Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind

by Shaila Catherine

Learn how to overcome distraction in meditation practice and develop clarity in your relationships, work, and activities with this new guide from a beloved meditation teacher.

The mind can be a potent tool, used to guide extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and incline your spiritual path toward peace and awakening. But the mind can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives. Even the Buddha tells us that before his enlightenment, he sometimes found his mind preoccupied by thoughts connected with sensual desire, ill will, and harm. But he figured out how to respond to thoughts skillfully and developed a step-by-step approach to calm the restless mind. Now, Insight Meditation teacher Shaila Catherine offers an accessible approach to training the mind that is guided by the Buddha’s pragmatic instructions on removing distracting thoughts. Drawing on two scriptures in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha , Shaila shows you how to overcome habitual modes of thinking, develop deeper concentration, and discover the insights into emptiness that are vital for a liberating spiritual path.

Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the

1. Replace unwholesome thoughts with wholesome thoughts. For example, if you find yourself thinking thoughts of ill will toward a person, try thinking instead of their good qualities as an antidote.

2. Examine the dangers of distracting thoughts. Weigh the costs of allowing thoughts of ill will, lust, greed, and so forth to obsess your mind. The costs of dwelling on distracting thoughts nearly always outweigh any supposed benefits.

3. Avoid it, ignore it, forget it. Develop the skill to turn your attention away from habitual distractions. Remove the fuel and let the fires of distraction die out.

4. Investigate the causes of distraction. By understanding the conditions that perpetuate habitual thoughts, you can learn to free yourself from those patterns.

5. Apply determination and resolve. Supported by wisdom, you can make a firm decision to stop dwelling on patterns of thought that are not supporting your deepest values and goals in life.

Each chapter includes exercises and reflections to help you cultivate the five steps to deeper concentration. You’ll learn about your mind and develop your ability to direct your attention more skillfully in meditation and daily activities.

And ultimately, you’ll discover for yourself how these five steps boil down to one key In the moment you recognize that a thought is just a thought, you will find yourself on the path to a life of remarkable freedom.

Genres: Buddhism, Meditation, Nonfiction

231 pages, Paperback

Published May 3, 2022

About the author

Shaila Catherine has been practicing meditation since 1980, with more than eight years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has taught since 1996 in the USA, and internationally. Shaila has dedicated several years to studying with masters in India, Nepal and Thailand, completed a one year intensive meditation retreat with the focus on concentration and jhana. She has extensive experience with the practice of metta, including seven months exploring metta as the meditation subject in retreats. In recent years, Shaila had continued her study of jhana and insight with the guidance of Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw of Burma.

Reviews

[Matthew Hahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Shaila Catherine's other books are written with a serious or advanced practitioner in mind, Beyond Distraction seems to be written for the beginning meditator or those who struggle principally with the hindrance of restlessness-and-worry. The discussion and practices recommended are perfect for contending with distracting or troublesome thoughts both on and off the cushion. Shaila does not overwhelm the reader with technical Buddhist or Pali terms, making it a great book to give to people still relatively new to the Dharma or meditation practice. I have already given it as a gift to somebody.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many things are easier said than done. The five steps detailed is this book are certainly in that category. Catherine "dumbs down" (no disrespect whosoever) Buddhist teachings to show how it may be possible, even in today's frantic world, to achieve equanimity. The five steps are relatively simple and. compatible with Christian grounded meditation which I practice. I found the five suggestions to be helpful tools but certainly not a fast cure for a busy mind.

[Kant the Conqueror · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book on an important meditation topic. But this book is not important. It could have been an email. No, that's too harsh. But a nice and concise paper. But then, there is no money in writing a paper. So you string anecdote after anecdote until you have a book. I find Catherine's 'Wisdom wide and deep' and 'Focused and fearless' to be much better.

[MettaJu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am immensely enjoying this book by Shaila Catherine. I am a meditation student of hers and have attended her classes. She does a wonderful job here describing the Buddhist teachings around working with distracting thoughts that take us away from the path to insight and concentration. She organizes and presents the material in a very easily digestible way, offering stories, examples, summaries, and exercises to try. It is a very powerful read, and I am so grateful for her work. I plan to read it more than once.

[Evgeniya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Хорошо написана, полезные практики, но очень много воды и Буддизма..

[Rolin · Rating 3 out of 5]

some sections are repetitive, some are disconnected and hard to follow

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Will be rereading.

[Lil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The clarity of her writing is a terrifyingly mindful experience.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

All good advice, but a bland, unexceptional guide to Buddhist meditation