Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

The Concentration Algorithm

With Toby Sola recorded on May 4, 2025.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

Discover a “concentration algorithm” that transforms your practice. Instead of fighting distractions, this approach teaches you to work with them skillfully.

When your concentration wavers, notice what captured your attention, then make that distraction your new meditation object. This process reveals two valuable insights: first, that any sensory experience can serve as a meditation anchor beyond just the breath; and second, it helps you identify which objects your mind naturally gravitates toward, making sustained concentration more accessible in future sessions.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Daigan Gaither

    Bodhisattva Practice

    Using the hagiography of the Bodhisattvas of Compassion, Wisdom, and Activity, let’s explore how to bring those ideals into our everyday life off the cushion. What can these perfections of compassion, wisdom and activity teach us about our own journey to practice-realization, and liberation.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of March 29, 2021

    This week’s theme is: Re-Enchanting Our Practice. As much as anything else our practice of mindfulness and meditation can become a habit, and either turn dull, or come with a sense of obligation, work, or duty. In this week together, we will explore ways to bring imagination, embodiment, and intimacy to our practice. After all, meditation is as much a craft as an artform – a chance to discover inner landscapes, hidden mysteries and fascinating insights.

    As much as anything else our practice of mindfulness and meditation can become a habit and either turn dull or come with a sense of obligation, work or duty. In this week together, we will explore ways to bring imagination, embodiment, and intimacy to our practice. After all, meditation is as much a craft as an art form – a chance to discover inner landscapes, hidden mysteries and fascinating insights.

    Read More

  • Christelle Bonneau

    Body and space / matter and consciousness.

    How can we become more grounded and more intimate with ourselves while becoming more spacious and free from endless random mental chatter? Let’s explore in the ways in which the body is such a precious help for meditation practice and in mindfulness in everyday life. Let’s explore as well the central role of space, emptiness,…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Christopher Titmuss – Week of 17 February, 2025

    We’re delighted to have Christopher Titmuss guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May they support and deepen your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Deep Psychology Of Karma

    Join us as we explore the Buddha’s profound teachings on karma (kamma in Pali), a central aspect of Buddhist teaching that’s often misunderstood or overlooked. Christopher will guide us in examining karma not through abstract theory, but through our own direct experience and practice.

    Together, we’ll investigate the intimate connection between our intentions, actions, and their results – both in meditation and daily life. We’ll look deeply into what creates binding patterns of karma, both wholesome and unwholesome, and discover what actions can free us from these patterns altogether.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Nikki-Mirghafori

    Equanimity: Crown Jewel of Buddhist Practice

    What is equanimity, and how does it differ from indifference? What different forms and subtleties of equanimity are presented in various Buddhist teachings, often occupying the prestigious last spot on the lists? How does equanimity relate to love and compassion? For what reasons should one pursue the development of equanimity for one’s own benefit, the…

    Read More

  • James Baraz

    Celebrating earth day: calling all Eco-Sattvas.

    With Earth Day here, James reflects on the preciousness and generosity of our wonderful planet, the current situation of climate change and how our Dharma practice can help us transform despair into meaningful and inspiring action.

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 21, 2022

    This week’s topic is: Harmonising Our Life. The Buddha’s wisdom highlights how we often live entangled in stress and distress. The earliest mentions of this disharmonious state called it being in an argument with life. Dharma teachings invite us away from habitual rigidity and reactivity into a responsive and harmonising release. This week we will uncover deeper and more creative ways of attuning to life that support inner and outer freedom and well-being.

    Read More

  • Kaira Jewel Lingo

    Staying Open Through Change, Loss and Disruption

    When we are faced with suffering and uncertainty or life becomes overwhelming we can tense up, resist or try to control. But when we open and let go in the midst of change and release expectations we get in touch with enormous possibility and a powerful freedom.

    Read More