Hello.
I am a beginner meditator. I read “The Mind Illuminated” and try to meditate at least 10 minutes a day. At some days I have 30 minutes of meditation, on same days I have 0. I’ve done it for one month. And as I understand it, I’m somewhere between 2nd and 3rd stages on the map.
I have a following question:
According to the book It is OK to keep your breath somewhere inside a focus of your attention even if it is not the main object of your attention. I have problems with keeping my breathes in the center of my attention. So, I usually focused on some thoughts and I try to keep in my “sight” my breathes on the background and I return to them once in a several seconds. Is it right? Because I feel like I cheat myself thinking that I still focused on my attention when It is on the background.
So when I try to count my breathes and realize that I lost my breathes for several “breathing cycles” I start to count from zero. But when I not lost my breathes but keep then on the background instead of a center I can count up to 10 or even more. It is much much simpler then trying to keep them in the center.⋅
Thank you.