How to Focus Mind under Difficult Circumstances

Sri Ramakrishna

how to do we focus our minds this focus of

the mind is actually very important for success in the

world and in the spiritual life

also Swami Vivekananda said

the difference between an ordinary person and a great person lies in

the degree of concentration and he himself had extraordinary powers of concentration

so focus of the mind is necessary for for anything and everything in life

now the yogic approach the Raja yoga or Patanjali Yoga approach that is

the science of concentration par excellence in fact in modern positive psychology

they have studied this focus of mine concentration one psychologist said that

the quality of your life depends on how much you can concentrate and what you concentrate on not just how much you can concentrate what you concentrate on actually this lady who wrote

the book wrapped red wrapped she's talking about a cancer patient who suffered a lot and decided that she would not keep her mind on suffering anymore because it's inevitable that suffering is going to come rather she's going to devote her mind to her art

I thought writing I think and as she learned to do that she found

the quality of her life became better in fact subjectively she was happier than when then before cancer

so she says that what you think about

so am I thinking about my writing and art or am I thinking about

the pain and cancer and the co-payments and

so on what am I thinking of where do I put my mind and how much of the mind

I can put on that Milton said in Paradise Lost

the mind in its own place can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven

so it has been studied a classic book and in this regard knee-high jigs and my eyes flow you're aware of that book yeah

so he has studied this phenomenon of attention and it's linked with

the quality of life and in fact he mentions Patanjali yoga there he says the best methodology that

I have seen for the attainment of flow is in this ancient technique of Patanjali yoga yeah am I audible to everybody

so that's one method but by Patanjali yoga,

that's

the method of concentration where you train your mind to think of one thing and keep on excluding everything as bringing your mind back to it that thing again and again and there's a whole science in it in

the fact we hide cheeks and we had that there he points it out that it's basically a function of two things one is

the challenge posed by the environment and other is your skill it's he gives an example suppose you are playing tennis when you begin to play tennis it's a great the thing just to return a server

so all your energies and your concentration focus you are all aroused and ready to face

the challenge and if you're able to return the service that is you attain flow there but that flow point it's a match between

the challenge and your skills your skill is exactly up to that level but then this point of flow is dynamic after some time what happens is if you keep just returning a serve it becomes boring after some time

because your the skill has now exceeded

the challenge now you need to up the challenge

so maybe you need to play a game then you maybe need to play a game against a good player and

so this flow focus is a question of challenge and skill to much challenge like in a workplace which is full of pressure you many people know in Manhattan it's like that then if your skill your capacity is below

the level of challenge it leads to anxiety uneasiness anxiety strain

if the challenge is way below your skills lead to boredom if they are well-balanced at that

the point you get flow focused what you're asking what does that mean practically what it means is that if you want to focus

the flow you need to increase the challenge to meet your abilities if the challenge is beyond your abilities

the environment is putting too much pressure on your abilities then you need to break it down into

Sri Ramakrishna

smaller chunks and deal with it one at a time a little bit at a time manageable bits at a time that's in principle it's easier said than done

but there are other things to consider also in focus one thing is one thing which scatters our minds is self-interest if I am in it for myself if my idea is that I am in it for this particular

the person then always I'll be tense what have I gained whatever I lost how much do I get out of this
I am not relaxed any more selfishness leads to a scattered mind it can lead to a kind of narrow focus on my own interests but always it will be vulnerable and you're open to anxiety and fear and frustration unselfishness

the unselfish mind is the relaxed mind

so the more your you are about doing good to

the organization you work for

the family unit your width or the community or in general,

for others,

you are relaxed about yourself or you are worshipping God in your actions you're offering all of your actions up as worship of

the Lord you it's not

so much what I'll get out of it Swami Ranganathan and DG said what is spirituality after

all the simplest definition of spirituality most practical

he said spirituality is when I close my eyes I find peace within

when I open my eyes my attitude is what can

I do for you with eyes open

what can I do for you herein

the world what can I give what can I do and I close my eyes there is peace with him our problem is just the opposite Swamy

when I close my eyes all sorts of disturbance within all sorts of thoughts restlessness within and

when I open my eyes not what I can do for you what can I get from you

so this is just the opposite of spirituality this is worldliness

so unselfishness to the extent that we can be unselfish to that extent mind will be relaxed and better focused

the focus which comes out of selfishness is a narrow bow a narrow band focus which leads to unpleasantness and tension and frustration another insight love need leads to focus

so what I love my mind automatically is drawn to that and easily focused without all sorts of techniques,

you don't have to do this breathing technique this thing and that thing it automatically leads to focus there so,

for example,

a mother in a house with looking after the young child right

so because the child the mother loves the child because the mother loves

the child all activities are done she's cleaning cooking taking care of

the child's homework getting ready to take the child to school and

so on all of that is being done and yet the mind is focused on the child

the needs of the child right

so love leads to leads to focus

but the devotion to God leads to focus automatically and easily without effort effortlessly

so and one more the thing this what we discussed today no mind when you realize that that you are that one existence consciousness place and all of this the world is your appearance then

the mind remains calm and steady and the unflattering flame look at

the mind of that prince the story of the princess of Kashi the mind of

the prince was disturbed and agitated you will say you'll smile and say unnecessarily

so for what but that's exactly our condition unnecessarily

so for what
one Swami put it very funnily you know he said before we come to Advaita our reaction to

the world is what and after we get a dread our reaction is

what so that calmness that relaxed focused at it steady attitude comes from that that is no mind is not thinking not shutting down
the mind that is no mind these are some of

the ways if you those who are discerning you would have seen
I basically talked about Karma Yoga bhakti-yoga Raja yoga and Gianni yoga these are

the ways thank you Shanti Shanti Shanti hurry