Part of our evolutionary goal in the 21st century is to develop our mind and become mentally polarized. To reach this goal we have to acquire the skill of concentration.
For ages we have allowed our mind to run wild, to run hither and tither, to flip from one subject to the next. Allowing our mind to move from one thing to the next, to constantly turn the attention outwards, to receive impacts from outer sensations etc. was an important step in our evolution. Quickly turning our attention, being on the alert, constantly being on the move etc. helped us to grow our mind and develop mental versatility. So, mental growth through versatility was, at some point in the past, an evolutionary goal for us which we all attained.
However, today we have a new evolutionary goal, and our current evolutionary goal now is to train, control and conquer our mind and become mentally polarized altogether – and to reach this new higher evolutionary goal we now have to acquire the skill and ability to concentrate.
Now, developing the skill of concentration is no easy thing to do (given our emotional polarization), nevertheless, there is no way around developing this skill if we want to grow Spiritually and master our life. Still, concentration is a requirement for meditation and it is the secret to succeed in any earthly endeavour.
So, how may we develop the skill of concentration?
Well, there is a whole science to it, however, here is one thing you can do to get the process started without having to put aside time to do isolated „concentration exercises.“
Concentration is all about getting a controlled mind do whatever has to be done. The biggest challenge to concentration is an undisciplined, wandering mind. Concentration is developed by overcoming this wandering mind through discipline.
Practically speaking, what that means is that we need to practice concentrating our mind by putting all of our mental energy and focus on whatever we are doing at any given moment (throughout the day).
The word concentration comes from the Latin „com“ meaning „with, together“ and „centrum“ meaning „center.“ When we concentrate, we bring the mind to a center. The center upon which we are to focus our mind is the very work we are doing at any given moment. And whenever our mind starts to wander off, which it inevitably will do, we just have to recenter it … and recenter it … and recenter it … on the very task we are occupied with.
This is how we develop the skill of concentration: by actually diligently practicing concentration. There is no way around diligent practice. We become masters by mastering.
The mind is supposed to be the Soul‘s servant, not the other way around. By learning to get our mind to concentrate on whatever we are doing at any given moment, we learn to become the master of our instrument. Just like a scattered army would be useless, so is a scattered mind. Concentration is about learning to focus our mind. Mastery of the mind starts with learning to concentrate our mind.
