Concentration signifies the state of being at a centre ("con" and
"centrum"). Applied to thought, it is the act of bringing the
mind to a single point. Each human being must practise
concentration subjectively and objectively. In other words,
each human being aims with more or less precision at
concentration on a point within and a point without his own
world. Concentration "without" is illustrated when you devote all
your attention upon Nature, such as learning a trade, a
profession, a science, an art or some form of business.

This is Evolution, outgoing or positive mental energy. I shall
call this Objective Concentration. Concentration "within" implies
the withdrawing of attention from the external world and the
placing of mind on "God," "Spirit," "Heaven," "Religion,"
"Peace," "Nirvana," "Eternity," etc. This is Involution, i.e.,
incoming or negative energy.

When Objective Concentration alone is practised, you develop into
a hard-headed, practical man of the world or a successful man of
business. You are keen and shrewd. The world is a very
matter-of-fact thing to you. You cannot think of anything else
beyond money-making and pleasures and worldly affairs. You are a
"worldling of the world," very clever, rich, and a master along
your own lines.

But spiritually you are an imbecile, worse than a baby. This is
the Objective Mind –the "deepest immersed in matter, literally
made of the dust." "It is the brain of worldly wisdom, common
sense, prudence, methodical arrangement, order, discipline,
classification, the skill and knowledge of the expert in any
branch or department of art or science." This side of the mind is
well developed in Scientists, Mathematicians and Businessmen,
etc. Where it is not guided by the Subjective Mind, it can only
see diversity and difference and is the slave of Maya–the slayer
of the Real.

Subjective Concentration is seeking the Kingdom of Heaven within
you. "God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in
Spirit and Truth." LAPLACE, the great astronomer, asserted that
he had swept the heavens with his telescope and found neither God
nor Heaven. Yes, poor LAPLACE! He looked for God objectively
instead of subjectively.

The Kingdom of God comes not with 'observation' but it is
'within' you. The be-all and the end-all of religion is the
practice of Subjective Concentration. The performance of
objective work by the human organism necessitates expenditure of
energy and at last death, because all Objective Concentration
means 'going from' the Absolute centre–God–and hence it expends
Spiritual Energy.

Subjective Concentration means 'coming to' the centre and hence
it husbands and recuperates this energy. Now nature is motion to
and from, and Spirit–the centre of Life. This two-fold motion
constitutes what is known as polarity–Evolution and
Involution–negative and positive. At the negative pole life
becomes involved, i.e., 'wrapped up' in form. At the positive
pole life 'evolves' or becomes expressed in nature. In Subjective
Concentration you return for fresh supplies to the inexhaustible
storehouse of force–the Absolute Will.

Jesus healed the sick, exhibited control over external nature by
raising the dead, because his chaste soul could receive nothing
negatively from God and could give it out positively to the
objective world. All power comes from God. I would impress upon
you the all-important necessity of placing yourself in a
magnetically passive attitude towards the Universal Will and then
of taking up a calm, positive attitude towards the phenomenal
world–which is a projection of the lower nature and hence must
be handled masterfully, fearlessly and confidently. Be positive
to the external world. Be negative and receptive to the Lord's
Will-force. Remember this.

This brings me to the supremest and most solid truth contained in
the Science of prayer. The praying mind, by its mere attitude of
faith and earnest expectation, opens itself out to the tremendous
inflow of Divine Energy. It draws close to the centre of
all-power, wisdom and love, and drinks deep of the living waters
of life so that even the very face or flesh begins to shine under
the influence of this self-polarization — if I may be permitted
to use this word — through prayer. Here is the causa nuxus
between a prayer and its sure reply. Do you remember what Lord
Rosebery said of the great Puritan Mystic Oliver Cromwell? If
not, please let me quote: "The secret of his extraordinary
success — he was a practical mystic — the most formidable and
terrible of all combinations. The man who combines inspiration,
apparently derived — in my judgment, really derived — from
close communion with the Supernatural and the Celestial, a man
who has that inspiration and adds to it the energy of a mighty
man of action, such a man as that lives in communion on a _Sinai_
of his own; and when he pleases to come down to this world below,
seems armed with no less than the terrors and decrees of the
Almighty Himself."

Now both forms of concentration must be practised so as
to hold the two poles in the even balance of harmonious growth.

HOW TO CONCENTRATE OBJECTIVELY.

(a) In all undertakings whether of small or great importance shut
off all thoughts and ideas except such as have any immediate and
direct bearing upon the thing in hand. Pay attention. Bend all
the energies of your mind and will upon it till it is completed
to your satisfaction. Divert your attention from one thing to
another only when you sanction by a resolve and understand why
you do so. Your daily work which you must choose according to the
special bent of your mind, will present you opportunities.

(b) Control impulse. Suppose an idea enters your mind. Compose
yourself quietly before carrying out its purport. Consider it.
Turn it over in your mind. Contemplate it. Weave your mental
energies around it, as it were, till at last the idea with your
final decision stands out clear-cut and well-defined. Then
proceed to act it out physically with your mental concentration
cutting a way for you straight on to the execution of your
designing. This is forethought.

(c) In perfect concentration time vanishes. In working out a
design on which you have set your heart dispense altogether with
the element of time and work at it concentratedly for days,
months and years with confident expectation of success.

(d) Take a picture, representing a landscape, the interior of a
building, an assembly of persons, a square, a triangle or a more
complicated geometrical figure. Look at it well. Then lay it
aside. Close your eyes. Reproduce the picture mentally in detail.
Then repose your mind on the same image to the exclusion of all
other thoughts. This is a more fixed and meditative method and
will sharpen the mind wonderfully. It will also develop the power
of conscious Mental Imagery. The key to Objective Concentration
is Conscious Attention.

Taken from "The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga" by A. P. Mukerji.
For more articles on Yoga, visit

1-Yoga.Net

Courage is the backbone of man. The man with courage has
persistence. He states what he believes and puts it into
execution. The courageous man has confidence. He draws to himself
all the moral qualities and mental forces which go to make up a
strong man. Whereas, the man without courage draws to himself all
the qualities of a weak man, vacillation, doubt, hesitancy, and
unsteadiness of purpose. You can therefore see the value of
concentration on courage. It is a most vital element of success.

The lack of courage creates financial, as well as mental and
moral difficulties. When a new problem comes, instead of looking
upon it as something to be achieved, the man or woman without
courage looks for reasons why it cannot be done and failure is
naturally the almost inevitable result. This is a subject well
worthy of your study. Look upon everything within your power as a
possibility instead of as merely a probability and you will
accomplish a great deal more, because by considering a thing as
impossible, you immediately draw to yourself all the elements
that contribute to failure. Lack of courage destroys your
confidence in yourself. It destroys that forceful, resolute
attitude so important to success.

The man without courage unconsciously draws to himself all that
is contemptible, weakening, demoralizing and destructive. He then
blames his luck when he does not secure the things he weakly
desires. We must first have the courage to strongly desire
something. A desire to be fulfilled must be backed by the
strength of all our mental forces. Such a desire has enough
commanding force to change all unfavorable conditions. The man
with courage commands, whether be is on the battlefield or in
business life.

What is courage? It is the Will To Do. It takes no more energy to
be courageous than to be cowardly. It is a matter of the right
training in the right way. Courage concentrates the mental forces
on the task at hand. It then directs them thoughtfully, steadily,
deliberately, while attracting all the forces of success, toward
the desired end. Cowardice on the other hand, dissipates both our
mental and moral forces, thereby inviting failure.

As we are creatures of habits, we should avoid persons that lack
courage. They are easy to discover because of their habits of
fear in attacking new problems. The man with courage is never
afraid.

Start out today with the idea that there is no reason why you
should not be courageous. If any fear-thoughts come to you cast
them off as you would the deadly viper. Form the habit of never
thinking of anything unfavorable to yourself or anyone else. In
dealing with difficulties, new or old, hold ever the thought, "I
am courageous." Whenever a doubt crosses the threshold of your
mind, banish it. Remember, you as master of your mind control its
every thought, and here is a good one to often affirm, "I have
courage because I desire it; because I need it; because I use it
and because I refuse to become such a weakling as cowardice
produces."

There is no justification for the loss of courage. The evils by
which you will almost certainly be overwhelmed without it are far
greater than those which courage will help you to meet and
overcome. Right, then, must be the moralist who says that the
only thing to fear is fear.

Never let another's opinion affect you; he cannot tell what you
are able to do; he does not know what you can do with your
forces. The truth is you do not know yourself until you put
yourself to the test. Therefore, how can someone else know? Never
let anyone else put a valuation on you.

Almost all wonderful achievements have been accomplished after it
had been "thoroughly" demonstrated that they were
impossibilities. Once we understand the law, all things are
possible. If they were impossibilities we could not conceive
them.

Just the moment you allow someone to influence you against what
you think is right, you lose that confidence in yourself that
inspires courage and carries with it all the forces which courage
creates. Just the moment you begin to swerve in your plan you
begin to carry out another's thought and not your own. You become
the directed and not the director. You forsake the courage and
resolution of your own mind, and you therefore lack the very
forces that you need to sustain and carry out your work. Instead
of being self-reliant you become timid and this invites failure.
When you permit yourself to be influenced from your plan by
another, you are unable to judge as you should, because you have
allowed another's influence to deprive you of your courage and
determination without absorbing any of his in return so you are
in much the same predicament, as you would be in if you turned
over all your worldly possessions to another without getting
"value received."

Concentrate on just the opposite of fear, want, poverty,
sickness, etc. Never doubt your own ability. You have plenty, if
you will just use it. A great many men are failures because they
doubt their own capacity. Instead of building up strong mental
forces which would be of the greatest use to them their fear
thoughts tear them down. Fear paralyzes energy. It keeps us from
attracting the forces that go to make up success. Fear is the
worst enemy we have.

There are few people that really know that they can accomplish
much. They desire the full extent of their powers, but alas, it
is only occasionally that you find a man that is aware of the
great possibilities within him. When you believe with all your
mind and heart and soul that you can do something, you thereby
develop the courage to steadily and confidently live up to that
belief. You have now gone a long way towards accomplishing it.
The chances are that there will be obstacles, big and little, in
your way, but resolute courage will overcome them and nothing
else will. Strong courage eliminates the injurious and opposing
forces by summoning their masters, the yet stronger forces that
will serve you.

Courage is yours for the asking. All you have to do is to believe
in it, claim it and use it. To succeed in business believe that
it will be successful, assert that it is successful, and work
like a beaver to make it so. Difficulties soon melt away before
the courageous. One man of courage can fire with his spirit a
whole army of men, whether it be military or industrial, because
courage, like cowardice, is contagious.

The man of courage overcomes the trials and temptations of life;
he commands success; he renders sound judgment; he develops
personal influence and a forceful character and often becomes the
mentor of the community which he serves.

Taken from "The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga" by A. P. Mukerji.
For more articles on Yoga, visit

1-Yoga.Net

An Article by Michelle Wood



Friendship was an important aspect of my life this past
week, from helping a neighbor assemble a planter/garden
arch and plant flowers to surprise his wife, to connecting
with former coworkers at a corporate function to which I
was invited. To tell the truth, I was a bit surprised by an
“Ah-ha!” moment about the strength and duration of
friendships, past and present, and these are the thoughts I
share with you.

I wish you many long and happy friendships!

—————————————————

Those truly linked don't need correspondence. When they meet again after many years apart, their friendship is as true as ever.

In the distant past, there was once a young and wealthy
statesman who was on a diplomatic mission. Pausing by a
river at night, he heard the haunting sounds of a lute. A
passionate musician himself, he took up his own lute and
eventually found a goatherd sitting on an old ruin. In those
days, an aristocrat would not associate with a commoner,
but the two men struck up a friendship through their music.
Their playing was as smooth and natural as flowing water.

Once a year, the ambassador and the goatherd would
renew their friendship. Though they had the chance to play
their music with others during the rest of the year, each man
declared that he had found his true counterpart.

The ambassador tried for many years to lift the goatherd out
of his poverty, but his friend steadfastly refused. He did not
want to pollute their friendship with money.

Years later, when the ambassador was gray haired, he went
to the appointed spot, but his friend was not there. He tried
to play alone, but his melody was forlorn. Finally someone
came to tell him that his friend had starved to death during a
recent famine. This news made the ambassador despondent.
He was caught in the irony of knowing that he had the
money to save his friend, and yet he understood the man's
values as well. In sorrow, the ambassador broke his lute.
"With my friend gone from the world, who will I play my
music for?"

True friendship is a rare harmony.

End quote.

—————————————————

No doubt you have a friend who is so close to your
heart and mind that, even though you may not see this
person for months or years at a time, the moment you are
together again, it is as though you were never apart.

I am blessed to have two such friends; both live on the other
side of the country. Due to schedules and time-zone
differences, I seldom speak to them, but when I do, the
conversation flows so naturally and easily it is as if I had
spoken to them just the day before, as if we had never been
apart. Much to my delight, I discovered a third such friend
just yesterday. I attended an event at my former place of
employment and had a wonderful conversation with a person
I had not seen in about a year, but with whom the
conversation flowed as if we had talked just last week
instead of over a year ago.

Just how rare are these "true friendships" as the story calls
them? Is there some secret ingredient or invisible chemistry
that goes into creating one?

I think these special friendships are a glimpse at Universal
Oneness. When you live in the Dao, you have no concern
for who is rich and who is poor, who is artistic and who is
not, who has a higher education and who does not, who
holds a high position and who holds a low one. Your
concern is not about being better or worse, but in being,
simply being in the moment, like the two gentlemen in the
story playing their lutes together.

The special ingredient that created their friendship and
allowed them to be in the Dao when they played together
was the common musical ground on which they could share
their passions. This kind of friendship is not about what one
person can do for the other or what one can give the other,
it is about a harmony of personal energies that enables a
sense of Oneness to exist that is far greater than a simple
combination of individual interests.

Just ponder if you will: do you have more than one passion,
one area of interest that you love to pursue? I have two: one
is teaching and working with children, the other is spiritual
learning and experience. Remember when I said earlier that
I have two special friends and recently discovered a third?
One of them is a special friend in the area of teaching and
working with children, the second is a special friend in the
area of spiritual learning and experience, and the third friend
is related to both these areas!

This realization is very valuable information. It tells me that
true friendships are not haphazard coincidences, they don't
"just happen," and they need not be all that rare. You can
build them on common interests and shared passions. You
can cultivate this type of friendship which leads to Universal
Oneness and being in the Dao by reaching out to people with
whom you can share your passions without regard to social
or economic position.

Don't wait for it to happen, go out and make it happen.

Every true friendship you cultivate brings you closer to living
every moment in the Dao.

—————————————————————————–
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