Traditionally, the practice of mindfulness has played an important role in Buddhism. The Buddha called mindfulness the one way to achieve the end of suffering. The four applications of mindfulness continue to play an important role in the practice of Buddhist meditation to this very day. You will recall that we traced the origins of meditation all the way back to the Indus Valley civilization. Meditation, or concentration, has nothing to do with frenzy or torpor, much less with a semiconscious or comatose state.
Concentration is merely the practice of focusing the mind single-pointedly on an object.
This object can be either physical or mental. Most of us have had intimations of this kind of state of mind in our everyday lives. Occasionally, something approaching single-pointedness of mind occurs spontaneously, when listening to a piece of music or watching the sea or sky. At such times you may experience a moment when the mind remains single-pointedly absorbed in an object, sound, or form. Concentration can be practiced in a number of ways.