When there’s something in the future that we’ve got to get to, there’s tension. Things start to solidify; flexibility begins to dwindle. When there’s a strong sense of self-consciousness-“I am this, I’m not that; I wasn’t that, I will be this” – then there’s a tightening of one’s energies. When we defend ourselves from people, events, memories, and feelings, when we shut things out there’s tightening and stress. When we try to perform and make ourselves into something, there’s tightening and stress. When we compare and compete, there’s tightening and stress. 

So we begin to contemplate these unwholesome patterns and relinquish them. We can see how our lives work in terms of compartments….We create zones in which anything unwanted or unusual has been weeded out. This in turn creates a very rigid feeling. When something gets slightly out of pattern, we feel confused or upset. This is no way to live…..As long as a line exists, there will be position-taking, nervousness, winning, losing, etc. Since experiences are transitory, there will always be a slight sense either of holding on to or getting rid of the state one has attained, trying to increase it or decrease it. Samadhi [Centering or concentration] occurs when we move over that line. There’s participation in and enjoyment of experience. And as one learns to trust, one receives the blessings of that: what is good, what is conducive to the heart’s welfare, what gives joy. Receiving joy is another way to say enjoyment, and samadhi is the art of refined enjoyment. It is the careful collecting of oneself to the joy of the present moment. Joyfulness means there’s no fear, no tension, no ought to. There isn’t anything we have to do about it. It’s just this.

Ajahn Sucitto, Samadhi is Pure Enjoyment