Changes

97 bytes added , 09:35, 17 January 2023

==Concentration on an Object==

When I give you a thought it is simply to help you to concentrate.... There are schools which put an object in front of you, a flower or a stone, or any object, and then you sit around it and concentrate on it and your eyes go like this (''Mother squints'') until you become the object. That too is a method of concentration. By gazing steadily like that, without moving, you finally pass into the thing you are gazing at. But you must not begin to gaze at all kinds of things: only gaze steadily at that. That gives you a look... it makes you squint. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/27-august-1958#p34</ref>

==Concentration on a Thought or Word==

''Q.''Sweet Mother, when we concentrate on one of your photos—there are many photos, each one with a different expression—does it make a difference for us, the one on which we concentrate?''

''A.'' If you do it purposely, yes, of course. If you choose this photo for a particular reason or that other one for another reason, surely. It has an effect. It is as though you were choosing to concentrate on one aspect of the Mother rather than another; for example, if you choose to concentrate on Mahakali or Mahalakshmi or on Maheshwari, the results will be different. That part of you which answers to these qualities will awaken and become receptive. So, it is the same thing. But somebody who has only one photo, whichever it may be, and concentrates, without choosing this one or that, because he has only one, then it is of no importance which one it is. For the fact of concentrating on the photograph puts one in contact with the Force, and that is what is necessary in the case of everyone who responds automatically.

However, there are two methods, and this is what I am going to explain to you. In both cases, one must practise as one does in individual meditation, that is, sit in a position at once comfortable enough for one to be able to keep it and yet not too comfortable for one to fall asleep in it! And then you do what I had asked you to do while I used to go for the distribution over there, [Every evening, before meditation or the talks, Mother used to distribute groundnuts to the children of the "Green Group", in the adjoining playground.] that is, prepare for the meditation, try to become calm and silent; not only to avoid chattering outwardly, but to try to silence your mind and gather your consciousness which is dispersed in all the thoughts you have and your preoccupations; to gather it, bring it back within yourself as completely as possible and concentrate it here, in the region of the heart, near the solar plexus, so that all the active energies in the head and all that keeps the brain running, may be brought back and concentrated here. This can be done in a few seconds, it can take a few minutes: that depends on each one. Well, this is a preparatory attitude. And then, once this is done—or done as well as you can do it—you may take two attitudes, that is, an active attitude or a passive attitude.

What I call an active attitude is to concentrate on—I shall put it in general terms—on the person who is directing the meditation, with the will to open and receive from him what he intends to give you or the force with which he wants to put you into contact. That is active, for here there is a will at work and an active concentration to open yourself to someone, a concentration on someone.

The other one, the passive one is simply this: to be concentrated as I have told you, then you open yourself as one opens a door; you see, you have a door here (''gesture at the level of the heart'') and once you are concentrated, you open the door and stay like this (''gesture of immobility''). Or else, you may take another image, as if it were a book, and you open your book very wide with its pages completely blank, that is, quite silent, and you stay like that waiting for what is going to happen. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/7-february-1957#p6,p7,p8 </ref>

==Movement of the Centre of Consciousness==

''Q. What is the difficulty in keeping … a concentration for all the 24 hours?''

''A.'' The physical being is always fatigued when it is asked to keep a lasting concentration. The concentration can be kept constantly but not by mental decision. It must be a divine decision. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/16-august-1932#p7</ref>

''Q. When one wants to concentrate, why do all kinds of thoughts come which never came before?''

''A.''Perhaps they came and you did not know it! Perhaps it is because you want to concentrate that you become aware that they are there. It may also happen that there is an element of contradiction in the consciousness and that when you want to be silent, something says, "No, I won't be silent!" <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/8-september-1954#p30</ref>

This [''stream of thoughts/restless thinking''] is what we call the activity of the mind, which always comes in the way of the concentration and tries to create doubt and dispersion of the energies. It can be got rid of in two ways, by rejecting it and pushing it out, till it remains as an outside force only—by bringing down the higher peace and light into the physical mind. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/combining-work-meditation-and-bhakti#p36</ref> <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/mental-difficulties-and-the-need-of-quietude#p1 </ref>

It [''the tendency to fall asleep during meditation''] is a common obstacle with all who practise Yoga at the beginning. This sleep disappears gradually in two ways—(1) by the intensifying of the force of concentration—(2) by the sleep itself becoming a kind of swapna samadhi in which one is conscious of inner experiences that are not dreams (i.e. the waking consciousness is lost for the time, but it is replaced not by sleep but by an inward conscious state in which one moves in the supraphysical of the mental or vital being). <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p102 </ref>

Concentration in the heart is one method, concentration in the head (or above) is another; both are included in this Yoga and one has to do whichever one finds easiest and most natural. The object of the concentration in the heart is to open the centre.

'''Content curated by Manoj Pavitran and Divyanshi Chugh'''

{|class="wikitable" style= "background-color: #efefff; width: 100%;"

Archana

Interface administrators, Administrators

4,400

edits

Changes

Concentration Compilation (view source)

Revision as of 09:35, 17 January 2023