Concentration: An Introduction

Achieving anything in this life depends to a large extent upon our ability to concentrate.

With television and video games and the like, we have lost this art to a large extent and many people now find it extremely difficult to concentrate for even the briefest of periods.

By learning the art of concentration, one may surpass all your wildest dreams in a material, intellectual and even spiritual sense. The great sages of old frequently talked at great length about the awesome power of the ability to focus the mind. In many mystery schools this is the first thing one learns.



I will, here, attempt to introduce the basics of concentration. There is much more to be found on the web, however the information contained in this article can be of great value to the student wishing to acquire this skill.

The most basic preliminary of concentration is the ability to choose an object of focus. Without this, concentration is impossible. That some-thing can be anything for practice sessions, yet to achieve greatest results it is better to have something deemed worthy of your attention.

In this world of duality that which we bring to the fore must also be accompanied by its antithesis. Thus, in any attempt at concentration, the mind will naturally throw up that which would deviate from this. Plainly said, when you try to concentrate, the mind will automatically try to distract you. Therefore, the first step towards concentration is to counter this effect. One should set a specific time, or even several times, each day, when you allow your mind to simply wander. By sticking to these appointments, whenever something other than your object of concentration pops into your mind whilst attempting to concentrate, you simply acknowledge it and make a note, either mentally or on paper, that you will allow yourself to deal with it at your set time. Then allow the extraneous thought to pass without judgment on yourself and gently bring your mind back to the object of focus.

Put very simply, that is all there is to it. One has to merely practice this on a daily basis, each time gradually increasing the length of time you maintain concentration until you are able to focus on anything you desire at the expense of all else.

Having said that, as with anything in this world, the reality is a little more complex. We have, for example, different concentration spans for different things. This is clearly seen when one considers that a teenager may easily concentrate for many hours surfing the net or watching television or playing video games, yet ask that same teenager to spend twenty minutes completing their homework or revising for a school test and we see a wholly different story.

Einstein effectively demonstrated this when he said:

"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity."

I shall conclude this first installment on concentration with a brief summary of the steps one should take to begin to build the faculty of concentration.

• Always keep a pen and paper handy to note down any extraneous thoughts that cross your mind. That way they get out of your head and onto the paper where you are unlikey to forget them.
• Set yourself goals for each period of activity that you wish to concentrate on. This could be a certain amount of pages to read of a book or a certain number of calls to make etc.
• Try to design adequate rewards for attaining the above goals. (As a tip, use the things that are distracting you as goals. For example, if you would rather watch TV than study then set a certain amount of TV as your reward).
• Take frequent short rests. Endeavor to do something different and in a different place, such as take a short walk.
• Begin with short periods of concentration and gradually build up the length.
• Plan the length of your activity by what you want to accomplish, not by how many minutes you will work for. Nothing kills concentration like the clock!