People who discuss meditation often imply that concentration on something, such as a word or an object or one's breath is the point. That may be but it doesn't right to me. Minds wander, attention wanders and the body supplies impulses to move and does move all the time. The heart beats, the lungs fill and empty.
You know we come from animal life in the jungle and forest and savannah. You know that there are animals that also live there and some of them may be outraged that we enter their territory or frightened that we exist. It is just biologically fundamental to stay alert and to be aware when others of our species or any other are near. Animals move so at one time, there are no grizzlies around but that is not a permanent situation. It makes sense for our minds to take a quick check of our surrounding every so often.
It would be dangerous to develop our concentration to the point that we aren't alert to sounds, smells and sights that we need to recognize. I have read that the #1 reason people give for not practicing meditation is that their minds wander. They try to pay attention to some anchor like their breath but then they find themselves wondering why the Packers lost or what to fix for dinner. Instead of performing the difficult move of forgiving themselves and returning to their chosen anchor, they conclude, wrongly, that they aren't Hindu or Japanese, not Buddhist or Zen material, and drop their venture into knowing themselves better.
I call that a mistake and a loss for the concluder, since not knowing oneself and not seeing the complexity and beauty of one's mind and memories and feelings, they return to soap operas or basketball. Soaps and sports have their place, of course, but the fundamental person also deserves some close attention and yes, admiration.
Keeping the attention on an explicitly chosen target, for just 5 to 10 minutes a day, increases one's awareness of thoughts and impulses zipping through the mind. Putting off taking them up emphasizes the possibility of deciding when, where and how to consider them later if desired.
