Shadow is stupid enough to be fooled by your funny little games... You're in for a rude awakening.
It has the power to arise as fire and bring hell into your reality. To burn down everything in its way - including you. It has the power to annihilate everything you hold close to your heart. To take it all away from you and never give it back. To diminish you. To force you into submission. It will burn down everything until nothing but it remains. Until you finally give up and gather the courage to show it respect.
Even saying 'I don't know how to respect you the way you deserve it' is a very good first step in establishing the connection. Even saying 'I wish I could accept and include you into my heart' is enough. What matters is that you are being honest. The Shadow can smell bullshit before you even shat it. There is no way around. No negotiation. You either level with it - or you burn.
Once You earn its Trust and you become a team that operates together as One... The true innocence of your Being will start shining through. There will be no Darkness. No Shadow. Only one Being loving fearlessly whatever arises. Purity. Honesty. Courage. 
Love and Respect.
 
 
 

Is that possible to feel anxious in every day life as an enlightened person?
 I took my practices to the next level lately but it also increased the contraction/my anxiety in my body..Or maybe now I’m just more aware of that.
When I rest in being it all disappears but when I try to function some complicated stuff I get lost in my mind again and get anxious.
Thanks for the help..

My intention in this post is to make a super helpful pointer. I'll see how I go though.
What attachment seems to be?
Its simple. Its the assumption that some object, state of consciousness, or thing has happiness in it, and if we don't have that thing we are unhappy, but if we have that thing, we are happy.
This runs deep, this isnt limited to the fools who chase money and sex. Infinite love realization and states of consciousness are attachments, because if you aint in the right state of consciousness, you aren't happy.
It runs even deeper. Unconditional happiness is an attachment, because if you aren't unconditionally happy, then you aren't happy. The happiness is assumed to be in the "unconditional" state.
What the world seems to be?
The world is a place divided into things that make you happy, and things that make you not happy. We chase the things that make you happy, while avoid the things that make you not happy.
This runs deep, we chase altered states of consciousness, we chase attaining unconditional happiness, we chase meditation, etc.
In this world there is time, and a future. We plan to get stuff in the future, like attaining enlightenment. Like attaining 0 attachments in the future. We strive towards it.
What actually makes you happy?
Clearly 0 attachments.
But what is 0 attachments?
0 attachments is literally being purely happy. Just being happy. That's it. 0 attachments means your happiness doesn't come from awakening, altered states of consciousness, enlightenment, meditation, psychedelics, insights, knowing how the universe works, pure unknowing, having an ego, having no ego, being self realized, "getting it", telling people whether they are awake or not, telling people whether you're more awake then them, classifying people, judgment, hatred.
When do you have 0 attachments?
When you are purely happy. That feeling of someone loving you, you achieving something great, a wedding, being in the flow state, etc. There is no happiness located anywhere, or to be achieved in the future, its just there. Purely happy. You aren't awake when you're happy. You're just normal.
Everyone can have 0 attachments if they wanted to. Not just awakened or enlightened beings. Everyone has periods of time in their life when they have 0 attachments, even the ones that are the most miserable. The flow state is a great example.
So What Actually IS The World Then?
The world is a place where you can see what it actually is, or you can not see what it actually is, and be deluded. If there's a rope on the ground, you can choose to see that rope as a snake, or as a rope. By choosing to see it as a snake you suffer. By choosing to see it as a rope, you don't.
The world actually is unbounded, completely unconditional happiness. If you don't see that, its simply because you are not looking at the world, you are looking at delusion. And that's the whole game you're playing. Trying to see what the world actually  is, and all spiritual work amounts to that.
Actually that's not what your spiritual work amounts to, that's what everything you do amounts to.
So What Actually IS Attachment Then?
We divide ego tricks into lots of different categories and flavors. But the truth is, there's only 1 ego trick that's been playing you your entire life. And that ego trick is, really believing that happiness is located in something.
The mourning you go through over the loss of a family member, or over the loss of an awakening(if you've had those awakenings that make you mourn and grieve) or psychedelic experiences, is literally, and only, caused by this 1 ego trick.
Its caused purely from the belief that happiness is in something.
If you get a thought that says "but that can't be true, because I've felt pain before and it hurts, it can't just be an attachment" ~ notice that the whole reason why you believe that thought, is because you believe there's happiness in it. That's why you're taking that thought seriously.
The reason why you take any thought seriously is because you believe there's happiness in the thought. That's literally attachment. That's literally the ego trick outlined above.
Real happiness is not contained within any thoughts. It is prior to every single thought.
So What Do You Make of This?
The game of life is officially complete, when you realize that happiness is prior to everything. Its prior to awakenings, its prior to realizations, its prior to being enlightened, its prior to realizing love.
And its prior to every single attachment you have.
So Why Is Meditation and Yoga Important?
Because meditation and yoga are the only times when you are happy for the sake of it. Not happy because you're in an altered state of consciousness, or because you've reached some samadhi state, or because you're awake, or because you're enlightened, or because you're more awake and better then others.
So Why Aren't I happy when its so simple?
Because you deliberately, while unintentionally, choose to pick your attachments over happiness. If you had a car crash and lost an arm, and you were resisting the state you were in hard, and I told you to just be happy, you'd say NO! Because you just lost an arm. Its not that you can't be happy, its that you're deliberately choosing not to.
Hello, that's why you aren't awake. Hello, you're going to keep going on the spiritual path until you realize that if that happened to you, you will choose to be happy. Because the alternative to that is falling for the 1 ego trick outlined above, and you will not be 100% satisfied in life, and will keep striving for happiness on the path, until you have 0 attachments because that's literally the only game you're playing.
You can choose happiness over your attachments. The problem is you don't want to.
Your end game is not awakening, infinite love realization, or anything like that. Your end game is flow state 24/7. Whether you're enlightened, a human, a duck, a cat, a retard, a deluded fool, a psychotic person, an insane person, a cu**, someone with a bad history, it doesn't matter what you are, what you want is 24/7 flow state.
So What actually IS the truth?
The truth literally is, deliberately choosing to be purely happy, deliberately choosing to get what you purely want, devoid of putting that in objects, states of consciousness, awake vs non awake dualities, putting it in the whole idea of non duality, putting it in enlightenment or infinite love or anything else.
What you have always wanted, was to be happy, and what you have been doing your entire life, is deliberately choosing not to be happy.