...as a general rule the child is not conscious of itself and doesn't know why or how to do things. That is the time to cultivate its attention, teach it to concentrate on what it does, give it a small basis sufficient for it not to be entirely like a little animal, but to belong to the human race through an elementary intellectual development. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/13-june-1956#p26 </ref>
==Aids to Concentration==
===Purity===
Purity and concentration are indeed two aspects, feminine and masculine, passive and active, of the same status of being; purity is the condition in which concentration becomes entire, rightly effective, omnipotent; by concentration purity does its works and without it would only lead to a state of peaceful quiescence and eternal repose. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/concentration#p2 </ref>
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...without purity the complete, equal, flexible concentration of the being in right thought, right will, right feeling or secure status of spiritual experience is not possible. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/concentration#p1</ref>
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...the two [purity and concentration] must proceed together, each helping the victory of the other, until we arrive at that eternal calm from which may proceed some partial image in the human being of the eternal, omnipotent and omniscient activity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/concentration#p1.</ref>
===Will===
[Will] is the capacity to concentrate on everything one does, do it as best one can and not stop doing it unless one receives a very precise intimation that it is finished. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/5/13-may-1953#p15</ref>
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...if one is oneself entirely concentrated in the will, I say that there is nothing in the world that can prevent one from doing it, from doing it or being obliged to do it. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/29-september-1954#p43</ref>
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The will, concentration must be cultivated; it is a question of method, of regular exercise. If you will, you can. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/23-december-1950#p8 </ref>
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Essentially, from the general point of view, particularly from the intellectual viewpoint, the most important thing is the capacity of attention and concentration, it is that which one must work at and develop. From the point of view of action (physical action), it is the will: you must work and build up an unshakable will. From the intellectual point of view, you must work and build up a power of concentration which nothing can shake. And if you have both, concentration and will, you will be a genius and nothing will resist you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/24-june-1953#p61 </ref>
===Quietude and Silence===
A constant babble of words seems to be the indispensable accompaniment to daily work. And yet as soon as one makes an effort to reduce the noise to a minimum, one realises that many things are done better and faster in silence and that this helps to maintain one's inner peace and concentration. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/the-four-austerities-and-the-four-liberations#p41 </ref>
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It is better to make the deeper concentration when you are alone or quiet. Outward sounds ought not to disturb you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p68</ref>
===Inner Readiness===
The best meditations are those that one has all of a sudden, because they take possession of you as an imperative necessity. You have no choice but to concentrate, to meditate, to look beyond the appearances. And it is not necessarily in the solitude of the forest that it seizes you, it happens when something in you is ready, when the time has come, when the true need is there, when the Grace is with you. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/miscellany#p22 </ref>
===Calmness ===
Be very careful to remain always calm and peaceful and let an integral equanimity establish itself more and more completely in your being. Do not allow your mind to be too active and to live in a turmoil, do not jump to conclusions from a superficial view of things; always take your time, concentrate and decide only in quietness. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/14/calm#p1 </ref>
===Receptivity===
I don’t think that [universal vital forces] have a limit, because in comparison with us they are certainly unlimited. But it’s our capacity of reception that is limited. We cannot absorb them beyond a certain measure, and then we must keep a balance between the expenditure and the capacity to receive. If one spends suddenly in a kind of impulse—for example, in an impulsive movement—if one spends much more than one has received, one needs a brief moment of concentration, calm, receptivity to absorb universal forces. You must put yourself in a certain condition to receive them; and then, they last for a certain time, and once you have spent them you must begin again to receive them. It is in this sense that there are limits. It isn’t the forces that are limited, it is the receptivity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/4-may-1955#p17 </ref>
===Perseverance===
One can concentrate on the different centres; but sometimes one concentrates for so long, with so much effort, and has no result. And then one day something shakes you, you feel that you are going to lose your footing, you have to cling on to something; then you cling within yourself to the idea of union with the Divine, the idea of the divine Presence, the idea of the transformation of the consciousness, and you aspire, you want, you try to organise your feelings, movements, impulses around this. And it comes. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/22-june-1955#p4 </ref>
===Effort===
In order to concentrate and meditate one must do an exercise which I could call the "mental muscle-building" of concentration. One must really make an effort―as one makes a muscular effort, for instance, to lift a weight―if you want the concentration to be sincere and not artificial. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/18-july-1956#p42 </ref>
==Developing Concentration in Different Parts of Being==