Sayadaw: When we use a single object, we need to hold it loosely. The key is balance, really.
When we look at a single object, we start to get a little intense in the way we get into it. It is because we don’t notice the way the mind is working to place itself on the object again and again.
If we were simply placing the attention again and again, we’ll be fine, but what we start to do is press the mind onto the object or get into the object. It’s all to do with the amount of energy we use.
If you can see how the mind uses its energy – how much the mind is paying attention and how it is paying attention – if you’re looking at an object and you can also see how it is looking at the object, you start to notice when this much attention is starting to cause some tension and then you back off.
The energy gets too much when we’re always too much into the object. If we don’t know how the mind is attending to the object, then we easily tense up or lose the object.
When we can gauge our energy, we can be more skillful at practicing.
Yogi: I begin to notice that the awareness is also very helpful in the concentration practice. The mind can become quite still even when it is open to many objects. That’s surprising.
Sayadaw: We often have the wrong idea that trying to concentrate is what concentrates the mind.
It is never actually that trying to concentrate is what concentrates the mind, even in using a single object – it is actually having the right attitude that helps the mind to become still.
If we don’t have the right attitude when even watching a single object, the mind is like ‘oh, why can’t I get it, why can’t I get it’; it won’t settle down. And understanding that is a kind of wisdom – understanding that letting things take their own time is the understanding that helps you not only in vipassana practice but also in samatha practice because it stills the mind.