CONCENTRATION

Developing concentration is a conscious effort that develops the ability to establish awareness and consequently to experience internal processes. This level (quality) characterizes one’s conscious attitude towards life. Therefore, we should note that without the conscious effort one cannot start any process of self-knowledge nor a process of understanding the issue, or acquiring knowledge and information.

People often underestimate the importance of concentration or mix concentration with attention, directed towards something or internal accord (when the internal effort is replaced with associations). Concentration requires constant internal collectedness. Not tension but actual collectedness when the person does not lose control over himself or the situation.

Concentration depends on the number of wrongly developed — at the time of studying — actions, i.e. on the way the person has developed his mind throughout his life. Even in people with a high IQ the level of concentration is rarely good enough for internal preservation (when the thought process preserves the energy spent on it).

Here we must note that intellectual development is not a sufficient condition for developing the ability for being in a state of concentration. Therefore developing one’s concentration is a true skill that generates an additional source for the mind. Concentration does not destroy the energy at hand, instead it preserves it and improves it and thus leads to the process of filling.

Every action in your life is defined by, simply speaking, the emotional charge you feel while doing this action. If this ‘charge’ is absent than people start looking for additional emotional resources that compensate the lacking experience related to the process (by consuming news, looking for a companion, trying to think of something to do in the near future, etc.).

People inevitably start looking for a new charging source if they cannot establish this source within. So the two important factors here affect the thing that people start charging themselves with, and the thing that takes the role of the source of their desire. The greater the lack of concentration in their actions, the more vulgar their interests, and the closer they find them. However even people in the process of intellectual development cannot realize different emotional experiences if they are unable to operate their body and energy in a single closed mechanism of action.

We must certainly take into account the relationship between concentration and the energy one possesses by nature plus the energy man has squandered as a result of his unbalanced life. Each of us possesses an individual initial energy and in the beginning not all people are able to use enough energy for achieving fast progress in developing their concentration. We must understand this and measure our actions in relation to our abilities. We should not try and take up a rather large volume of actions or else we cannot take responsibility for the results.

The art of study

In order to develop your skills for studying, you should first of all find your support. This will help you structure your studies and then your practice, it will also help set up a studying progression based on your ability to improve your level of concentration. In order to achieve this you must master two arts:

• the art of finding the beginning;

• the art of attaining the task.

Studying conditions

The conditions for studying concentration are related to a constant rhythm in your concentrated work and an ability to maintain concentration. Therefore, you must understand the four stages that help people strengthen energetically their concentration:

• filling;
• attention;
• focus;
• concentration.

The state of irreversibility

In this case the condition for reaching a state of irreversibility consists of two efforts: concentration and awareness.

These two efforts must be interrelated. In case the habit of concentration is not yet well-developed, it cannot be established in a short period of time. Therefore, if the concentration is not well-developed, then our conscious actions will not be effective enough.

We must transform each of our actions into a conscious experience, and the more real our awareness is, the more real this experience will be for us. Often people’s experience is not adequate to the very concept of self-development. However, this very experience determines if the person can operate with a sufficient level of concentration or whether he is used to operating without concentration.

The methods for developing concentration are related to the elementary principles of living — they are based on discipline, regulation and the ability to maintain a controlled willful living effort. If this is combined with certain special practices and techniques, we get the bare minimum necessary to start working on concentration.

Can one achieve a high level of concentration without all this? Certainly not! yet if the person is born with enough energy that can nourish his brain, he can fulfill the tasks of building his mind without working specifically on this. However, if he is incapable of preserving this energy, at some point his psychological abilities weaken.

Instruments of study

All static and motor practices that develop concentration from the perspective of development.