Concentration and Meditation: On the fundamental turn of mind necessary in order to initiate meditation.

“As long as we identify ourselves with conditions, we suffer; but when we cease to identify ourselves with these passing conditions, we never really suffer.” A small book on how to quiet and concentrate the mind, with many practical hints. Swami Paramananda founded the "Message of the East" in 1909, the first Vedanta periodical published in the United States which continued for 55 years, offering articles, poetry and commentary on all religions in its monthly, and later quarterly, magazine. He authored translations of the Bhagavad Gita and The Upanishads as well as four volumes of mystical poetry, "The Vigil", "Rhythm of Life", "Soul's Secret Door" and "My Creed" and many other books and publications. CONTENTS I. CONCENTRATION II. MEDITATION III. AIDS TO MEDITATION IV. SUPERCONSCIOUS VISION V. PRACTICAL HINTS a. Fixity of Purpose b. Practice of Concentration c. Methods of Meditation We all possess the faculty of concentration, but with the majority it is instinctive and automatic, not conscious. Even among the animals we see how a lion or tiger will gather his strength by a moment of absolute stillness before he springs upon his prey ; that automatic, instinctive power of concentration is embedded in every living creature. But until we can gain conscious command over our mental and spiritual forces, we can never have complete concentration. When the scattered mind is gathered together it is like a bright searchlight, and by it man is able to investigate the latent powers which he possesses but of which he is not now wholly aware. As he grows more conscious of these hidden forces and learns to use them, he becomes more and more proficient. So long as there is any disturbance in our mind, we cannot get the vision of our true Self. All these waves in the form of selfishness, ambition, desires must subside. The mind must be made one-pointed. When a man attains this, he sees the Self. At other times he identifies himself with some passing adjunct of mind like anger or jealousy or fear. If we analyze, we shall see that when any one speaks harshly to us, the word is first outside us, then it enters into us and we grow angry. At first anger and we are separate; then we become one, we identify ourselves with it and we suffer. The wise man, however, does not identify himself with these states or modifications of mind and body. He does everything like other people, eats, sleeps, works but his actions differ from others because he knows the distinction between the true Self and the ego. He realizes that all these outer things only exist because the Self is behind them and he is only conscious of That, so he goes through the various experiences of life without being affected by them.