About This Teaching
Ajahn Maha Boowa explains that many meditators fail because they lack a clear, specific focus. Simply watching the mind's knowing presence is too subtle to hold mindfulness, so the mind drifts after the kilesas (defilements) and practice becomes patchy, going well one day and collapsing the next.
He speaks from his own experience. Early on his samādhi felt as solid as a mountain, but he rested on that success and it declined. Concluding that his fundamentals were wrong, he started again, driving a stake firmly into the ground and holding on to it: the meditation word Buddho. He put aside all thoughts of progress and decline, noting that desire for success does not bring success; only mindful effort does.
He advises choosing one simple object, a meditation word or the breath, and committing to it completely. With the breath, attention rests where the sensation is clearest, such as the tip of the nose, perhaps with "Bud" on the in-breath and "Dho" on the out-breath. As the mind settles, the breath grows finer until it may disappear, leaving only the mind's knowing nature.