Insight does not depend only on effort or on strong concentration

If we concentrate on the pain to suppress the pain, this kind of mindfulness is the object of craving, rather than just observing the object.

This means that the proper mental factor for the middle path of mental balance is missing because our consciousness is turned toward our feelings of like and dislike. When we want pain to disappear, it is attachment, and when we dislike it if pain has not yet disappeared, it is aversion.

Should the pain disappear as we desired, there follows further attachment. Such practice is not the correct application of mindfulness, and the awareness is not seeing clearly the 'present' object because we wish it to be different in the future.

If it is not the 'present' object which we are aware of, then the practice is off the middle path. We can see that establishing the balance of the middle path is not easy.

For this reason, it is of extreme importance to have right understanding first. We must see that insight does not depend only on effort or on strong concentration.

Nor does it depend upon our wish to know or realize, but rather, it depends upon right awareness. If we do not achieve keen awareness, although we try to use much effort and concentration, wisdom still will not result.

- Ajahn Naeb "The Development of Insight"