When cultivating bhāvanā (meditation), naturally we have to be mindful of and focussed upon our meditation object; for instance 'Buddho', or the breath, or mettā; and so on...
However, if we try to exclusively focus only on the meditation object with all we've got, the effort quickly becomes ineffective, or even couterproductive.
Instead, while meditating, we always have to check out:
How our mind relates to the meditation object
How the mind relates to the process of meditating
How the mind feels while meditating
What effect meditation has on our mind: Do unwholesome states diminish, and wholesome states grow? Or does whatever I'm doing in my meditation actually cause unbeneficial mindstates to arise?
In other words, we always have to do Cittānupassanā ('Mindfulness of the Mind') to some extend, even if the primary focus of our meditation is an aspect of the body, or feelings, or some other kammaṭṭhāna (meditation object).
By the way, we've got playlists of our Visiting Teachers, Chanting, Guided Meditations and Sutta Explorations available on our Spotify Profile here:
https://open.spotify.com/user/8z4dmrysnbbnjtz9f0wzjgcre
Our Podcast is also available on our own Dhammagiri Website, no need for any special app, just listen in any browser:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/podcast
More about Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/news
Our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@dhammatalksatdhammagiri8724
Our email Newsletter:
https://www.dhammagiri.net/newsletter
.
