Course XIV - Teaching 10: Concentration

Concentration is an exclusive gift of the mind, a mechanical thought power to sustain and fix closely an idea. This gift has not anything to do with kindness of the heart or spiritual aspirations of the soul.
But this exercise is very useful because as a stage to achieve the realization and a piece of the great fulcrum that has to move the will in order to reach the divine consciousness.
Man is determined and limited by his mental vortex, which continuously emerge from the brain like circular whirlpools that acquire color, expression, form and materialization according to the power that sustains them.
As man emits his mental forces, he remains subject to them, whether produced by his subconscious mind or by his rational mind, or also by those thoughts made by other brains, which affect him directly or indirectly.
Concentration controls these vortex, for it removes from the mind any thought, image or understanding, except one already determined. Concentration is the gift of only one image, of only one desire and of only one will. Some people stated that this exercise is not indispensable, but this can be applied only to a person whose mind is already controlled and appeased.
When the aspirant, skilled in the exercise of Meditation, has explored the internal ways of affection and sensibility, and deliberately excluded any non-volitive emotion, he passes to the exercise of Meditation. But he needs to hold on and suffer in order to pass from one exercise to another.
A light boredom enters the heart of the disciple when his mind starts to know itself driven by a sensible meditation; gradually soft pleasures and sweet talks lose their power. Then he dislikes meditation and his only wish is to remain there calm and in peace.
The test of Concentration includes understanding; it is an exclusive function of memory and understanding, which fight a will that is pure and void of all. A continuous heedlessness torments the disciple in his hours of absorption; dryness and doubt become the bitter bread of every day and as profound anguish bother him, while he believes that his time is wasted and his good is lost. Here it is necessary a strong and determined action of the Spiritual Guide so that the disciple may enter with resolution the field of Concentration.
As soon as he enters this vast field of mental action, he needs to learn all methods and difficulties, and the way to determine the thought steadiness.
The disciple considers, observes and fixes thought images during the exercise of Meditation, but Concentration admits only one image; subject and object are the only existent; everything disappears, everything loses interest, and the mind expresses the vortex of the only image.
But before the disciple reaches this, he needs numberless exercises, of course, all of them indicated by the Spiritual Guide. It is advisable methods of postures, methods of vocalization, of repetition, of comforting words and many other external exercises, which habituate body and mind to concentrate on only one point. In the beginning, the disciple suffers not only for the good lost, but also feels worse by physical pains, for the renewal of organs coincides with the renewal of ideas and needs of the aspirant.
Painfully and gradually, the physical body responds to the fervent eagerness and call of current demands. In this time one undergoes physical pains, blood congestion, abnormal appetite and digestive and sexual disorders. A person that knows how to endure and overcome all these troubles can take for sure that he shall go on forward.
Ductless glands gradually secrete new forces, ganglia become stronger, plexuses are activated by new positive vibrations and blood vessels acquire normality through a passive relaxation; it is as if invisible workers re-filled old roads to open other new roads wider and more adaptable, and it is these physiological changes that cause so much suffering during this trial. When the disciple underwent and overcame these first steps in Concentration, then, being better prepared physically, starts sustaining his mind fixed on only one object.
Instead of Concentration on voices and external forms, Concentration is made on internal parts of being; certain Spiritual Directors advise preferably Concentration on the heart, other on lungs, other on the solar plexus, and so on.
Later the exercise is made on an abstract image, namely: Will, Faith, Patience, et cetera, until the disciple is able to concentrate on a point and his mind remains suspended there for a time more or less long. He has to learn how to be like a beam of light on the tip of a pin.