concentration Quotes

“Now he turned on to the side street . . . resisting the urge to sob or even imagine the safety that might be awaiting him. He reminded himself that this was no time for hope. Certainly he could almost touch it. He could feel it, somewhere just out of reach. Instead of acknowledging it, he went about the business of deciding again what to do if he was caught at the last moment or if by some chance the wrong person awaited him inside.”

“How is it possible for me to be so miserable and embarrassed and humiliated and beaten and still function, still talk and smile and concentrate?”

Sutra 3.1: “desa-bandhas cittasya dhârañâ” Translation: Concentration is the process of holding or fixing the mind’s attention onto one object or place, and is the sixth of the eight rungs.

“It is better to dedicate two or three hours of intense focus to a skill than to spend eight hours of diffused concentration on it. You want to be as immediately present to what you are doing as possible.”

“In regular school you have to concentrate- and sometimes when you concentrate, you form nervous little habits. ”

“The player of the inner game comes to value the art of relaxed concentration above all other skills; he discovers a true basis for self-confidence; and he learns that the secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard.”

“The concentrated mind has no room for thinking how well the body is doing, much less of the how-to’s of the doing. When a player is in this state, there is little to interfere with the full expression of his potential to perform, learn and enjoy.”

“All these skills are subsidiary to the master skill, without which nothing of value is ever achieved: the art of relaxed concentration.”

“Losing concentration, Yukin almost fell as the land dipped beneath the grasses of the plains. Somehow he kept his footing, aware that the hunter birds were cruising the air currents in search of him. He knew he had no choice other than to flee.”

“Now don’t talk while I think.”