My main teacher Shinzen Young has a category of factors that he calls “accelerators” that are conditions or practices that can increase the challenging intensity of our meditation experience, but can also strengthen and deepen our mindfulness skills more rapidly. Accelerators are like high-intensity workouts for developing our powers of stable focused concentration, vivid high resolution perception, and friendly open awareness, in the same way that running up a steep hill or accurately playing musical scales twice as fast as normal are more difficult than usual running or musical practice, but doing so builds skill and strength more rapidly.
Some examples of meditation practice accelerators are sitting meditation:
- for longer than we are used to and/or longer than we are comfortable with (including and especially sitting a dedicated retreats that involves meditating hours each day)
- while staying absolutely still, without shifting posture or moving at all
- while exposing oneself to a painful or otherwise unpleasant stimuli, like being in a noisy environment, feeling unusually hot, while looking at pictures one finds disturbing, or feeling pain after a surgery
- while exposing oneself to and trying to ignore temptingly pleasant stimuli, like music one enjoys, or something one sometimes behaves addictively with
- while feeling notably emotional
- while fatigued, sleepy, and having difficulty staying awake
- while in motion, interacting with other people, watching TV, or otherwise while out living normal life where it is more difficult to stay conscious and concentrated
In sum, there are specific challenges that we can take on that push the envelope of our meditation practice and that can help us to grow in our meditation skills more rapidly and get more value from each meditation practice minute we invest. We certainly don’t need to meditate with such challenges each time we sit, but taking them on at least at times can be nourishing for our practice.