focus ! - the power of concentration - wait before you shoot !!

What do you see in this photo ?? 

At Hasthinapuram, the youthful Pandavas and Gaurvas were learning all the warfare .. .. one day,  Guru Dronacharya decided to show his other pupils why he favoured Arjuna. He  set up a target in the shape of a bird on a tree and invited his students to shoot at it. Before they did so, however, they had to answer his questions.  

First, Duryodhana took up his stance. “What can you see?” asked Dronacharya. The answer was, “I can see the bird, the leaves, the tree...”  .. .. yuvarajas came one after the other – with almost same answer or one outsmarting the other !  

When Arjuna picked up his bow, set the arrow and drew the string, his teacher asked, “What do you see?” Arjuna replied, “The eye of the bird.” “Can you see the tree?” asked Dronacharya. “No, only the eye of the bird,” was the answer. Dronacharya then went through a list: tree, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, his brothers, cousins, even the teacher himself. To everything Arjuna’s answer was the same: “No, I can only see the eye of the bird.” When Dronacharya gave him the order to shoot, Arjuna released the arrow. It sped straight to the target and the bird came tumbling down.  

That was the classic example of focus and concentration.   .. .. when a new aim is to be made, some do nothing - sit back, close their eyes, remain silent for a while !!  it is not being  inactive but an act of stimulating  thoughts capturing exactly what the task and how it is to be done - very thing that cognitive psychologists mean when they say mindfulness. We all know that in order to accomplish a certain thing we must concentrate.   

Concentration is purely a mental process. It needs an inward turning of the mind. It is not a muscular exercise. You should not fight and wrestle with the mind violently. When you concentrate on any object, avoid tension anywhere in the body or mind. Think gently of the object in a continuous manner. Do not allow the mind to wander away. Concentration can be done only if you are free from all distractions. A man whose mind is filled with passion and all sorts of fantastic desires can hardly concentrate on any object even for a second. His mind will be jumping like an old monkey.

 

Perhaps you would have enjoyed this anecdote .. .. ..yet, don’t practice it everywhere – the first photo shows a host of things and farther out there was a white pigeon, if the photographer (yours truly) had closed his eyes to meditate and concentrate, perhaps the dove would have flown away !!  

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
25.11.2022