06/07/2025
Integrating Concentration and Insight Practices
After waking from a nap, I lay down again to meditate, resuming my concentration and insight practices. Concentration involves focusing my mind with all my strength and heart, which helps to gather a scattered mind. Insight involves focusing my awareness solely on my breath, without thinking about anything else. This is the Buddha's method of meditation. Breathing is analogous to "wind," or the subtle energy of the mind. By directing my awareness to my breathing, I can keep my mind centered. Through repeated practice of concentration and insight, meditation deepens, and I can feel internal energy rising.
Then, while maintaining clear consciousness, I was able to leave my body. As the Buddha said, drowsiness can be an obstacle to meditation. With my astral body, I floated upward in a cross-legged posture and surveyed the room. I saw a white light shining outside the dimly lit room; it might have been the clear light. After a while, I ended the out-of-body experience.
