CONCENTRATION

 

 CONCENTRATION

Some  have control over their minds. Others don’t have that control because, apart from other reasons, physical and psychological, they have not been trained to concentrate. With concentration a person understands a subject better. We somehow cannot get hold of all the aspects of things, whereas another person can. One person at once sees all the different bearings of a certain situation; another person cannot. What is the matter with the second person? His mind is not concentrated; he is not trained in attention. When you concentrate the mind, there is something that produces knowledge. Concentration will not produce the machine you are inventing, but it will produce knowledge, which afterwards you can set down on paper, or make a model of. It is concentration which suddenly brings out an explanation of a mysterious phenomenon. You have to worry over it, hold the mind there, hold it, hold it, and then suddenly something comes out. 

Swami Vivekananda says, “The main difference between men and the animals is the difference in their power of concentration. All success in any line of work is the result of this. Everybody knows something about concentration. We see its results every day. High achievements in art, music, etc., are the results of concentration. The difference in their power of concentration also constitutes the difference between man and man. Compare the lowest with the highest man. The difference is in the degree of concentration. This is the only difference.”

In the average college student, we do not find enough knowledge and enough efficiency. We ask, “What is the matter with the system of education?” The matter is that the art of concentration, of attention, is gone. There is too much scattering of the mind, too much scattering of life-energy. Unfortunately, we are living at a time when very little attention is being given to conservation. Everything is just expression, scattering out. The moment a person thinks of doing something, he does it. The moment he seeks pleasure, he indulges in it. But conservation is an important part of building up life; self-expression, selfmanifestation is the least of it. You take for granted that before a singer sings on stage, he or she has to train the voice for years and years. The same principle is applicable to every phase of life and every kind of life. We have to be prepared and trained. You find that an average schoolboy or a college student is perfect in selfindulgence and self-scattering; very few have learned the art of conservation. Conservation is not being an owl and sitting in one corner—though a good deal of that is necessary. You cannot spend all the evening watching movies, browsing internet without a purpose and roaming on the roads aimlessly and become a very concentrated person. Concentration requires a well-disciplined life.

Students complain so much about lack of concentration. “I have not the will-power to concentrate my mind,” they say. But if one is sincere, one surely has the will-power. But behind the will-power and vitality, the life force is not there. It is probably because the student is not eating well, or for some other reason his health might not have been good. Then one has to eat nourishing food well or take appropriate medical care. More often than not, it is the wrong usage of vital energy. The energy is expending itself in other directions.

What is vitality or vital energy or life-force? It is the energy because of which we are alive and because of which we move, do so many things, talk and even think. If it is not behind the eye, we cannot see. If it is not behind our hand, we cannot move it. If it is not behind a thought, we cannot think. So this force has to be tapped and directed in the proper and desired direction. You cannot have the vital energy to study and daydream at the same time. If you devote your energies to daydreaming, then you will have little left for study. You may say, “I have so much vital energy that I can study and also daydream at the same time. I can scatter it all around.” But that is not true. It has been found that if the vitality is in one direction then it is not available for the other. Vitality is behind the senses and the whole body that every part of the body is clamoring for satisfaction. And from there you have to drag the energy to the desired goal in view. The extent you are able to do this, is the amount of concentration you can achieve! The practice of concentration is absolutely necessary. Everybody has the ability to gain concentration, provided he is also willing to be patient. You really cannot make things happen just because you are impatient. Impatience is a state of mind which is to be condemned in every phase of existence.

Two factors which help develop concentration are: 1. Living a very restrained and disciplined life. 2. Regular practice of observing the ways of the mind If you are reading a book, command your mind that it should not hear a conversation going on a few feet away or listen to the noises in the street. When you are reading, read. Be in the present.  Some people do other practices. For instance, they will keep the attention of their eyes focused on one thing. They are aware of just that thing alone and of nothing else. They say that in such practices a correct posture is very helpful. The essential part of that posture is a straight backbone. Whether you sit cross-legged or sit in a chair, sit straight and do not let the spine touch anything. Of course that is completely against your idea of sitting, which is to recline against the back of the chair. You think that is quite legitimate. But, we think it is altogether wrong. First of all, the spine is not in a straight line, and next, the spine touches something, which it should not do. These are the basic steps

Especially, if you have children under your care, you should teach them concentration. When they eat, when they are playing, or when they are reading—when they are doing anything, insist on their giving their full mind to it. It is a dangerous habit children have been forming to have a television or a music system going on while they are studying. They will tell you that this helps in learning, makes it pleasant. Never, never allow the mind to become divided; whether you are eating dinner, or talking with somebody, or performing a job, or watching television or listening to music—whatever you do, make a habit of giving your full attention to it. That is an absolutely necessary thing. You will not know until you have trained yourself in this way what a tremendous difference it makes in your life. If you have trained an average child in the art of attention or concentration, you will find that he/she will grow up to be a stronger person. He/She will be able to control himself/herself. And as a result, the life of such a person will be much easier. We cannot say his/her life will be perfect, but it will certainly be much better because concentration is a great instrument. When you really concentrate, you will find that first of all the conscious mind comes there. Then you find your unconscious mind is coming up. All the things that are embedded in the unconscious mind, impressions of the past, conversations you thought important or significant, etc.,—all of them start coming up and take you on a tour. Suppose you are trying to concentrate on an image of the sun, you see the sky around it, then the clouds, then a picnic, then those who attended it and the car and then this and then the other thing. Gone! Your mind has taken you far away from the object of your concentration in a matter of seconds. The mind is scattered so rapidly that you will not even know how it has flitted by association from one thing to another. In one fraction of a second your mind has gone; there is no concentration. Then you have to bring the mind back and hold it there. “Hold it there and hold it there”. And continually try again and again. Then you will find you have succeeded a little. And you will gain in confidence. “I may have failed but if I try again I can bring out the strength I need to succeed, I have it in me”—this is selfconfidence. And one has to improvise like that. Moreover, do not for a moment have the idea that you will practice for a short time and then give up. Concentration is of a permanent nature. You need it all the time, as long as you live. If you take a bath everyday for twenty years and then say, “Oh! I have practiced cleanliness for this long. Now I shall enjoy the fruits of it,” and stop bathing, you know what happens. Your body stinks. Of course if you practice concentration for twenty years diligently there will definitely be some permanent effect on your mind and you will certainly enjoy its fruits. Nevertheless you cannot stop, because the mind can always unlearn anything. Be prepared to practice this everyday. Anything of eternal value must be approached with the idea of timelessness. You must say, “It is for all time and I will do it!”