CONTROLLING THE FLOW OF THOUGHT
Can’t concentrate your mind to get things done?
Abandon your personal fears and desires by bringing your mind under the dominion of concentration in everything you do, and you, the real you, will become freed, released from the bonds of your own mind. Concentrate your mind when you are feeling confused, and you will bring peace to its disturbed states. §
Pick any object which is pleasant to you and concentrate on it. A rock, an orange, apple or lemon, a piece of wood, a flower; these are all good objects of concentration. Spend five minutes picking an object, then spend the rest of your time concentrating on it. Once you have decided upon the object do not switch to another. This is one of the many tricks of the mind. It does not want to be concentrated, for once it is you will know that you are something more than your mind and it will lose the power it gains by your identifying yourself with it. So don’t be surprise when it suggests you take something else instead, nor when it tries to make you miss your concentration period. Attempt to concentrate for the same period of time every day. Five minutes daily, if you are really doing your best to concentrate, is much better than ten minutes Monday, no time Tuesday, and thirty minutes Wednesday. §
Take a flower and place it in front of you. Breathe deeply as you sit before it. Simply look at it. Don’t stare at it and strain your eyes. But simply become aware of it. Each time awareness moves to some other area of the mind, with your willpower move awareness back and become aware of the flower again. Keep doing this until you are simply aware of the flower and not aware of your body or your breath. Then begin to concentrate on the flower. That is the second step. Think about the flower. Move into the area of the mind where all flowers exist in all phases of manifestation, and concentrate on the flower. Move from one area to another—to where all stems exist, to the stem of that particular flower, to the root that that particular flower came from, and to the seed. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate on the flower. §
Constant practice will unfold new knowledge from within you, knowledge that you never knew existed and did not learn from the outside. When that happens, concentration is strong and meditation is not far away. You should be able to have twenty, thirty or even fifty thoughts in sequence without awareness being distracted into areas of the external mind. It will help if you learn to breathe diaphragmatically during these exercises. Breathe deeply but naturally, without strain or effort. As we control the pranas of the breath, we simultaneously control awareness so that it remains steady and does not move here and there. You also have to teach the body to sit still, to remain poised and not restless. All of this will come in time, not immediately. Be patient. Never become upset with yourself when distractions arise, for that is a greater distraction still. Simply accept each departure from your concentration as an opportunity to become stronger and more one-pointed, and then quietly and firmly bring awareness back to its subject. The subtle realms within the devotee are revealed layer by layer as he methodically perfects attention, concentration, meditation and contemplation.§