Concentration
- This exercise is part of Divine Body Practice
- By John Eagles, August 4, 2012.
Whatever we do in life, we need concentration. We need concentration for performing physical exercises, but more than anything else, concentration is important for all energy exercises.
In an earlier article i wrote about the fundamental stages in all energy exercises, Five stages of energy practice - GRESE. The 'G' of GRESE stands for centering on God, or making your mind empty. It is the preparation for concentrating in any type of energy exercise.
When we pray or meditate, concentration is the most important. In a sense, concentration is all you need. You determine what to concentrate on and when you manage to concentrate well over some time, you'll break through in prayer or be successful in your meditation.
Concentration begins with making your mind empty. All that should remain in your mind is the essence of all, is the Source of yourself and all of creation, God.
But when you try to make your mind empty, you'll soon be disturbed. Before you know it, your mind will wander away. To learn to concentrate well, we need to learn how to deal with these 'disturbances.'
There are two kind of disturbances, those that come from within and those that come from outside ourselves.
All these disturbances of concentration can be seen as intrusions from energies that you don't want to deal with at that moment. For example, if you have been busy with some kind of activity, your mind may wander away during your stage of concentration. When you have planned to do something later that day, you may find it difficult to center because you tend to think of these plans. These disturbances of your concentration come from the inside, from yourself.
It is also possible that something happens outside of you that distracts you from your exercise. People around you may attract your attention. Flies or mosquitoes may bother you. Someone may think of you at that moment with intensive feelings. Also these activities outside of you can generate energies that disturb your motivation.
However, if we want to work well with energy in body exercises, we absolutely need the deepest concentration! Without concentration we cannot perform well.
How can we deal with these different types of disturbances of our concentration? Most important is to accept the intrusions. It is normal that you cannot concentrate entirely right away. It takes time to concentrate.
Consider the disturbances of your concentration as visitors who pass by your door. You welcome them, you relate to them for a short moment, and then you friendly ask them to leave.
You keep doing this for as long as it needs to reach a high level of concentration on the exercise you want to perform.
If we are too much fixed on reaching a condition of concentration, it won't work. We need to remain relaxed and take it as it comes, meanwhile not giving up the goal we want to reach, but dealing with any kind of annoyance in a calm manner. There are reasons why we are distracted, but it's always possible to reach a high level of concentration. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it takes shorter time. Never get upset and never try to force your concentration. That won't work!
Three types of distractions
When you want to concentrate during meditation or prayer, there can be three types of distractions in your mind: 1. The real distractions. Your mind can be occupied by thoughts that are really bothering and that you should simply send away. 2. The unreal distractions. For example, if your house is on fire, you wouldn't continue your meditation. Also, when you are busy with something important, but
you break it off for meditation, you may want to first finish that first task and suspend your time for meditation. 3. Distractions that need your time but not just yet. For example, when you start to meditate, you may think of something that you should still do. Or you suddenly get an inspiration that has nothing to do with your meditation. In these cases, you can 'park' those thoughts or ideas. You can make a note of it in your mind or on a paper to spend time for it later.
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