On Concentration - The Bugs (Part One)

 

 

"Concentration is a question of persistent, persevering endeavour. It does not become fruitful in a day. It is not a process which at once gives results overnight. In the beginning it is a very unpleasant and painful process."
(Swami Sri Chidananda)

     

 

From time to time a seeker comes to me with a thrilling question enveloped by a sincere need to understand. One such question revolves around the matter of focus or what we sometimes refer to in yoga as concentration. How does one keep the mind focused and keep it from wandering? The answer is ‘concentration’, which is also said to be the very threshold of real yoga and a prerequisite for meditation, without which, Knowledge of the Self may not be possible. So the seeker is really after Self-Knowledge when posing the question, which is why it is so thrilling.

 

There are two kinds of concentration (but don’t let it confuse you) – in one the consciousness is directed to the outside (like the fine details of your job or sport, etc., or some object like a dot or a flower) and the other is directed inwards towards aspects of your inner being. It is the latter kind of concentration that if continued over time leads to meditation (although we will spend most of our time now with the former which will gear you up for the latter). The Sanskrit word for concentration is Dharana and for meditation it is Dhyana.

 

If you try to sit still and focus your mind on one item outside of you (concentrate) it quickly becomes apparent that the mind is a very difficult thing to control. It tends to go all over the place. This way and that way all the time. So how does one even begin focusing it? If, for example you concentrate on a flower – a single item - this concentration is a focusing of all consciousness on the flower to the exclusion of all other things. That is concentration. Closing the eyes and continuing the focus on the inner picture is even more difficult. But if you can achieve it then you should know that concentration is much more focused than meditation; where you permit your mind to experience everything and anything related to the flower (but nothing unrelated). Concentration keeps the flower and only the flower as the object of experience. Meditation lets you incorporate and stew over all aspects related to the flower while not losing the focal focus of the flower.

 

But we know only too well that the mind wanders and that it takes effort to stop it from wandering, as though the mind almost has this reluctance to stick to a single thing, like it needs to keep moving. Try sitting very still without moving one muscle. Even that is difficult. Try closing the eyes and having no movement of the eyeballs. That seems almost impossible. And it is difficult because we lack focus. We lack concentration.

 

But where does it wander to and how can you find this out? Well, one foolproof way is to try and keep it from wandering, even for only a minute. Immediately it will rebel. And you'll notice that it rebels with certain distracting thoughts. And powerful ones at that, and it is almost impossible not to latch onto and follow these thoughts because they are so compelling. Yoga suggests that we examine these powerfully distracting thoughts to identify them as the culprits of your distraction to concentration.

 

And there’s the rub . . .

 

If you examine them you will notice that these distracting thoughts are those most representative of the single attachment you hold dear above all others; that which you hold so dear because of your inner conviction that this one thing (or its absence) will provide you with whatever it is you believe to be productive of your pleasure or your happiness, or its complete opposite - the top fears and concerns you have.

 

And so it seems we are locked into our mental prisons and kept chained there by our very own desires, making it impossible for us to concentrate, thus to meditate and thereby gain Self-Knowledge. Scary, eh? Fortunately Yoga recognizes this and suggests that to escape our bondage we need to let go our desires. But how?

 

There are many ways, and in the next writing we will look at some of the ways to help us with focus (or concentration).

 

Namaste.

 

 

 

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