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flowers
Their Spiritual significance
Photo Collection
Concentration
Concentration does not aim for any effect, but is simple and persistent.
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Euphorbia milii Des Moul. (Euphorbiaceae)
Christplant
Bright red
Here is a bunch of Concentration and of New Birth.
To concentrate for developing the intelligence, for developing the inborn faculties which are hidden within ourselves.
To concentrate means to find oneself. It is the quest, the means to follow. It is the shortest way to get anything. One only has to concentrate - but deep within - and toe! you get the thing, the word, the idea, the feeling, the place you want to discover, the plane of consciousness, and with perseverance and a constant effort, find the Self and the soul. To concentrate in order to find the soul. With the help of concentration, one can achieve everything.
But one has to know how to concentrate, and each plane has a certain level of concentration. To know how to concentrate is to acquire the power to withdraw from all other things except the one thing you wish to achieve.
Do you know what you should do? To start with: you sit before a wall and say to yourself: "Let my mind be as white as the wall.'' Then, if you see a little black dot on the wall, - or anywhere else, - a dot, you start concentrating on this dot, with an intent gaze, without allowing any other thoughts to come into your mind, without moving, without wavering as if you wanted to envelop this dot with your hypnotic gaze. Then you will see that you begin to have a relation with this dot and that nothing else around exists any longer. Only the dot exists, and yourself, attracted as if by a magnet. You have a penetrating gaze. Then, little by little, the black dot doesn't exist in your gaze any more; you are concentrating very hard. But instead of a black dot, there is a luminous dot; as if everything were appearing differently. The black dot has become a luminous dot. And one can see other movements just around this luminous dot. Then, only the luminous dot is seen and nothing else around. And a kind of deep relation is being established. You are going to try and tell me.
Then, if one learns how to concentrate even more, really concentrate with intensity, one perceives that it is not oneself who is concentrating, and that the ego does not exist any longer, but that an altogether detached will, - without thoughts, unflickering, a sort of emptiness but well sustained by the aspiration, - is acting through the socalled self. For the Self seems to be hidden. But the concentration is well directed, deeply fixed there, within (Mother shows the psychic centre), undisturbed by the outward happenings, discovering regions of happiness where the divine sweetness reigns. One discovers layer after layer of planes of consciousness, and one leaves behind oneself the subtle bodies, one after another, until there is no more resistance and the soul reveals itself before us, without any agent, without any foreign support. And one discovers the soul in its plenitude. If one starts living in such a way, then one lives forever a new birth. At each moment, one discovers a new life, a new aspiration, a new light and a new love. One springs forward, to always discover something new. That is life.
One has to know how to concentrate by going deeply there within, to find the inner seat from where one should aspire more and more, and, at the same time, reject all that disturbs - the impulses, the sensations, and the thoughts. All that does not belong to us has to be rejected, so that we may be pure in order to identify ourselves with the Divine Consciousness. Three stages that help one another: to concentrate, to reject, and to aspire for the identification with the Divine.
It is well known that the value of a man is in proportion to his capacity of concentrated attention, the greater the concentration the more exceptional is the result, to the extent that a perfect and unfailing concentrated attention sets the stamp of genius on what is produced.
The Mother
The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.- Volume 12. - On Education
Concentration does not mean meditation; on the contrary, concentration is a state one must be in continuously, whatever the outer activity. By concentration I mean that all the energy, all the will, all the aspiration must be turned only towards the Divine and His integral realisation in our consciousness.
The Mother
The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.- Volume 16. - More answers from the Mother
Our one objective must be the Divine himself to whom, knowingly or unknowingly, something always aspires in our secret nature. There must be a large, many-sided yet single concentration of the thought on the idea, the perception, the vision, the awakening touch, the soul's realisation of the one Divine. There must be a flaming concentration of the heart on the seeking of the All and Eternal and, when once we have found him, a deep plunging and immersion in the possession and ecstasy of the All-Beautiful. There must be a strong and immovable concentration of the will on the attainment and fulfilment of all that the Divine is and a free and plastic opening of it to all that he intends to manifest in us.
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. - Volumes 20-21. - The Synthesis of Yoga