When I first sat down to meditate 31 years ago, I tried to concentrate. That's what the book said, that's what I tried to do. That's what most people thought the word meditation meant, to concentrate. Wrong.
When we use the word 'meditation' in our normal retreat we interchange it with the words 'mental development'. As far as the scriptures go there is really no word that I know of in Pali language, which gets translated into meditation. However, there is a phrase, 'Citta Bhavana'. Citta means mind-heart, Bhavana means development. Mental development, this is a phrase that is really what the Buddha was talking about. When we think of mental development, if you remember back when I was talking about walking meditation, and when I talked about the breathing awareness, I said it doesn't matter if your mind goes off, it's normal. We are going to recognize where it is, we are going to try to know the reality of each moment. This is the type of meditation practice that we are teaching, a mental development practice that is for 24 hours a day.
So if you cannot concentrate, that's OK, but you've to know that you cannot concentrate. Then you start again, and if your mind goes off again, that's fine. If you get lost 30 times in 30 minutes, you know what most people think? "That was terrible. I'm crummy, I can't concentrate!" However, in our practice, if you get lost 30 times you have 30 chances to get angry, or you have 30 chances to note "lost, lost, thinking, thinking", whatever. You have 30 chances then to come back gently, to return to your meditation subject again. You have 30 chances to try to develop your mind in a wise way, in your reaction to your lack of concentration.
Somebody sits down in the hall and they stay on their breath for 40 minutes, a long time! It's peaceful, blissful, all this and that, the concentration is very good. Somebody sitting next to them coughs. It distracts them, it disturbs their meditation and they are out of it. They get angry, thinking, "they should leave the hall, they are coughing. They should go away, they are bothering me". That's one meditator. They can concentrate really well for 45 minutes and they get angry when someone is coughing.
Another type of meditator sits down and tries to be on the breath, gets lost, notes it, comes back, gets lost, notes it, comes back, 40 times in the 40 minutes. It's ok, they are just noting, coming back, they are just doing the work, having a good reaction and patience, compassion, understanding, equanimity, persistence, all good stuff. Somebody next to them coughs. They note "hearing, hearing" and they come back and start again. That's a good meditator, that's the person we would like to see. It's a person who can react to life's experiences without getting upset. So as the question says, "I don't know if I'm in the state of meditation, I need to know if I'm doing it right". You're right with your meditation if your reactions are gentle, if you are aware, if you are developing the ability to know what is present. That's more important than just getting concentrated and feeling happy or tranquil.