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In Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy, concentration is an important prerequisite to meditation:

Concentration is the Arrow.

Meditation is the Bow.

When you concentrate, you focus all your energies upon the chosen phenomenon in order to unveil its mysteries. When you meditate, you rise into a higher consciousness.

Concentration wants to penetrate into the object it strives for. Meditation wants to live in the vastness of Silence.

In concentration, you endeavour to bring the consciousness of your object right into your own awareness. In meditation, you rise from your limited consciousness into a higher and wider domain.

If you want to sharpen your faculties, concentrate. If you want to lose yourself, meditate.

It is the work of concentration to clear the roads when meditation wants to go either deep within or high above.

Concentration wants to seize the knowledge it aims at. Meditation wants to identify itself with the knowledge it seeks for.

An aspirant has two genuine teachers: Concentration and Meditation. Concentration is always strict with the student; Meditation is strict at times. But both of them are solemnly interested in their students’ progress.

From Eternity’s Breath, by Sri Chinmoy

However, it is always very tempting to make the jump straight to meditation. When I began meditating, I would preface my meditations with some concentration exercises but this didn’t last for long.

Ever since I was a kid, keeping myself focused on something and seeing it through to the bitter end was never one of my strong points, especially if it wasn’t one of my passions. So I have decided to spend a little amount of time honing my concentration skills, so that I can meditate longer and deeper. I wrote an article on one concentration exercise I am using:

http://www.srichinmoybio.co.uk/blog/productivity/an-easy-to-learn-concentration-exercise/

I am also hoping that my improved concentration skills will have knock-on effects in my daily life, especially in getting the will power necessary to make sure every choice I make during the day is one that helps me towards my ultimate goal of enlightenment (hey, why settle for less?)

The mantra ‘Aum’ (or Om as it is often spelt) is generally regarded as the mother of all meditation matras. The word itself defies English translation; it is the sound of the mantra itself that it is important, and is held to be the seed-sound from which the ebbs and flows of creation spring, and thus to chant the mantra is to gradually enter into the mysteries of the universe. For thousands of years, yogis and ascetics have chanted this mantra as their sole spiritual practice, and many have attained the ultimate goal of meditation - enlightenment or God-realisation - by doing so. Indeed, some of these sages have reached the stage where when they stopped chanting, they could hear the mantra being generated spontaneously in the inmost recesses of their hearts.

I first encountered the mantra Aum when attending meditation classes run by the Dublin Sri Chinmoy Centre. Even though I liked the classes very much and was inspired to ask Sri Chinmoy could I become a student of his, I never have really explored the mantra ‘Aum’ at all in the four-odd years between then and now, as I seemed to make more progress with silent meditation, singinging longer mantric songs, and the English (though no less powerful for that) mantra ‘Supreme’. However I was at a meditation class last night at which my friend Martin, originally from Graz in Austria but on a lengthy soujourn in Dublin, was talking about ‘Aum’ and he mentioned a specific exercise using japa (constant repetition of a mantra) to purify the being which Sri Chinmoy once recommended:

“The best way to repeat a mantra to attain purity quickly is to ascend by steps. You all know the significance of AUM, the sacred name of God. Today, repeat five hundred times ‘AUM,’ ‘Supreme,’ or whatever mantra your Master has given you. Then tomorrow, repeat it six hundred times; the day after tomorrow, seven hundred; and so on, until you reach twelve hundred in one week’s time. Then begin descending each day until you reach five hundred again. In this way you can climb up the tree and climb down the tree.”

“When you do japa, do not prolong your chanting too much. If you prolong the syllable AUM, you won’t have the time to chant five hundred or six hundred times. Just say the syllable in a normal but soulful way so that you will get the vibration.”

So I became inspired to try this for a month - that’s two up-and-down cycles of mantras. I began my first 500 aums this morning, and the practice definitely does fill you with plenty of energy for the day ahead. Let’s see how we progress….

Anyone who has been on a juice fast, or other kind of detox program knows there is a general period of uncomfortableness whilst the fast releases all the toxins and they make their way out through your bloodstream. you could say the process of meditation is a bit like a juice fast for the entire being, and sometimes the process brings up various mental and emotional toxins that had been lying dormant deep within, and it can be definitely a trying time as they come to the fore and swirl around your system for a bit befire making their way out.

The mistake many people make is to identify with all these thoughts and feelings, and to feel that these feelings are actually part of them, and start blaming themselves for being such a bad person - all this does is give the negative qualities added strength and increase your helplessness about being able to do anything about overcoming them. All of the great meditation teachers have instead encouraged their students to instead always bring the more positive side of their being to the fore, by either invoking the opposite quality of the negative quality they are currently feeling, or to invoke their higher Self that stands eternally beyond the pale of any petty day-to-day thoughts. The great spiritual master Sri Ramakrishna used to say: “If you say, ‘I am a sinner’, eternally, you will remain a sinner to all eternity. You ought rather to repeat, ‘I am not bound, I am not bound. Who can bind me ? I am the son of God, the king of kings.’”.

The feeling of unworthiness and usefulness is something that has to be banished from a spiritual seeker’s life. All people search for truth unconsciously, but how many people aspire consciously to realise who they really are and what their trup purpose on earth is? Not very many, and if you are one of those rare few people, you are a very special soul indeed. Here are a couple of quotes I like:

“There is beauty in the birds and in the animals. They too eat and drink like us, mate and multiply; but there is this difference: we can realize our true nature, the Atman. Having been born as human beings, we must not waste this opportunity. At least for a few seconds every day, we must enquire as to who we are. It is no use taking a return ticket over and over again. From birth to death, and death to birth is samsara. But really we have no birth and death. We must realize that.”

- Sri Anandamayi Ma

If you want to make the fastest progress,
At least seven times a day,
Perhaps for only five seconds,
But with a very strong inner intensity,
Be consciously aware of your spirituality.
You are on a very, very special path.
You are not an ordinary person.
You are a chosen instrument of the Supreme.

- Sri Chinmoy