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Applying the Power of Concentration to Develop Efficiency of Time of Accomplishment of Any Task · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  One of the key elements of Raja Yoga, based on the Yoga Sutras
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  of Patanjali, is the practice of Samyama, which is A1 pointed
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  concentration that is so complete that it merges subject,
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  object and the process of knowing into one unified whole.
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  By this practice, one knows everything about the object of
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  the concentration from inside, as it were.
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  Even without going to the final stage of samyama, however, an
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  individual can find tremendous benefit in whatever direction he
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  turns his attention through an increasing focus of the
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  concentration on the signal and a corresponding reduction of the
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  noise or static that disrupts or weakens the signal that is
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  coming through. An interesting example was
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  recounted in the great epic of India, the Mahabharata.
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  The preceptor Drona was instructing the sons of
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  Dritrashtra and the sons of Pandu in the art of archery.
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  He asked each one to focus on a bird in a distant tree and in
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  particular on the eye of that bird as the potential target of
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  the archery. He then asked each Prince to
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  describe what he observed. One after another they described
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  the land, the sky, the clouds, the tree, the bird, and
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  eventually they noted they saw the eye.
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  He then came to Arjuna, the premier Archer of the Age and
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  Arch. Arjuna replied that he saw only
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  a black spot. He had restricted his focus and
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  concentration down to just the target, the eye of the bird, and
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  it disregarded everything else that was a distraction to that
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  focus. While this story describes the
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  process of concentration in terms of success in the world,
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  it does not specifically address the point the mother is making
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  that successful concentration also allows 1 to accomplish
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  things in a much faster period of time.
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  This conclusion, however, is inevitable if one recognizes
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  that much of the wasted time in accomplishing anything is due to
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  the interference of distractions or noise that create friction
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  and prevent the individual from making the exact correct minimal
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  movement to achieve the result. The mother notes quote.
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  If you have much to do, you must learn how to concentrate much
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  all the more. And when you are doing a thing
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  to think of that only and focus all your energy upon what you
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  do, you gain at least half the time.
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  So if you tell me I have too much work, I answer You do not
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  concentrate enough. Another child asks for a
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  mathematical problem. Sometimes the solution comes
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  quickly, sometimes it takes too long.
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  The mother responds Quote Yes, it is exactly that.
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  It depends on the degree of concentration.
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  If you observe yourself, you will notice this quite well.
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  When it does not come, it is because of a kind of haziness in
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  the brain, something cloudy, like a fog somewhere, and then
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  you are there as in a dream. You push forward trying to find
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  it, and it is as though you were pushing into cotton wool.
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  You do not see clearly there, and so nothing comes.
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  You may remain in that state for hours.
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  Concentration consists precisely in removing the cloud.
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  You gather together all the elements of your intelligence
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  and fix them on one point, and then you do not even try
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  actively to find the thing. All that you do is to
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  concentrate in such a way as to see only the problem, but seeing
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  not only its surface, seeing it in its depth, what it conceals.
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  If you are able to gather together all your mental
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  energies, bringing them to a point which is fixed on the
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  Annunciation of the problem, and you stay there fixed as though
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  you were about to drill a hole in the wall, all of a sudden it
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  will come. And this is the only way if you
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  try. Is it this?
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  Is it that? Is it this?
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  Is it that? You will never find anything, or
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  else you will need ours. You must get your mental forces
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  to a point with strength enough to Pierce through the words and
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  strike upon the thing that is behind.
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  There is a thing to be found. Swoop down upon it.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Orobindo and the
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  Mother Powers Within, Chapter 4 concentration, pages 42 to 43.