A Meditation Working With The Power Of Concentration

This track is primarily a concentration practice. There is some explanation at the beginning with a quote from Paramahansa Yogananda. It involves the world of colour and the blending of colours as a metaphor for our creativity and the blending of the colour of our own life. There is time for meditation and 1 minute of silence. Thank you for listening and I hope you will enjoy it.

Transcript

Greetings.

As this is a practice about the power of concentration,

I'd like to begin with some words from Paramahansa Yogananda.

These words give his distinction between concentration and meditation.

So he says,

Concentration means withdrawal of the attention from all objects of distraction and placing it on one thing at a time.

We do this through interest and determination.

Meditation means withdrawal of attention from all objects of distraction and placing it on God alone.

In other words,

Meditation is the application of concentration solely on God.

Now that might come as a surprise or maybe not.

Meditation is as old as time in actual fact.

It has been a spiritual practice by many cultures and religions and traditions and still is.

Now that's not to say that you are not meditating if you are not keeping to that definition alone.

There are many ways of perceiving God.

Don't get hung up on a word.

When you think of peace,

For instance,

Or love,

There are feelings that go with those words,

Aren't there?

So it's the same thing.

God is peace.

God is love.

The interpretation or perception is completely up to the individual.

And it is really advisable to find a perception of God or a higher being,

Higher mind,

According to what you're comfortable with.

I want to say also that given in Patanjali's teachings,

The Eightfold Path,

Meditation is right up there at the top.

There's so much to learn and live before we can even get to that level.

That's precisely why we take it slowly and learn to relax and practice the techniques to assist in training the mind.

Training the mind is the foundation of meditation.

Concentration is one of those important practices.

Please always remember to feel at ease with what you're doing and hearing.

If it doesn't feel right for you at the time,

Just let it go.

Keep relaxing and doing the practice,

Though.

I'm sure you can feel the benefits of that.

There's no rush.

We live in an instant satisfaction society,

Don't we?

That cannot be the case with personal and spiritual growth.

It's not instantaneous.

We cannot expect this to happen in a hurry.

We have all the wisdom that we need inside ourselves.

All we have to do is connect with it.

That connection arises when we are calm and still inside and outside.

Therein lies the work.

As I mentioned,

Our practice today is one of working with the power of concentration.

It's fun and it's also very beneficial.

It might even test you a little bit as to the extent that you can actually hold your concentration.

But don't despair because you can only improve.

Take your meditation posture now and close your eyes.

We'll do a breath technique to relax and then proceed with the concentration practice.

Tensing and relaxing with the breath is a very old,

Tried and proven technique to help relax the body.

It's always useful to use before you do a meditation practice.

I always do it myself,

So I like to pass that on to anyone that it might help.

What we do is sit upright with the spine elongated,

Feet firmly on the floor.

Just let the shoulders relax and the head feel poised.

Turn your palms facing upward on the top of your thighs.

In this practice,

You breathe in with a double breath through the nose,

Short and long.

While you're doing that,

You tense the fists along with any other part of the body that you feel you can.

Then you release the breath with a double exhalation,

Short and long,

Through your mouth and relax all that tension.

We do that three times to get the best effect possible.

Let's go with that now.

Breathing in through your nose,

Tense the fists and the rest of the body as comfortably as you can.

And release.

All that tension just melts away.

Again,

Inhaling,

Tensing and holding,

And releasing.

Last time.

Inhaling,

Tensing and holding.

Just a little bit longer this time.

And release.

Let go of all tension in your body.

Once again,

Feel your shoulders relax.

You don't want to tense your shoulders or lift them in any way.

Just let your shoulders and your whole body relax now.

Your breathing assumes a very comfortable,

Relaxed rhythm.

You're not trying to direct your breath in any way now.

Be natural and be at ease.

Now in this concentration practice,

We're focusing on the world of color.

So see before you a large palette,

Such as an artist would use.

Beside you is a large box filled with an array of tubes filled with radiant colors.

Reach into the box and take out a rich,

Vibrant red.

Squeeze the tube firmly and make a definite swirl of color on the palette.

Replace the tube and take now a tube containing a pure,

Glorious,

Sunshine yellow.

Squeeze some of this color onto the palette alongside the red.

And replace that tube now.

Select a deep royal blue and add an equal amount near the red and the yellow.

Now replace the tube of blue.

And you see before you on your palette those vibrant colors,

Red,

Yellow and blue.

See them as vividly as you possibly can.

And now take a thick artist's brush,

The type which tapers to a point at the very tip.

Dip it into the red paint and place some of that color on a clean part of the palette.

Now take another brush.

Dip it into the yellow paint and then add it to the red.

You're mixing the yellow paint with the red.

Swirl them together and enjoy the vibrant orange which emerges.

Orange,

The color of a summer sunset.

Check that you're relaxed and that your breath is calm and easy.

Now take up another brush and dip it into the yellow.

Place this color on a clean part of the palette.

Use another fresh brush to add some of the blue paint.

Mixing the yellow and the blue.

Swirling and mixing them together.

Watching as that lush green evolves.

Green,

The color of a field of grass.

See that vibrant green.

And now once more use a fresh brush to transfer some blue paint to another clean part of the palette.

Take your time visualizing clearly what you're doing.

Using another brush add some of the red to the blue.

Swirl and mix the colors to create the rich,

Velvety tones of royal purple.

Purple,

The color of deep amethyst.

Enjoy this process of creating,

Mixing and swirling colors to create other colors.

It's like magic.

Now see yourself sitting back looking at the palette.

And you see the red,

The yellow and the blue.

It's the separate red,

The yellow and the blue.

And from the combination of these colors you see the orange,

The green,

The purple.

You can't help but feel the wonder of this.

See them realizing what endless unlimited possibilities of color there are.

And reminding yourself of the power you have to create and blend the color of your own life.

And so resting now just let all that visualization soften and relax.

Take your inner gaze gently to the eyebrow center.

This is the center of inspiration and concentration.

And imagine right there at the eyebrow center a pure white light.

You might see it as a star in a dark sky or a candle flame.

This point of light represents the jyoti,

That means your inner light,

The lamp of light within yourself.

And feel that that light is one of peace radiating throughout your whole being.

Actually enlivening that power of concentration and creativity.

And that radiant light spreads throughout your whole body.

Be still now and relaxed and feel that light and that peace within.

And I leave you for just one minute to be in stillness and in silence.

I'll call you back.

.

Gently coming back now.

Bringing peace with you and the realization of the power of concentration.

Take your time to come back.

To externalize your awareness.

Perhaps moving your fingers a little bit and stretching your arms maybe over the head.

And smile.

Important to smile a little.

And so I wish you all the best.

I do recommend that you practice this visualization because many people have said it improves out of sight over time.

And it can reflect in other areas of your life where you need to concentrate a little bit more.

Concentration is a skill along with many other things that we have to learn in life.

So many blessings to you and thank you for listening.