• TEACHINGS BY WINNIE NAZARKO  • The word “concentration” can have many associations. It’s useful to examine a common one, and see how it pertains, or doesn’t , to meditation. Often when people think about “concentration,” they envision someone with a screwed up face straining to do something, or make something happen. There is strong effort, but its being made with a kind of tightness and contraction, even desperation. This is not the kind of effort that will optimally support the development of Wise Concentration. Skillful effort to unify the mind needs to incorporate resolve and energy, it’s true. But…

• TEACHINGS BY WINNIE NAZARKO  • An Interview with Winnie Nazarko (This interview was recorded at BCBS in fall 2015; visit the BCBS website to watch the video: www.bcbsdharma.org/article/long-retreats-selfie-sticks-and-the-five-faculties) IJ: Maybe we can start by talking about your own practice. Do you find that practice changes much from day to day, week to week, or month to month? WN: There’s some variation. Since I did a retreat a few years ago with Pa Auk Sayadaw, that great concentration master, I often include periods of jhāna practice, where I work directly with the breath and with material jhānas, and perhaps go…