If I cannot concentrate or meditate, I simply imagine myself lying eternally in the Mother’s lap and going out when she sends me out.
This is the best possible kind of concentration.
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on the Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, p. 147
What is concentration?
It is to bring back all the scattered threads of consciousness to a single point, a single idea. Those who can attain perfect attention succeed in everything they undertake; they will always make a rapid progress. And this kind of concentration can be developed exactly like the muscles; one may follow different systems, different methods of training…. One should not have a will which flickers out like a candle.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM,Vol. 4, p. 5
Concentration means fixing the consciousness in one place or on one object and in a single condition. Meditation can be diffusive, e.g. thinking about the Divine, receiving impressions and discriminating, watching what goes on in the nature and acting upon it etc.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA,Vol. 29, p. 297
Concentration is a gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, e.g. the Divine—there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking of one subject or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA,Vol. 29, p. 297
…. The sadhana of inner concentration consists in:
(1) Fixing the consciousness in the heart and concentrating there on the idea, image or name of the Divine Mother, whichever comes easiest to you.
(2) A gradual and progressive quieting of the mind by this concentration in the heart.
(3) An aspiration for the Mother’s presence in the heart and the control by her of mind, life and action.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA,Vol. 29, pp. 225 – 26
This is the first thing necessary—aspiration for the Divine.
The next thing you have to do is to tend it, to keep it always alert and awake and living. And for that what is required is concentration—concentration upon the Divine with a view to an integral and absolute consecration to its Will and Purpose.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM,Vol. 3, p. 1
The defects should be noticed and rejected, but the concentration should be positive—on what you are to be, i.e., on the development of the new consciousness rather than on this negative side.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – IV: CWSA,Vol. 31, p. 700
If you have the capacity to concentrate, your meditation will be more interesting and easier….
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM,Vol. 4, p. 8
When calling down the Force, should I concentrate on the embodied Mother or open to and concentrate on the consciousness of the Universal Mother?
The embodied Mother must be the foundation of the concentration— even when you receive from the universal Consciousness above you, it is from her consciousness that you are receiving.
Sri Aurobindo – The Mother with Letters on the Mother: CWSA, Vol. 32, p. 52
Moreover, whatever you may want to do in life, one thing is absolutely indispensable and at the basis of everything, the capacity of concentrating the attention. If you are able to gather together the rays of attention and consciousness on one point and can maintain this concentration with a persistent will, nothing can resist it—whatever it may be, from the most material physical development to the highest spiritual one. But this discipline must be followed in a constant and, it may be said, imperturbable way; not that you should always be concentrated on the same thing—that’s not what I mean, I mean learning to concentrate.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM,Vol. 9, p. 360
….When there is the concentration on the Mother, then the progress can be smooth and continuous; when there is a failure of the concentration, you come into the outward physical mind and at once there is a conflict between the growing quietude and the inner psychic fire and the physical consciousness….
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – III: CWSA,Vol. 30, p. 386
You have to start [becoming conscious in sleep] by concentrating before you sleep always with a specific will or aspiration. The will or aspiration may take time to reach the subconscient, but if it is sincere, strong and steady, it does reach after a time—so that an automatic consciousness and will are established in the sleep itself which will do what is necessary.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – IV: CWSA,Vol. 31, p. 451
There is within you a psychic being which is divine, directly a part of the Mother, pure of all these defects. It is covered and concealed by the ordinary consciousness and nature, but when it is unveiled and able to come forward and govern the being, then it changes the ordinary consciousness, throws all these undivine things out and changes the outer nature altogether. That is why we want the sadhaks to concentrate, to open this concealed consciousness….
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – III: CWSA, Vol. 30, p.24
As a rule the only mantra used in this sadhana is that of the Mother or of my name and the Mother. The concentration in the heart and the concentration in the head can both be used—each has its own result. The first opens up the psychic being and brings bhakti, love and union with the Mother, her presence within the heart and the action of her Force in the nature. The other opens the mind to self-realisation, to the consciousness of what is above mind, to the ascent of the consciousness out of the body and the descent of the higher consciousness into the body.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Himself and the Ashram: CWSA, Vol. 35, p.825
The mind, if not controlled, is something wavering and imprecise. If one doesn’t have the habit of concentrating it upon something, it goes on wandering all the time. It goes on without a stop anywhere and wanders into a world of vagueness….
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM,Vol. 8, p. 181
Concentration of the New Creation (Concentration of Auroville)
(Picture not available.)
Concentration on a precise goal is helpful to development.
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose- of-China
Medium-sized single cup-shaped flower with thick crinkled yellow petals with orange blotches and red orange at the edges, and a light yellow centre.
The Mother – Spiritual significance of flowers
