How To Focus | Shaila Catherine

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Dan Harris, Health & Fitness, Mindfulness, Dharma, Mental Health, Meditation

4.6 • 12.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2022

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many of us find our minds flitting all over the place, in meditation and elsewhere. In today’s episode we’re going to learn practical techniques for boosting concentration on and off the cushion. This is the second episode in a two-part series on focus we are airing this week.

Today’s guest is an Olympic-level concentrator who has tons of tips for staying focused. We also talk about one of the more exotic meditation subjects: The altered states of consciousness called the jhanas that are available to advanced meditators who can attain deep states of concentration.

Shaila Catherine is the founder of Insight Meditation South Bay, a meditation group in Silicon Valley. She has been practicing meditation since 1980 and has more than nine years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She’s the author of Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity.

In this conversation, we talk about:

The basic building blocks of concentration in a meditation practice
Cultivating the right attitude for meditation
The difference between concentration and mindfulness
Whether ‘jhana’ states are attainable for regular people

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% happier podcast.
0:06.3	I'm Dan Harris.
0:10.0	Hey, hey, it's part two of our week-long series on focus or the lack thereof.
0:17.8	If you missed it, go check out Monday's episode with the irrepressible Johann Hari, who talked
0:23.6	about why and how modern life saps our ability to concentrate and what we can do about it.
0:31.6	Today we're going to focus specifically on boosting concentration in meditation where
0:35.8	many of us might find our minds flitting all over the place, hither and thither.
0:41.8	My guest today is an Olympic level concentrator.
0:46.1	She probably will not like me describing her in this way, but it's pretty much true.
0:51.1	She has tons of tips for staying focused.
0:54.6	We also talk, once we get past the tips for us, newbie or mid-level meditators.
1:00.2	We also talk about one of my favorite exotic meditation subjects, the altered states of
1:06.3	consciousness called the janas, that's J-H-A-N-A, the janas that are apparently available
1:13.7	to advanced meditators who can attain super deep states of concentration.
1:20.4	I say apparently because I clearly have not ever personally been in one of these altered
1:26.0	states.
1:27.0	So I can't pound the table and say for sure, these states exist based on direct experience,
1:31.4	but I am fascinated by this subject and we kind of go there toward the end of this interview.
1:36.4	Shaila Catherine is my guest.
1:38.1	She's the founder of Inside Meditation South Bay, a meditation group in Silicon Valley.
1:44.2	She's been practicing meditation herself since 1980 with more than nine years of accumulated
1:50.1	silent retreat experience.
	...

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