Swami Sarvapriyananda explains How to Focus Mind under difficult circumstances

Sri Ramakrishna

How do we focus our minds this focus of the mind is actually very important for success in the world and in 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

Sri Ramakrishna

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 may 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 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 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 thing just to return a serve

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 skill has now exceeded the challenge now you need to up the challenge

Sri Ramakrishna

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

so on 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 point you get flow focused
what you're asking what does that mean practically practically what it means is that if you want to focus and 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 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 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 a 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 simplest definition of spirituality most practical he said spirituality is when

Sri Ramakrishna

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 here is 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 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 of 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 and 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 so 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