Concentration

In the 21st century we live our lives in ways that conspire to make it increasingly difficult to concentrate. We may be at work, home, on the road or on a holiday, but our phones will intermittently beep with message notifications that we are often expected to answer immediately. In order to keep up with the fast-moving pace, we overcommit and overbook our schedules, which is the new normal, for we are expected to be able to multitask.

Doing just one thing at a time feels very uncomfortable, and sitting still without doing anything is completely unnatural to us. We keep music turned on as background noise while we are working, we eat our meals while watching different TV shows; and we create and broadcast social media posts while we are supposed to be living some of the most precious moments of our lives. We have become addicted to keeping our mind busy and entertained in the world and have no control over this addiction.

This of course comes at a price – all this relentless activity is fragmenting our attention and seriously interfering with our concentration. What we fail to remember is that success and happiness is not a result of an active mind, but rather a focused one.

Concentration gives you peace and bliss. The more your mind is scattered, the more unhappy and miserable you will be. The more your mind is one-pointed and concentrated, the more happy and relaxed you’ll be.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II}

Why do we enjoy the feeling of love? Why do we enjoy a beautiful song? It is because these emotions and experiences capture our attention and help it to become concentrated and one pointed. Joy expresses itself under certain conditions but it is not derived from those conditions; it is derived from within us when we are able to focus and still the mind.

As practitioners on this path, our goal is to focus our mind at the eye centre so that we are able to align ourselves to the rhythm of our soul, with that of the Shabd and the Lord, which is the source of all peace and bliss. We have one task and that is to practise concentration through the help of the five names. There is nothing else in the world that deserves our time and attention as much as this task.

We often cut our meditation short for the day because we feel that we need the time to do all our other chores. However, if we prioritize our meditation before starting our day, it will not only bring us more in touch with our inner selves but the concentration that we achieve from it will in fact help us to navigate through life’s daily challenges with composure. Time spent in meditation is time gained – never time lost.

Every day that we are trying to concentrate, we’re creating a habit of concentration…. This will also remain with us in our daily activities, throughout our whole day. That concentration is not only for a particular time. It becomes a habit to concentrate in everything, in every little detail in your life.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II}

In a world that is forcing our attention outwards and scattering it in a hundred different directions, our job is to go against the negative flow of the current. This is not easy, but our complete concentration and focus on our spiritual destination depends on it.

The main point is to reach the eye focus somehow. You will be dealing with your own attention. If you succeed in holding it inside of the focus, you have won the battle of life…. Poets, painters, and musicians receive inspiration from this point. All great thinkers get their ideas clarified here. Whatever scientific progress the world has made, it has all been derived from this source. This focus, back of the eyes, is the fountain of all inspiration which has produced the world’s masterpieces. And whatever further progress is to be made in the future, the source of information and inspiration will still be this point. Here is where Divinity comes down to meet the struggling man.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, Spiritual Gems}