During my sit today, I wanted to see if I could fully concentrate on just one breath without any distraction... I don't think I did.Maybe one or two throughout the whole 30 min session.Distractions (gross and subtle) were rampant: sounds, sights (my eyes were open to help with sleepiness - it was early), images, thoughts, feelings, etc. continued to pull at me and I often followed them. My attention had to be constantly returned to the seemingly pointless hope of paying attention to just one breath!...It was the best sit I've had in a while.No big light show or anything, just good, solid practice.

The distractions I encountered seemed to function like a fire: if I gave them heat (my energy), oxygen (my attention), and fuel (my elaboration or intention to 'know'), they thrived (the train of thought proliferated); if I didn't, they withered and blew away.

At one point fairly early on, a spontaneous phrase entered my mind: "Listen to Nibbana"... not a word I 'claim' at all, but I took it as something like the "Silence" of Awareness that underpins and may fill the emptiness of self-insight. There was a brief moment of peace and clarity with this.