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'''Related pages{|class="wikitable" style= "background-color: #efefff; width:100%;"|Read more about ''' [[Yogic Concentration]] Compilation| [[MeditationConcentration]] ''' from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. | [[Difference between }__NOTOC__== What is Concentration and Meditation]] | [[Knowledge by idenitity]]==

=What is concentration?=Concentration means fixing gathering of all the scattered movements of consciousness in one place or on one object and in into a single condition.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation</ref>----In concentration proper there is not a series of thoughtspoint, place, but the mind is silently fixed on one object, namethought, idea, place etccondition, state or movement.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. (2015). The Synthetic Method of the Integral Yoga. In Letters on yoga II. Retrieved from http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2903/concentrationappendix-to-questions-and-meditationanswers-1929#p9</ref>----It is to bring back all the scattered threads of consciousness to a single point, a single idea. <ref>The Motherhttp://incarnateword. (1972). Questions and answers, in/cwm/04/23-december-1950-1951. In Collected Works of the Mother Volume 4 (p. 5).#p7</ref> ----Concentration is a state one must be in continually, whatever the outer activity.<ref>The Mother. (1979). Letters to a Young Sadhak VI (1933-1949). In Collected works of the Mother Volume 16. Retrieved from http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1629/lettersconcentration-toand-a-young-sadhak-vimeditation#p3 </ref>----

=Why should Concentration is an active state. One may concentrate mentally, one learn may concentrate vitally, psychically, physically, and one may concentrate integrally. Concentration or the capacity to concentrate?=gather oneself at one point is more difficult than meditation. One may gather together one portion of one's being or consciousness or one may gather together the whole of one's consciousness or even fragments of it, that is, the concentration may be partial, total or integral, and in each case the result will be different. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/25-december-1950#p12</ref>

...whatever you Concentration is not only an intellectual thing, it may want to do be found in lifeall the activities of the being, including bodily activities. The control over the nerves should be such as would allow one a complete concentration on what one thing is absolutely indispensable doing and at , through the basis very intensity of everythingone's concentration, the capacity of concentrating the attentionone acquires an immediate response to external touches. If you are able to gather together the rays of attention and consciousness on one point and can maintain To attain this concentration with one needs a persistent will, nothing can resist it —whatever it may be, from conscious control of the most material physical development to the highest spiritual oneenergies. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/23-december-1950#p1 </ref>

There == Why Concentration is no spiritual obstacle which can resist a penetrating power of concentration. For instance, the discovery of the psychic being, union with the inner Divine, opening to the higher spheres, all can be obtained by an intense and obstinate power of concentration —but one must learn how to do it.Important?==

There is nothing in the human or even in the superhuman field, to which the power of Without concentration is not the keyone cannot achieve anything. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/study#p71</ref>

You There is nothing in the human or even in the superhuman field, to which the power of concentration is not the key. One can be the best athlete, you one can be the best student, you one can be an artistic, literary or scientific scientific genius, you one can be the greatest saint with that faculty. And everyone has in himself a tiny little beginning of it —it it—it is given to everybody, but people do not cultivate it.<ref>The Motherhttp://incarnateword. (1998). Questions and Answers 1957in/cwm/09/23-july-1958, Vol. 9 (pp. 360-361).#p18 </ref>

Those who can attain perfect attention succeed in everything they undertake; they will always make a rapid progressThe ability of concentration is one of the greatest powers of the human mentality.<ref>The Motherhttp://incarnateword. (1972). Questions in/cwsa/21/the-divine-and-the-undivine#p16</ref> Whatever one may want to do in life, one thing is absolutely indispensable and answersat the basis of everything, 1950-1951the capacity of concentrating the attention. In Collected Works If one is able to gather together the rays of attention and consciousness on one point and can maintain this concentration with a persistent will, nothing can resist it—whatever it may be, from the Mother Volume 4 (pmost material physical development to the highest spiritual one. 5) <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/23-july-1958#p15</ref>

It Concentration is well known that necessary to gather the whole will and mind from the natural distractions. Left to themselves, they follow the value normal dispersive movement of a man is thoughts running after many-branching desires led away by outward sensory contacts. <ref>http://incarnateword.in proportion to his capacity of concentrated attention; /cwsa/23/the greater -higher-and-the concentration the more exceptional -lower-knowledge#p7</ref>The mind is the resulta thing that dwells in diffusion, in succession; it can only concentrate on one thing at a time and when not concentrated runs from one thing to another very much at random. Therefore it has to the extent that concentrate on a single idea, a single subject of meditation, a single object of contemplation, a perfect single object of will in order to possess or master it, and unfailing concentrated attention sets this it must do to at least the stamp temporary exclusion of genius on what is producedall others. <ref>The Mother. (1949). Concentration and Dispersion. In On Education (Collected Works of the Mother Volume 12). Retrieved from http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1223/concentration-and-dispersion#p7</ref>

==Three powers of concentrationHow to Cultivate Concentration? ==Concentration has three powers... * By concentration on anything whatsoever we are able to know that thing, to make it deliver up its concealed secrets; we must use this power to know not things, but the one Thing-in-itself.* By concentration again the whole will can be gathered up for the acquisition of that which is still ungrasped, still beyond us; this power, if it is sufficiently trained, sufficiently single-minded, sufficiently sincere, sure of itself, faithful to itself alone, absolute in faith, we can use for the acquisition of any object whatsoever; but we ought to use it not for the acquisition of the many objects which the world offers to us, but to grasp spiritually that one object worthy of pursuit which is also the one subject worthy of knowledge.* By concentration of our whole being on one status of itself, we can become whatever we choose; we can become, for instance, even if we were before a mass of weaknesses and fear, a mass instead of strength and courage, or we can become all a great purity, holiness and peace or a single universal soul of Love; but we ought, it is said, to use this power to become not even these things, high as they may be in comparison with what we now are, but rather to become that which is above all things and free from all action and attributes, the pure and absolute Being. All else, all other concentration can only be valuable for preparation, for previous steps, for a gradual training of the dissolute and self-dissipating thought, will and being towards their grand and unique object. <ref>Sri Aurobindo. sabcl/20/concentration</ref>

=How to develop The faculty of concentrated attention can be developed scientifically by a methodical training the same way as an athlete develops methodically his muscles. The power of concentration=can be developed in such a way that concentration is obtained at will and on whatever subject or activity is chosen. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/concentration-and-dispersion#p5 </ref>

And this When one has a problem and one is looking for a solution, if it does not come, it is because of a kind of concentration haziness in the brain, something cloudy, like a fog somewhere. Concentration consists precisely in removing the cloud. One can be developed exactly like gather together all the muscles; elements of one may follow different systems's intelligence and fix them on one point, different methods of trainingand then do not even try actively to find the thing. Today we know All that one should do is to concentrate in such a way as to see only the most pitiful weaklingproblem—but seeing not only its surface, for exampleseeing it in its depth, can with discipline become as strong as anyone elsewhat it conceals. One should not have If one is able to gather together one's all mental energies, bringing them to a will point which flickers out like is fixed on the enunciation of the problem, and stay there, fixed, as though, to drill a hole in the wall, all of a candlesudden it will come. And this is the only way. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/24-june-1953#p51 </ref>

The willWhile engaging in work, concentration one must be cultivated; it become what one is doing and not remain a question of methodsmall person looking at himself doing it; for if one looks at oneself acting, of regular exerciseone is still in complicity with the ego. If you will, you It is through concentrated attention that one cando things quickly and one does them much better.<ref>The Motherhttp://incarnateword. (1972). Questions and answers, 1950in/cwm/04/26-april-1951. In Collected Works of the Mother Volume 4 (p. 5).#p33 </ref>

Through regularWhen one wants to realise something, perseveringone makes quite spontaneously the necessary effort; this concentrates one's energies on the thing to be realised and that gives a meaning to one's life. This compels one to a sort of organisation of oneself, obstinate, unflagging exercise —I mean exercise a sort of concentration of one's energies because it is this that one wishes to do and not fifty other things which contradict it. And it is in this concentration, this intensity of the will, that lies the origin of joy. This gives the power to receive energies in exchange for those spent.<ref>The Mother. (1972). On Education. In Collected works of the Mother Volume 12 (p. 398). Pondicherryhttp: Sri Aurobindo Ashram//incarnateword.in/cwm/04/13-january-1951#p15</ref>

==Concentration on ideain Integral Yoga ==

If one concentrates Concentration does not mean meditation; on the contrary, concentration is a thought or a wordstate one must be in continuously, one has to dwell on whatever the outer activity. It means that all the essential idea contained in energy, all the word with will, all the aspiration to feel must be turned only towards the thing which it expressesDivine and His integral realisation in our consciousness.<ref>Sri Aurobindohttp://incarnateword. cwsain/cwm/2916/concentrationletters-to-a-young-andsadhak-meditationvi#p2 </ref>

==Concentrated [[Yogic concentration is an extension and intensification of the normal power of concentration to realise the object of yoga which is the integral union with the Divine. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation]]==#p45</ref> Concentration is indeed the first condition of any Yoga, but it is an all-receiving concentration that is the very nature of the integral Yoga. A wide massive opening, a harmonised concentration of the whole being in all its parts and through all its powers upon the Divine is the larger action of this Yoga without which it cannot achieve its purpose. This wide and concentrated totality is the essential character of the Sadhana. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-consecration#p15</ref>

The first step in An all-receiving concentration must be always to accustom the discursive mind which is open to all that exists; it is a settled unwavering pursuit of concentration which does not oppose anything. It is a single course of connected thought on a single subject and this it concentration which is open. It means that one must do undistracted by all lures not reject certain things from himself and alien calls on its attention. Such practise an exclusive concentration is common enough in our ordinary life, but it becomes more difficult when we have to do it inwardly without any outward object or action on which to keep a particular point while neglecting all the mind; yet this inward concentration is what others. All the seeker of knowledge must effectpossibilities should be admitted and pursued. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/28-december-1955#p1 </ref>

Nor must it be merely Concentration in the consecutive thought of heart is one method, concentration in the intellectual thinker, whose only object head (or above) is another; both are included in this Yoga and one has to conceive do whichever one finds easiest and intellectually link together his conceptionsmost natural. It The object of the concentration in the heart is notto open the centre there (heart-lotus), except perhaps at first, a process to feel the presence of the Divine Mother in the heart and to become aware of reasoning that one's soul or psychic being which is wanted so much as a dwelling so far as possible on portion of the fruitful essence Divine. The object of the idea which by concentration in the head is to rise to the Divine Consciousness and bring down the insistence Light of the soul’s will upon it must yield up Mother or her Force or Ananda into all the facets of its truthcentres. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/mantra-and-japa#p17 </ref>

Thus if it There must be a large, many-sided yet single concentration of the divine Love that is thought on the idea, the perception, the vision, the awakening touch, the subject soul's realisation of the one Divine. There must be a flaming concentration, it is of the heart on the essence seeking of the idea All and Eternal and, when once we have found him, a deep plunging and immersion in the possession and ecstasy of God as Love that the mind should concentrate in such All-Beautiful. There must be a way strong and immovable concentration of the will on the attainment and fulfillment of all that the various manifestation Divine is and a free and plastic opening of the divine Love should arise luminously, not only it to all that he intends to the thought, but manifest in us. This is the heart and being and vision triple way of the SadhakaYoga. <ref>http://incarnateword. in/cwsa/23/self-consecration#p18</ref>

The thought may come first '''Content curated by Manoj Pavitran and the experience afterwards, but equally the experience may come first and the knowledge arise out of the experience. Divyanshi Chugh'''

Afterwards the thing attained has to be dwelt on and more and {|class="wikitable" style= "background-color: #efefff; width: 100%;"|Read more held till it becomes a constant experience and finally about '''[[Concentration Compilation|Concentration]]''' from the Dharma or law works of the beingMother and Sri Aurobindo.|}

This is the process of concentrated [[meditation]];<ref>Sri Aurobindo. sabcl/20/concentration</ref> ==Practicing [[meditation]] or concentration using a sentence== ''Q: Mother, in the Friday Classes, you often read a sentence to us and ask us to meditate on it. But how should we meditate on a sentence? That is, should we think, meditate on the idea or... what should we do?'' The sentence is already a mental formation; the mental formation is made. The sentence is the expression of the mental formation. So when you meditate on a sentence, there are two methods. There is an active, ordinary external method of reflecting and trying to understand what these words mean, understand intellectually what the sentence means exactly —that is active meditation. You concentrate on these few words and take the thought they express and try, through reasoning, deduction, analysis, to understand what it means. There is another method, more direct and deep; it is to take this mental formation, this combination of words with the thought they represent, and to gather all your energy of attention on it, compelling yourself to concentrate all your strength on that formation. For instance, instead of concentrating all your energies on something you see physically, you take that thought and concentrate all your energies on that thought —in the mind, of course. And then, if you are able to concentrate the thought sufficiently and stop it from vacillating, you pass quite naturally from the thought expressed by the words to the idea which is behind and which could be expressed in other words, other forms. The characteristic of the idea is the power to clothe itself in many different thoughts. And when you have achieved this, you have already gone much deeper than by merely understanding the words. Naturally, if you continue to concentrate and know how to do it, you can pass from the idea to the luminous force that is behind. Then you enter a much vaster and deeper domain. But that asks for some training. But still, that is the very principle of meditation. If you are able to go deep enough, you find the Principle and the Force behind the idea, and that gives you the power of realisation. This is how those who take meditation as a means of spiritual development are able to unite with the Principle which is behind things and obtain the power to act on these things from above. But even without going so far —that implies a rather hard discipline, doesn’t it, a long-standing habit —you can pass quite easily from the thought to the idea, and that gives you a light and an understanding in the mind which enables you, in your turn, to express the idea in any form. An idea can be expressed in many different forms, in many different thoughts, just as when you come down to a more material level, a thought can be expressed through many different words. Going downwards, towards expression, that is, spoken or written expression, there are many different words and different formulas which may serve to express a thought, but this thought is only one of the forms of thought which can express the idea, the idea behind, and this idea itself, if it is followed deeply, has behind it a principle of spiritual knowledge and power which can then spread and act on the manifestation. When you have a thought you look for words, don’t you, and then you try to arrange these words to express your thought; you can use many words to express a thought, you tell yourself, “No, look, if I put this word instead of that, it would express what I am thinking much better.” That is what you learn when you are taught style, how to write. But when I give you a written sentence which has the power to express a thought and tell you to concentrate on it, then, through this thought-form you can go back to the idea behind, which can be expressed in many different thoughts. It is like a great hierarchy: there is a Principle right at the top, which itself is not the only one, for you can go still higher up; but this Principle can be expressed in ideas, and these ideas can be expressed in a great number of thoughts and this great number of thoughts can make use of many languages and an even greater number ofwords. When I give you a thought it is simply to help you to concentrate....  All this is to learn concentration, that’s all. Sometimes one of these sentences expresses a very deep truth. It is one of those happy sentences which are very expressive. So that helps you to find the truth that is behind.<Ref>The Mother. (1972). Questions and Answers 1957-1958. In Collected works of the Mother(pp. 381-383). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.</ref> ==Practicing concentration using objects==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>The Mother. (1972). Questions and Answers 1957-1958. In Collected works of the Mother(pp. 381-383). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.</ref> ==Concentration & Physical Education== Bulletin of April 1949 written by The Mother for Sri Aurobindo Ashram Department of Physical Education In sporting activities those who want to be successful choose a certain line or subject which appeals more to the and suits their nature; they concentrate on their choice and take great care not to disperse their energies in different directions. As in life a man chooses his career and concentrates all his attention upon it, so the sportsman chooses a special activity and concentrates all his efforts to achieve as much perfection as he can in this line. This perfection comes usually by a building up of spontaneous reflex which is the result of constant repetition of the same movements. But this spontaneous reflex can be, with advantage, replaced by the faculty of concentrated attention. This faculty of concentration belongs not only to the intellectual but to all activities and is obtained by the conscious control of the energies.It is well known that the value of a man is in proportion to his capacity of concentrated attention, the greater the concentration the more exceptional is the result, to the extent that a perfect and unfailing concentrated attention sets the stamp of genius on what is produced. There can be genius in sports as in any other human activity. Shall we then advise a limit to one action in order to achieve perfection in concentration? The advantages of limitation are well known, but it has also its inconvenience, bringing narrowness and incapacity for any other line than the one chosen. This is contrary to the ideal of a perfectly developed and harmonised human being. How to conciliate these two contrary tendencies? There seems to be only one solution to the problem. In the same way as an athlete develops methodically his muscles by a scientific and gradual training, the faculty of concentrated attention can be developed scientifically by a methodical training—developed in such a way that concentration is obtained at will and on whatever subject or activity is chosen. Thus the work of preparation instead of being done in the subconscient by a slow and steady repetition of the same movements, is done consciously by a concentration of will and a gathered attention centred on one point or another according to plan and decision. The chief difficulty seems to be to obtain this power of concentration independent from all inner and outer circumstances—difficult perhaps but not impossible for him who is determined and persevering. Moreover, whatever method of development is chosen, determination and perseverance are indispensable to obtain success. The aim in the training is to develop this power of concentrating the attention at will on whatever subject or activity one chooses from the most spiritual to the most material, without losing anything of the fullness of the power,—for instance, in the physical field, transferring the use of the power from one game to another or one activity to another so as to succeed equally in all. This extreme attention concentrated on a game or a physical activity like lifting, vaulting, punching, running, etc., focusing all energies on any of these movements which bring about in the body the thrill of an exhilarating joy is the thing which carries with it perfection in execution and success. Generally this happens when the sportsman is especially interested in a game or an activity and its happening escapes all control, decision or will.Yet by a proper training of concentrated attention one can obtain the phenomenon at will, on command, so to say, and the resulting perfection in the execution of any activity follows inevitably. This is exactly what we want to try in our Department of Physical Education. By this process the result may come more slowly than by the usual method, but the lack of rapidity will surely be compensated by a fullness and richness in the expression.<ref>The Mother. (1949). Concentration and Dispersion. In On Education (Collected Works of the Mother Volume 12). Retrieved from http://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/concentration-and-dispersion</ref> =Straining and Concentration= Straining and concentration are not the same thing. Straining implies an over-eagerness and violence of effort, while concentration is in its nature quiet and steady. If there is restlessness or over-eagerness, then that is not concentration.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation</ref>----Effort means straining endeavour. There can be an action with a will in it in which there is no strain of effort.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation</ref> =Inertia & Tiredness in Concentration= It is not a fact that when there is obscurity or inertia, one cannot concentrate or meditate. If one has in the inner being the steady will to do it, it can be done.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation</ref>----If the mind gets tired, naturally it is difficult to concentrate—unless you have become separated from the mind.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation</ref>----Concentration is very helpful and necessary—the more one concentrates (of course in the limits of the body’s capacity without straining it), the more the force of the Yoga grows. But you must be prepared for the meditation being sometimes not successful and not get upset by it—for that variability of the meditations happens to everybody. There are different causes for it. But it is mostly something physical that interferes, either the need of the body to take time to assimilate what has come or been done or sometimes inertia or dullness due to causes such as those you mention or others. The best thing is to remain quiet and not get nervous or dejected—till the force acts again.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation</ref> References=Obstacles to develop concentration= But the thought “What’s the use?” must not come in to weaken the will. The idea that one is born with a certain character and can do nothing about it is a stupidity.<ref>The Mother. (1972). Questions and answers, 1950-1951. In Collected Works of the Mother Volume 4 (p. 5).</ref> The mind is always in activity, but we do not observe fully what it is doing, but allow ourselves to be carried away in the stream of continual thinking. When we try to concentrate, this stream of self-moved mechanical thinking becomes prominent to our observation. It is the first normal obstacle (the other is sleep during meditation) to the effort towards Yoga.<ref>Sri Aurobindo. cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation</ref> ==Purity and concentration== Along with purity and as a help to bring it about, concentration. 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. Their opposites are also closely connected; for we have seen that impurity is a confusion of Dharmas, a lax, mixed and mutually entangled action of the different parts of the being; and this confusion proceeds from an absence of right concentration of its knowledge on its energies in the embodied Soul. The fault of our nature is first an inert subjection to the impacts of things1 as they come in upon the mind pell-mell without order or control and then a haphazard imperfect concentration managed fitfully, irregularly with a more or less chance emphasis on this or on that object according as they happen to interest, not the higher soul or the judging and discerning intellect, but the restless, leaping, fickle, easily tired, easily distracted lower mind which is the chief enemy of our progress. In such a condition purity, the right working of the functions, the clear, unstained and luminous order of the being is an impossibility; the various workings, given over to the chances of the environment and external influences, must necessarily run into each other and clog, divert, distract, pervert. Equally, 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. Therefore the two 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>Sri Aurobindo. sabcl/20/concentration</ref> =References=