Monday, November 16, 2020

a skill which can be cultivated





Learn self-conquest, preserve thus for a time,
and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it.
As soon as you apply yourself to contemplation,
you will at once feel your senses gather themselves together:
they seem like bees which return to the hive
and there shut themselves up to work at the making of honey.


~ Saint Teresa of Avila





Complete concentration is complete relaxation.
 The ability to work on a job with total concentration, 
and then put it out of your mind when necessary,
 is a skill which can be cultivated. 
Through practice, 
 
we can learn to drop whatever we are doing
 and turn our attention to a more urgent need.
 When you are absorbed in a favorite book 
and your partner interrupts you, 
set the book aside and give your complete attention
 to what he or she is saying.
 If part of your mind is on the conversation
 and part on what you have been reading, 
there will be division and tension in the mind. 
 
When we practice this one-pointedness during the day,
 it will greatly help our meditation.
 The mind will much more quickly become recollected. 



~  Eknath Easwaran


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