Mind Focusing in Meditation

What then, should we be focusing our mind on? Any object or subject will do, but the simpler the better, especially in the early stages. As you progress through your meditation skills, you will find many examples of suitable subjects and objects for your mind focusing.
Those people who do not practice meditation can be forgiven for believing they might be better employed doing something useful and creative instead. However, once you begin to practice meditation (reading about it is useful but not enough), you will find that your ability to focus your mind is progressively developed. So, rather than suppresing creativity and the imagination for your mind focusing, meditation will enhance them.
People might also be forgiven at this stage for wondering what the difference is between the mind focusing of meditation and the mind focusing required for less noble activities. To make the point with an extreme and slightly facetious comparison, let us compare meditation with the act of creeping around a house with a view to burglary. It is true that something like burglary requires total alertness and mind focusing, but there are differences. The concentration of burglary is a state of high tension, easily diverted by any sudden threat of discovery. It is adrenaline based and therefore accompanied by increased heartbeat and nervous tension. It is not motivated by compassion or high ethics, and after the act, burglars are probably totally exhausted. Emotions will be elated if sufficient booty was gathered, or depressed if it was insufficient. Either way, equanimity of mind will elude the burglar.
Meditation will bring physiological and emotional results exactly opposite to the mind focusing of burglary. The mind focusing of meditation will move us towards patience, clarity, compassion and wisdom, and away from resistance, distractness, indifference and overreaction.