Concentration is the secret key to a whole world of possibilities, enabling you to keep out distractions and focus on attaining your life goals. In addition it is an absolute prerequisite if you want to learn the art of meditation, as it helps ‘clear the road’ of any mental obstacles. However if anything the average concentration span is decreasing as life gets busier and busier and the world becomes filled with more things to distract and scatter our attention.
Here is one very easy-to-learn concentration exercise which was taught to me by my meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy. It can reap tremendous rewards in terms of clarity, productivity and efficiency in your life, and it can be done with just a few minutes practise every day. People commonly view concentration as purely a mental exercise; but here we are also going use our heart centre, that space in our chest we point to when we say ‘me’ – helping to take some of the burden away from our tension filled minds.
Requirements:
An object of concentration – best is to use a candle or flower, but you can even use a dot on the wall.
Method:
- In this exercise, we will use the candle, although you can adapt the exercise to whatever object you are using. Sit with your back straight, and place the burning candle at eye level.
- First bring your awareness to your breath. Gradually your breath becomes slower and more relaxed. Try to imagine a thread placed in front of our nose; you are breathing so quietly it will not move to and fro.
- Now we look at the object. Gradually bring your attention to a tiny part of the candle flame, for example, the very tip of the flame.
- When you breathe in, feel that your breath, like a golden thread, is coming from that point on the candle and entering into your heart. And when you breath out, feel that your breath, feel that the light is leaving the heart, passing through a point in your forehead between the eyebrows and a little above (in Eastern philosophy this is a powerful concentration point) and then entering into the object of concentration. Try to feel that nothing else exists except you and the object you are focusing on.
- When you do this exercise, thoughts will invariably get in the way. When this happens, don’t be annoyed or upset, just bring your attention back to the exercise. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and similarly it will take time to rein in your mind.
- (if you have the time) You can go one step further, and use your power of concentration to identify with the object’s existence. Try to feel on the inbreath that the existence of the flame, and the qualities it embodies such as radiance, serenity and aspiration, are entering into you and becoming part of your own existence. On the outbreath, feel that your existence is expanding and spreading out from the centre of the chest and entering into the candle. In this way, you concentrate on the object to such an extent that you feel no separation between you and the object; your existence has expanded to include the candle. In this way you can identify ourself with the entire world.
Start off with a modest goal – i.e 3-5 minutes a day, and then gradually increase with time. After only a couple of weeks of doing this exercise, you should notice the progress – a clearer mind, better ability to cope with tasks, less stress, more serenity.
If you are inspired to try, please let us know how you got on! Good luck!
Shane Magee regularly gives meditation classes in Dublin on behalf of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. For more information visit Dublin Meditation
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Great meditation exercise! Candle-gazing is one of my favorite meditation techniques, because connecting to a natural light source also connects us to Divine Light.
Blessings,
Andrea
I will try this and get back to you. Great article, I stumbled this!
So the glowing cpu screen I stare at 6-8hrs a day doesn’t meditate me?
J/K 😉
I’m lighting a candle and exhaling to extinguish the match right now.
Honestly never tried it before. Thanx
Brett
This is great…I have heard a little about this form of meditation or I guess road to meditation before…but I’m really glad I stumbled it.
agree, great article. the only thing is that i don’t need relaxation. (: i just live a life, where i m happy anyway.
Thank you so much. Peace be with you
I will definitely gonna try this.
Thanks
Very nice. We live in such a busy world that we often forget to stop and center ourselves. Great post. Thank you.
Stumled and put your post on my Easy Inner Peace Blog with resource, is that ok? if not, I’ll remove it!
Thanks so much for this great blogpost, I think it would be good for the world to know about it.
Love
Charlotte
Some times it’s hard to slow my minds random thoughts, so I will try this.
I’m often told that I don’t worry enough, but it does not bother me 😉
i`ll definitely try it ..thanks
Stumble rocks! Love this!
I CAN NOT HOLD A THOUGHT FOR UP TO TWO 120 SECONDS. PLEASE HEP ME
Your words enlightened me
Thanks so much! You think/speak/write from your heart
and therefore I could understand it, do it, feel it, and
it helped me a lot to overcome, to fighten the too much thinkings of “others” – my misunderstaned “it’s not good to be selffished” leaded me in the wrong direction – till neglecting me, so here “I AM” again, thanks you and your work.
DID I UNDERSTAND IT RIGHT?
As the candle’s reflection can fill my heart with joy and harmony, how much more could/can my reflection fill the heart of others, if I BE IN …ME/GOD/NOW/ACCEPTING THAT EVERYTHING IS PERFECT AND NECESSARY and ALSO THE HARD TIMES usw.
As I am not so advanced, I do not understand:
Do we learn and understand so the reflection of the people and can we understand so if someone is a person with a lot of good/bad habbits usw.????? Or will we always see/feel only the reflection of the soule??????
GOD BLESS YOU.
DORis
[email protected]
Hi doris, I think you understood with your heart, so therefore you understood perfectly 🙂
As for your questions in the second part of your comment: I am not so advanced as to give a perfect answer, but I will try. My meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy, taught me that the heart is different from the mind in that whilst the mind classifies and divides, the heart identifies and expands. So when we feel the beauty and joy in our heart, we also begin feeling the beauty inside others too. Like you say, you feel a ‘reflection of the soul’ which is all beauty. Our imperfections and bad qualities sometimes cover this beauty like clouds cover the sun, but the beauty is still there.
However the first suggestion also has truth in it – when you are in the heart, you also inwardly get a feeling about people and what kind of life they are living. This feeling can help you associate only with people who help you fulfill your purpose in life.
Hope that helps….
I shall try this. It seems like it could be a very positive life-changing experience.
Good One
hi
It’s been a difficult year and meditation is one of the things I want to enrich my life with. I’ll be trying this exercise and I look forward to a time when I can move beyond my thinking self to my true self. I had a brief glimpse while in hospital but sadly as soon as I was back to my normal life, life and thoughts got in the way again.