Prayer Book: Concentration

The world is ready to give up it's secrets if only we know how to know, how to give it the necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow come through concentration. There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point; that is the secret.

The greater part of the practical lessons which the Yogi gives us is in the mind, the power of concentration and meditation. ... We have become so materialistic. Wen we think of ourselves, we find only the body. The body has become the ideal, nothing else.

To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over gain, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts at will.

Concentration is the essence of all Knowledge; nothing can be done without it. Ninety percent of the thought force is wasted by the ordinary human being, and therefore he is constantly committing blunders; the trained man or mind never makes a mistake.

Herein is the difference between man and the animals - man has greater power of concentration. The difference in their power of concentration also constitutes the difference between man and man. Compare the lowest with the highest man. The difference is in the degree of concentration. This is the only difference.

The flow of this continuous control of the mind becomes steady when practised day after day, and the mind obtains the faculty of constant concentration.

Music has such tremendous power over the human mind; it brings it to concentration in a moment. you will find the dull, ignorant, low, brute - like human beings, who never steady their mind for a moment at other times, when they hear attractive music, immediately become charmed and concentrated.

All knowledge we have, either of the external or internal world, is obtained through only one method - by the concentration of the mind. No knowledge can be had of any science unless we can concentrate our minds upon the subject.

All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind, but the object of your study is always your own mind. The falling of an apple gave the suggestion to Newton, and he studied his own mind; he re-arranged all the previous links of thought in his mind and discovered a new link among them, which we call the law of gravitation. It was not in the apple nor in anything in the center of the earth.

Do you see, simply by the observance of strict Brahmacharya (continence) all learning can be mastered in a very short time - one has an unfailing memory of what one hears or knows but once. It is owing to this want of continence that everything is on the brink of ruin in our country.

What we want are Western science coupled with Vedanta, Brahmacharya as the guiding motto, and also Shraddha and faith in one's own self.