Asish

“Concentration is the lens. It produces the burning intensity necessary to see into the deeper reaches of the mind. Mindfulness selects the object hat the lens will focus on and looks through the lens to see what is there.”
― Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English

“Too much
awareness without calm to balance it will result in a wildly over-sensitized state similar to
abusing LSD. Too much concentration without a balancing ratio of awareness will result
in the 'Stone Buddha' syndrome. The meditator gets so tranquilized that he sits there like
a rock. Both of these are to be avoided.”
― Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English

“In many other spheres, including social media, we too often present an artificial, “Botoxed” version of ourselves: an image not of who we are but of how we would like to be perceived by others. “What we have with the internet is sort of a Botox for the masses,” Peter said. “We have just lost this capacity to be real, which is fundamentally what makes us human, and what makes us feel connected to each other.”
― Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

“Mindfulness is a broader and larger function than concentration. it is an all-encompassing
function. Concentration is exclusive. It settles down on one item and ignores everything
else. Mindfulness is inclusive. It stands back from the focus of attention and watches with
a broad focus, quick to notice any change that occurs. If you have focused the mind on a
stone, concentration will see only the stone. Mindfulness stands back from this process,
aware of the stone, aware of the concentration focusing on the stone, aware of the
intensity of that focus and instantly aware of the shift of attention when concentration is
distracted. It is mindfulness which notices the distraction which has occurred, and it is
mindfulness which redirects the attention to the stone.”
― Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English