CONCENTRATION IN YOGA

Articles In This Section:

· CONCENTRATION IN YOGA

· YOGA TEACHES DIFFERENT BEFINNINGS

· YOU'VE GOT TO EMPTY YOUR MIND OF ALL FOR YOGA

· VALUE OF CONCENTRATION BEFORE SLEEP

· HIGHLY TRAINED YOGA

· CONCENTRATION CAN IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY

· YOGA HELPS WITH EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL

A he mind should be the willing servant of the Self. But it is only the very rare man or woman who possesses sufficient natural self-discipline for achieving this. In the case of most of us, the mind is either helpless slave or tyrannical master. Lacking proper orientation, we permit the impact of the world around us forever to impinge on us. Some of us let ourselves be buffeted by emotional storms or are forever being distracted by external stimuli, with the result that single-minded pursuit of what is truly important to us is all but impossible. Others tend to veer to the other extreme; in an effort to set up defenses against external or emotional distraction we become creatures of the mind exclusively, denying natural impulses, rigid and driven in outlook. Thus in one way or another our very efforts at self-discipline defeat us, consuming energy which might more happily be put to constructive, creative use. These are failings of human nature as old as human nature itself. The Yogis, wisely aware of them, long ago devised a method for dealing with the problem. Just as their physical training teaches the student to get the most out of the potential of his body, so their mental disciplines are a key to teaching the individual how to function at one hundred percent capacity on the emotional and intellectual level.

This key may be called Deep Concentration.

Relaxation and Contraction, which you have learned in the two previous chapters, in addition to being necessary and highly beneficial in themselves, may also be regarded as preliminary steps to Concentration. Although both require a certain amount of mental discipline, they are primarily physical routines. Now, however, you are on a truly different plane. Yet it is always well to bear in mind that there is no arbitrary division between the two, since body and mind are indivisible in all their interrelationships.

Yoga teaches that in order to control the mind one must first learn to empty it of useless baggage. Most of us live our lives out with our thoughts a needless clutter, the essential and the non-essential crowded together helter-skelter. Civilized man's mind, like his body, tends to be overloaded. But just as our bodies can grow firmer and lighter if we follow proper Yoga breathing and exercise routines, so we can learn to travel light mentally, discarding whatever doesn't properly belong, allowing instead plenty of space and light for the essentials to thrive in.

Since obviously there can be no such thing as concentration in a mental vacuum, one must always concentrate on something. That is the first lesson to be learned. You must focus your attention on some image or object while determinedly shutting out everything else. This is not nearly so easy as it sounds—try thinking of one single thing for a period of thirty seconds, and see what happens! Left to itself the mind tends to flit from subject to subject, free-associating at a great rate.