 Lessons 9 and 10 of the Power of Concentration. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Andrea Fiore, January 9, 2008. The Power of Concentration by Theron Q. Dumont. Concentration can overcome bad habits. Habits make or break us to a far greater extent than we like to admit. Habit is both a powerful enemy and wonderful ally of concentration. You must learn to overcome habits which are injurious to concentration, and to cultivate those which increase it. The large majority of people are controlled by their habits, and are buffeted around by them like waves of the ocean tossing a piece of wood. They do things in a certain way because of the power of habit. They seldom ever think of concentrating on why they do them this way or that, or study to see if they could do them in a better way. Now my object in this chapter is to get you to concentrate on your habits, so you can find out which are good and which are bad for you. You will find that by making a few needed changes you can make even those that are not good for you of service. The good habits you can make much better. The first thing I want you to realize is that all habits are governed consciously or unconsciously by the will. Most of us are forming new habits all the time. Very often if you repeat something several times in the same way, you will have formed the habit of doing it that way. But the oftener you repeat it, the stronger that habit grows, and the more deeply it becomes embedded in your nature. After a habit has been in force for a long time, it becomes almost a part of you, and is therefore hard to overcome. But you can still break any habit by strong concentration on its opposite. All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits, practical, emotional, and intellectual, systematically organized, for our will or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be. We are creatures of habits, imitators and copiers of our past selves. We are liable to be bent or curved as we can bend a piece of paper, and each fold leaves a crease, which makes it easier to make the fold there the next time. The intellect and will are spiritual functions. All they are immersed in matter, and to every moment of theirs corresponds a movement in the brain, that is, in their material correlative. This is why habits of thought and habits of willing can be formed. All physical impressions are the carrying out of the actions of the will and intellect. Our nervous systems are what they are today because of the way they have been exercised. As we grow older, most of us become more and more like automatic machines. The habits we have formed increase in strength. We work in our old characteristic way. Your associates learn to expect you to do things in a certain way. So you see that your habits make a great difference in your life, and as it is just about as easy to form good habits as it is bad, you should form only the former. No one but yourself is responsible for your habits. You are free to form the habits that you should, and if everyone could realize the importance of forming the right kind of habits, what a different world this would be. How much happier everyone would be. Then all instead of the few might win success. Habits are formed more quickly when we are young, but if we have already passed the youthful plastic period, the time to start to control our habits is right now, as we will never be any younger. You will find the following maxims worth remembering. First maxim. We must make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. Second maxim. In the acquisition of a new habit, as in the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. The man that is in the habit of doing the right thing from boyhood has only good motives, so it is very important for you that you concentrate assiduously on the habits that reinforce good motives. Surround yourself with every age you can. Don't play with fire by forming bad habits. Make a new beginning today. Study why you have been doing certain things. If they are not for your good, shun them henceforth. Don't give in to a single temptation, for every time you do, you strengthen the chain of bad habits. Every time you keep a resolution, you break the chain that enslaves you. Third maxim. Never allow an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Here is the idea. You never want to give in until the new habit is fixed, else you undo all that has been accomplished by previous efforts. There are two opposing inclinations. One wants to be firm, and the other wants to give in. By your will you can become firm, through repetition. Fortify your will to be able to cope with any and all opposition. Fourth maxim. Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. To make a resolve, and not to keep it, is of little value. So by all means keep every resolution you make, for you not only profit by the resolution, but it furnishes you with an exercise that causes the brain cells and physiological correlatives to form the habit of adjusting themselves to carry out resolutions. A tendency to act becomes efficiently ingrained in us in proportion to the uninterrupted frequency with which the actions actually occur, and the brain grows to their use. When a resolve or a fine glow of feeling is allowed to evaporate without bearing fruit, it is worse than a chance lost. If you keep your resolutions you form a most valuable habit. If you break them you form a most dangerous one. So concentrate on keeping them, whether important or unimportant, and remember it is just as important for this purpose to keep the unimportant, for by so doing you are forming a habit. Fifth Maxim Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. The more we exercise the will the better we can control our habits. Every few days do something for no other reason than its difficulty, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh it may find you not unnerved or untrained to stand the test. Aceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The tax does him no good at the time and possibly may never bring him a return, but if the fire does come his having paid it will be his salvation from ruin. So with the man who has daily insured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volation, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him and his softer fellow mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast. The young should be made to concentrate on their habits and be made to realize that if they don't they become walking bundles of injurious habits. Youth is the plastic state and should be utilized in laying the foundation for a glorious future. The great value of habit for good and evil cannot be overestimated. Habit is the deepest law of human nature. No man is stronger than his habits, because his habits either build up his strength or decrease it. Why we are creatures of habits? Habits have often been called a labor-sang invention, because when they are formed they require less of both mental and material strength. The more deeply the habit becomes ingrained, the more automatic it becomes. Therefore, habit is an economizing tendency of our nature. For if it were not for habit, we should have to be more watchful. We walk across a crowded street. The habit of stopping and looking prevents us from being hurt. The right kind of habits keep us from making mistakes and mishaps. It is a well-known fact that the chauffeur is not able to master his machine safely until he has trained his body in a habitual way. When an emergency comes he instantly knows what to do. Where safety depends on quickness, the operator must work automatically. Habits mean less risk, less fatigue, and greater accuracy. You do not want to become a slave to habits of a trivial nature. For instance, Wagner required a certain costume before he could compose corresponding parts of his operas. Wagner could never write with ease unless there were rotten apples in the drawer of his desk, from which he could now and then obtain an odor which seemed to him sweet. Gladstone had different desks for his different activities, so that when he worked on Homer he never sat among habitual accompaniments of his legislative labors. In order to overcome undesirable habits two things are necessary. You must have trained your will to do what you wanted to do, and the stronger the will the easier it will be to break a habit. Then you must make a resolution to do just the opposite of what the habit is. Therefore one habit must replace another. If you have a strong will you contentiously and persistently concentrate on removing the bad habit, and in a very short time the good habit will gain the upper hand. I will bring this chapter to a close by giving Dr. Oppenheim's instructions for overcoming a habit. If you want to abolish a habit, and its accumulated circumstances as well, you must grapple with the matter as earnestly as you would with a physical enemy. You must go into the encounter with all tenacity of determination, with all fierceness of resolve, yea, even with a passion for success that may be called vindictive. No human enemy can be insidious, so persevering as unrelenting as an unfavorable habit. It never sleeps, it needs no rest. It is like a parasite that grows with the growth of the supporting body, and like a parasite it can best be killed by violent separation and crushing. When life is stormy and all seems against us, that is when we often acquire wrong habits, and it is then that we have to make a gigantic effort to think and speak as we should, and even though we may feel the very reverse at that moment, the tiniest effort will be backed up by a tremendous power and will lift us to a realization never felt before. It is not in the easy, contented moments of our life that we make our greatest progress, for then it requires no special effort to keep in tune. But it is when we are in the midst of trials and misfortunes, when we think we are sinking, being overwhelmed, then it is important for us to realize that we are linked to a great power, and if we live as we should, there is nothing that can occur in life, which could permanently injure us. Nothing can happen that should disturb us. So always remember you have within you unlimited power, ready to manifest itself in the form which fills our need at the moment. If when we have something difficult to solve, we would be silent like the child, we can get the inspiration when it comes. We will know how to act. We will find there is no need to hurry or disturb ourselves. That it is always wiser to wait for guidance from within, than to act on impulse from without. Lesson 10. Business Results Through Concentration A successful business is not usually the result of chance. Neither is a failure the result of luck. Most failures could be determined in advance if the founders had been studied. It is not always possible to start a money-making business at the start. Usually a number of changes have to be made. Plans do not work out as their creators thought they would. They may have to be changed a little, broadened it may be, year in there, and as you broaden your business, you broaden your power to achieve. You gain an intense and sustained desire to make your business a success. When you start a business, you may have but a vague notion of the way you will conduct it. You must fill in the details as you go along. You must concentrate on these details. As you straighten out one after another, others will require attention. In this way you cover the field of the first endeavor and new opportunities open up for you. When you realize one desire, another comes. But if you do not fulfill the first desire, you will not the second. The person that does not carry his desires into action is only a dreamer. There is a great creative force, if it is pure, intense, and sustained. It is our desires that keep stirring us up to action, and they will strengthen and broaden you if you make them materialize. Every man who achieves success deserves it. When he first started out, he did not understand how to solve the problems that afterwards presented themselves. But he did each thing as it came up in the very best way that he could, and this developed his power of doing bigger things. We become masters of business by learning to do well whatever we attempt. The man that has thorough knowledge of his business can of course direct it much more easily and skillfully than the man who lacks that knowledge. The skilled business director can sit in his private office and still know accurately what is actually being done. He knows what should be done in any given time, and if it is not accomplished, he knows that his employees are not turning out the work that they should. It is then easy to apply the remedy. Business success depends on well concentrated efforts. You must use every mental force you can muster. The more these are used, the more they increase. Therefore, the more you accomplish today, the more force you will have at your disposal, with which to solve your problems tomorrow. If you are working for someone else today and wish to start in a business for yourself, think over carefully what you would like to do. Then when you have resolved what you want to do, you will be drawn towards it. There is a law that opens the way to the fulfillment of your desires. Of course, back of your desires you must put forward the necessary effort to carry out your purpose. You must use your power to put your desires into force. Once they are created and you keep up your determination to have them fulfilled, you both consciously and unconsciously work toward their materialization. Set your heart on your purpose. Concentrate your thought upon it. Direct your efforts with all your intelligence. And in due time, you will realize your ambition. Feel yourself a success. Believe you are a success, and thus put yourself in the attitude that demands recognition. And the thought current draws to you what you need to make you a success. Don't be afraid of big undertakings. Go at them with grit, and pursue methods that you think will accomplish your purpose. You may not at first meet with entire success, but aim so high that if you fall a little short, you will still have accomplished much. What others have done, you can do. You may even do what others have been unable to do. Always keep a strong desire to succeed in your mind. Be in love with your aim and work, and make them, as far as possible, square with the rule of the greatest good to the greatest number, and your life cannot be a failure. The successful business attitude must be cultivated to make the most out of your life, the attitude of expecting great things from both yourself and others. It alone will often cause men to make good, to measure up to the best that is in them. It is not the spasmodic spurts that count on a long journey, but the steady efforts spurts fatigue and make it hard for you to continue. Rely on your own opinion. It should be as good as anyone else's. When once you reach a conclusion, abide by it. Let there be no doubt or wavering in your judgment. If you are uncertain about every decision you make, you will be subject to harassing doubts and fears which will render your judgment of little value. The man that decides according to what he thinks right and who learns from every mistake acquires a well-balanced mind that gets the best results. He gains the confidence of others. He is known as the man that knows what he wants and not as the one that is as changeable as the weather. The man of today wants to do business with the man that he can depend upon. Uncertainties in the business world are meeting with more disfavor. Reliable firms want to do business with men of known qualities, with men of firmness, judgment, and reliability. So if you wish to start in business for yourself, your greatest asset, with the single exception of a sound physique, is that of a good reputation. A successful business is not hard to build if we can concentrate all our mental forces upon it. It is the man that is unsettled because he does not know what he wants that goes to the wall. We hear persons say that business is trying on the nerves, but it is the unsettling elements of fret and worry and suspense that are nerve-exhausting and not the business. Executing one's plans may cause fatigue, enjoyment comes with rest. If there has not been any unnatural strain, the recuperative powers replace what energy has been lost. By attending to each day's work properly, you develop the capacity to do a greater work tomorrow. It is this gradual development that makes possible the carrying out of big plans. The man that figures out doing something each hour of the day gets somewhere. At the end of each day you should be a step nearer your aim. Keep the idea in mind, that you mean to go forward, that each day must mark in advance, and forward you will go. You do not even have to know the exact direction, so long as you are determined to find the way. But you must not turn back once you have started. Even the brilliant men's conceptions of the possibilities of their mental forces are so limited, and below their real worth, that they are far more likely to belittle their possibilities than they are to exaggerate them. You don't want to think that an aim is impossible because it has never been realized in the past. Every day someone is doing something that was never done before. We are pushing ahead faster. Maybe it took decades to build up a big business, but today it is only but a matter of years, sometimes of months. Plan each day's activities carefully, and you can reach any height you aim at. If each thing you do is done with concise and concentrated thought, you will be able to turn out an excellent quality and a large quantity of work. Plan to do so much work during the day, and you will be astonished to see how much more you will do, than on other days when you had not decided on any certain amount. I have demonstrated that the average business working force could do the same amount of work in six hours that they now do in eight, without using up any more energy. Never start to accomplish anything in an indecisive, indefinite, uncertain way. Tackle everything with a positiveness and an earnestness that will concentrate your mind and attract the very best associated thoughts. You will in a short time find that you will have extra time for planning bigger things. The natural leader always draws to himself by the law of mental attraction, ideas in his chosen subject that have never been conceived by others. This is of the greatest importance and help. If you are properly trained, you benefit much by others' thoughts, and providing you generate from within yourself something of value, they will benefit from yours. We are heirs of all the ages, but we must know how to use our inheritance. The confident, pushing, hopeful, determined man influences all with whom he associates, and inspires the same qualities in them. You feel that his is a safe example to follow, and he rouses the same force within you that is pushing him onward and upward. One seldom makes a success of anything that he goes at in a listless, spiritless way. To build up a business you must see it expanding in your mind before it actually takes tangible shape. Every great task that has ever been accomplished has first been merely a vision in the mind of its creator. Detail after detail has had to be worked out in his mind from his first feign idea of the enterprise. Finally a clear idea was formed, and then the accomplishment, which was only the material result of the mental concept, followed. The up-to-date businessman is not content to build only for the present, but is planning ahead. If he does not he will fall behind his competitor who is. What we are actually doing today was carefully thought out and planned by others in the past. All progressive businesses are conducted this way. That is why the young businessman of today is likely to accomplish more in a few years than his father did in all his life. There is no reason why your work or business should fag you out. When it does there is something wrong. You are attracting forces and influence that you should not, because you are not in harmony with what you are doing. There is nothing so tiring as to try to do the work for which we are unfitted, both by temperament and training. Each one should be engaged in a business that he loves. He should be furthering movements with which he is in sympathy. He will then only do his best work and take intense pleasure in his business. In this way, while constantly growing and developing his powers, he is at the same time rendering through his work genuine and devoted service to humanity. Business success is not the result of chance, but of scientific ideas and plans carried out by an aggressive and progressive management. Use your mental forces so that they will grow and develop. Remember that everything you do is the result of mental action. Therefore you can completely control your every action. Nothing is impossible for you. Don't be afraid to tackle a difficult proposition. Your success will depend upon the use you make of your mind. This is capable of wonderful development. See that you make full use of it, and not only develop yourself but your associates. Try to broaden the visions of those with whom you come in contact, and you will broaden your own outlook of life. Are you afraid of responsibilities? In order for the individual soul to develop, you must have responsibilities. You must manifest the omnipotence of the law of supply. The whole world is your legitimate sphere of activity. How much of a conqueror are you? What have you done? Are you afraid of responsibility? Or are you ever dodging, flinching, or side-stepping it? If you are, you are not a real man. Your higher self never winces. So be a man and allow the powers of the higher self to manifest, and you will find you have plenty of strength, and you will feel better when you are tackling difficult propositions. End of Lesson 10 Lessons 11 and 12 of the Power of Concentration. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Andrea Fiori, January 10, 2008. The Power of Concentration by Theron Q. Dumond. Lesson 11 Concentrate on Courage. Courage is the backbone of man. The man with courage has persistence. He states what he believes and puts it into execution. The courageous man has confidence. He draws to himself all the moral qualities and mental forces which go to make up a strong man. Whereas the man without courage draws to himself all the qualities of a weak man, vacillation, doubt, hesitancy, and unsteadiness of purpose. You can therefore see the value of concentration on courage. It is the most vital element of success. The lack of courage creates financial as well as mental and moral difficulties. When a new problem comes, instead of looking upon it as something to be achieved, the man or woman without courage looks for reasons why it cannot be done, and failure is naturally the almost inevitable result. This is a subject well worthy of your study. Look upon everything within your power as a possibility, instead of as merely a probability, and you will accomplish a great deal more, because by considering a thing as impossible, you immediately draw to yourself all the elements that contribute to failure. Lack of courage destroys your confidence in yourself. It destroys that forceful, resolute attitude so important to success. The man without courage unconsciously draws to himself all that is contemptible, weakening, demoralizing, and destructive. He then blames his luck when he does not secure the things he weakly desires. We must first have the courage to strongly desire something. A desire to be fulfilled must be backed by the strength of all our mental forces. Such a desire has enough commanding force to change all unfavorable conditions. The man with courage commands, whether be on the battlefield or in business life. What is courage? It is the will to do. It takes no more energy to be courageous than to be cowardly. It is a matter of the right training in the right way. Courage concentrates the mental forces on the task at hand. It then directs them thoughtfully, steadily, deliberately, while attracting all the forces of success toward the desired end. Cowardice, on the other hand, dissipates both our mental and moral forces, thereby inviting failure. As we are creatures of habit, we should avoid persons that lack courage. They are easy to discover because of their habits of fear in attacking new problems. The man with courage is never afraid. Start out today with the idea that there is no reason why you should not be courageous. If any fear thoughts come to you, cast them off as you would the deadly viper. Bring the habit of never thinking of anything unfavorable to yourself or anyone else. In dealing with difficulties, new or old, hold ever the thought, I am courageous. Whenever a doubt crosses the threshold of your mind, banish it. Remember, you as a master of your mind control its every thought, and here is a good one to often affirm. I have courage because I desire it, because I need it, because I use it, and because I refuse to become such a weakling as a cowardice produces. There is no justification for the loss of courage. The evils by which you will almost certainly be overwhelmed without it are far greater than those which courage will help you to meet and overcome. Right then must be the moralist who says that the only thing to fear is fear. Never let another's opinion affect you. He cannot tell you what you are able to do. He does not know what you can do with your forces. The truth is, you do not know yourself until you have put yourself to the test. Therefore, how can someone else know? Almost all wonderful achievements have been accomplished after it has been thoroughly demonstrated that they were impossibilities. Once we understand the law, all things are possible. If they were impossibilities, we could not conceive them. Just the moment you allow someone to influence you against what you think is right, you lose that confidence in yourself that inspires courage and carries with it all the forces which courage creates. Just the moment you begin to swerve in your plan, you begin to carry out another's thought and not your own. You become the directed and not the director. You forsake the courage and resolution of your own mind, and you therefore lack the very forces that you need to sustain and carry out your work. Instead of being self-reliant, you become timid, and this invites failure. When you permit yourself to be influenced from your plan by another, you are unable to judge as you should, because you have allowed another's influence to deprive you of your courage and determination without absorbing any of his in return, so you are in much the same predicament as you would be in if you turned over all your worldly possessions to another without getting value received. Read on just the opposite of fear, want, poverty, sickness, etc. Never doubt your own ability. You have plenty, if you will just use it. A great many men are failures because they doubt their own capacity. Instead of building up strong mental forces which would be of the greatest use to them, their fear thoughts tear them down. Fear paralyzes energy. It keeps us from attracting the forces that go to make up success. Here is the worst enemy we have. There are few people that really know that they can accomplish much. They desire the full extent of their powers, but alas, it is only occasionally that you find a man that is aware of the great possibilities within him. When you believe with all your mind and heart and soul that you can do something, you thereby develop the courage to steadily and confidently live up to that belief. You have now gone a long way towards accomplishing it. The chances are that there will be obstacles, big and little, in your way, but resolute courage will overcome them and nothing else will. Strong courage eliminates the injurious and opposing forces by summoning their masters, the yet stronger forces that will serve you. Courage is yours for the asking. All you have to do is to believe in it, claim it, and use it. To succeed in business, believe that it will be successful. Work that it is successful, and work like a beaver to make it so. Difficulties soon melt away before the courageous. One man of courage can fire with his spirit a whole army of men, whether it be military or industrial, because courage, like cowardice, is contagious. The man of courage overcomes the trials and temptations of life. He commands success. He renders sound judgment. He develops personal influence and a forceful character, and often becomes the mentor of the community which he serves. How to Overcome Depression and Melancholia Both of the former are harmful and make you unhappy. These are states that can be quickly overcome through concentrating more closely on the higher self. For when you do, you cut off the connection with the harmful force currents. You can also drive away moods by simply choosing and fully concentrating on an agreeable subject. Through willpower and thought control, we can accomplish anything we want to do. There is wonderful inherent power within us all, and there is never any sufficient cause for fear except ignorance. Every evil is but the product of ignorance, and every one that possesses the power to think has the power to overcome ignorance and evil. The pain that we suffer from doing evil are but the lessons of experience, and the object of the pain is to make us realize our ignorance. When we become depressed, it is evidence that our thought faculties are combining improperly and thereby attracting the wrong force currents. All that is necessary to do is to exercise the will and concentrate upon happy subjects. I will only think of subjects worthy of my higher self in its powers. CONCENTRATE ON WEALTH It was never intended that man should be poor. When wealth is obtained under the proper conditions, it broadens the life. Everything has its value. Everything has a good use and a bad use. The forces of mind, like wealth, can be directed either for good or evil. A little rest will recreate forces. Too much rest degenerates into laziness and brainless dreaming longings. If you acquire wealth unjustly from others, you are misusing your forces. But if your wealth comes through the right sources, you will be blessed. Through wealth we can do things to uplift ourselves and humanity. Wealth is many person's goal. It therefore stimulates their endeavor. They long for it in order to dress and live in such a way as to attract friends. Without friends they would not be so particular of their surroundings. The fact is the more attractive we make ourselves and our surroundings, the more inspiring are their influences. It is not conducive to proper thought to be surrounded by conditions that are uncongenial and unpleasant. So the first step toward acquiring wealth is to surround yourself with helpful influences. To claim for yourself an environment of culture, place yourself in it and be molded by its influences. Most great men of all ages have been comparatively rich. They have made or inherited money. Without money they could not have accomplished what they did. The man engaged in physical drudgery is not likely to have the same high ideals as the man that can command comparative leisure. Wealth is usually the fruit of achievement. It is not, however, altogether the result of being industrious. Thousands of persons work hard who never grow wealthy. Others with much less effort acquire wealth. Seeing possibilities is another step toward acquiring wealth. A man may be as industrious as he can possibly be, but if he does not use his mental forces, he will be a laborer to be directed by the man that uses to good advantage his mental forces. No one can become wealthy in an ordinary lifetime by mere savings from earnings. Many scrimp and economize all their lives, but by so doing waste all their vitality and energy. For example, I know a man that used to walk to work. It took him an hour to go and an hour to return. He could have taken a car and gone in twenty minutes. He saved ten cents a day but wasted an hour and a half. It was not a very profitable investment unless the time spent in physical exercise yielded him large returns in the way of health. The same amount of time spent in concentrated effort to overcome his unfavorable business environment might have firmly planted his feet in the path of prosperity. One of the big mistakes made by many persons of the present generation is that they associate with those who fail to call out or develop the best that is in them. When the social side of life is developed too exclusively, as it often is, and recreation or entertainment becomes the leading motive of a person's life, he acquires habits of extravagance instead of economy, habits of wasting his resources, physical, mental, moral, and spiritual, instead of conserving them. He is, in consequence, lacking in proper motivation. His God-given powers and forces are undeveloped, and he inevitably brings poor judgment to bear upon all the higher relationships of life. Alas to his financial fortunes, he is ever the leaner, often a parasite, and always, if opportunity affords, as heavy a consumer as he is a poor producer. It seems a part of the tragedy of life that these persons have to be taught such painful lessons before they can understand the forces and laws that regulate life. Few profit by the mistakes of others. They must experience them for themselves and then apply the knowledge so gained in reconstructing their lives. Any man that has ever amounted to anything has never done a great deal of detail work for long periods at any given time. He needs his time to reflect. He does not do his duties today in the same way as yesterday, but as the result of deliberate and concentrated effort constantly tries to improve his methods. The other day I attended a lecture on prosperity. I knew the lecturer had been practically broke for ten years. I wanted to hear what he had to say. He spoke very well. He no doubt benefited some of his hearers, but he had not profited by his own teachings. I introduced myself and asked him if he believed in his maxims. He said he did. I asked him if they made him prosperous. He said not exactly. I asked him why. He answered that he thought he was fated not to experience prosperity. In half an hour I showed that man why poverty had always been his companion. He had dressed poorly. He held his lectures in poor surroundings. By his actions and beliefs he attracted poverty. He did not realize that his thoughts and his surroundings exercised an unfavorable influence. I said, Thoughts are moving forces, great powers. Thoughts of wealth attract wealth. Therefore if you desire wealth you must attract the forces that will help you to secure it. Your thoughts attract a similar kind of thoughts. If you hold thoughts of poverty you attract poverty. If you make up your mind you are going to be wealthy you will instill this thought into all your mental forces and you will at the same time use every external condition to help you. Many persons are of the opinion that if you have money it is easy to make more money. But this is not necessarily true. Ninety percent of the men that start in business fail. Money will not enable one to accumulate much more unless he is trained to seek and use good opportunities for its investment. If he inherits money the chances are that he will lose it. While if he has made it he not only knows its value but has developed the power to use it as well as to make more if he loses it. Business success today depends on foresight, good judgment, grit, firm resolution, and settled purpose. But never forget that thought is as real a force as electricity. Let your thoughts be such that you will send out as good as you receive. If you do not you are not enriching others and therefore deserve not to be enriched. The man that tries to get all he can from others for nothing becomes so selfish and mean that he does not even enjoy his own acquisitions. We see examples of this every day. What we take from others will in turn be taken from us. All obligations have to be met fairly and squarely. We cannot reach perfection until we discharge every obligation of our lives. We all realize this. So why not willingly give a fair exchange for all that we receive? Again I repeat that the first as well as the last step in acquiring wealth is to surround yourself with good influences. Good thought, good health, good home and business environment, and successful business associates. Cultivate by every legitimate means the acquaintance of men of big caliber. Bring your thought vibrations in regard to business and to harmony with theirs. This will make your society not only agreeable but sought after, and when you have formed intimate friendships with clean reputable men of wealth, entrust to them for your investment, your surplus earnings, however small, until you have developed the initiative and business acumen to successfully manage your own investments. By this time you will, through such associations, have found your place in life, which if you have rightly concentrated upon and used your opportunities will not be among men of small parts. With a competence secured you will take pleasure in using a part of it in making the road you traveled in reaching your position easier for those who follow you. There is somewhere in every brain the energy that will get you out of that rut and put you far up on the mountain of success if you can only use the energy. You know that gasoline in the engine of an automobile doesn't move the car until the spark comes to explode the gasoline. So it is with the mind of man. We are not speaking now of men of great genius, but of average, able citizens. Each one of them has in his brain the capacity to climb over the word impossible and get into the successful country beyond. And hope, self-confidence, and the determination to do something, by the spark that makes the energy work. End of Lesson 12 Lessons 13 and 14 of the Power of Concentration. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Document by Andrea Fiori February 14, 2008 The Power of Concentration by Theron Q. Dumont Lesson 13 You can concentrate, but will you? All have the ability to concentrate, but will you? You can, but whether you will or not depends on you. It is one thing to be able to do something, and another thing to do it. There is far more ability not used than is used. Why do not more men of ability make something of themselves? There are comparatively few successful men, but many ambitious ones. Why do not more get along? Cases may differ, but the fault is usually their own. They have had chances, perhaps better ones, than some others that have made good. What would you like to do, that you are not doing? If you think you should be getting on better, why don't you? Study yourself carefully. Learn your shortcomings. Sometimes only a mere trifle keeps one from branching out and becoming a success. Discover why you have not been making good, the cause of your failure. Have you been expecting someone to lead you, or to make a way for you? If you have, concentrate on a new line of thought. There are two things absolutely necessary for success. Energy and the will to succeed. Nothing can take the place of either of these. Most of us will not have an easy path to follow, so don't expect to find one. The hard knocks develop our courage and moral stamina. The persons that live in an indolent and slip-shod way never have any. They have never faced conditions, and therefore don't know how. The world is no better for their living. We must make favorable conditions and not expect them to shape themselves. It is not the man that says, it can't be done, but the man that goes ahead in spite of adverse advice and shows that it can be done, that gets there today. The Lord helps those that help themselves, is a true saying. We climb the road to success by overcoming obstacles. Living blocks are but stepping stones for the man that says, I can and I will. When we see cripples, the deaf and dumb, the blind and those with other handicaps amounting to something in the world, the able-bodied man should feel ashamed of himself if he does not make good. There is nothing that can resist the force of perseverance. The way ahead of all of us is not clear sailing, but all hard passages can be bridged if you just think they can and concentrate on how to do it. But if you think the obstacles are unsurmountable, you will not, of course, try, and even if you do, it will only be in a half-hearted way, a way that accomplishes nothing. Many men will not begin an undertaking unless they feel sure they will succeed in it. What a mistake! This would be right if we were sure of what we could and could not do. But who knows? There may be an obstruction there now that may not be there next week. There may not be an obstruction there now that will be there next week. The trouble with most persons is that just as soon as they see their way blocked they lose courage. They forget that usually there is a way around the difficulty. It's up to you to find it. If you tackle something with little effort, when the conditions call for a big effort, you will, of course, not win. You will do everything with a feeling that you will utilize all the power within you to make it a success. This is the kind of concentrated effort that succeeds. Most people are beaten before they start. They think they are going to encounter obstacles, and they look for them instead of for means to overcome them. The result is that they increase their obstacles instead of diminishing them. Have you ever undertaken something that you thought would be hard, but afterwards found it to be easy? That is the way a great many times. The things that look difficult in advance turn out to be easy of conquest when once encountered. So start out on your journey with the idea that the road is going to be clear for you, and that if it is not, you will clear the way. All men that have amounted to something have cleared their way, and they did not have the assistance that you will have today. The one great keynote of success is to do whatever you have decided on. Don't be turned from your path, but resolve that you are going to accomplish what you set out to do. Don't be frightened at a few rebuffs, for they cannot stop the man that is determined, the man that knows in his heart that success is only brought by tremendous resolution, by concentrated and wholehearted effort. He who has a firm will, says Goth, molds the world to himself. People do not lack strength, says Victor Hugo. They lack will. It is not so much skill that wins victories, as it is activity and great determination. There is no such thing as failure for the man that does his best. No matter what you may be working at, at the present time, don't let this make you lose courage. The tides are continually changing, and tomorrow or some other day they will turn to your advantage, if you are a willing and are an ambitious worker. There is nothing that develops you and increases your courage like work. If it were not for work, how monotonous life would at last become. So I say to the man that wants to advance. Don't look upon your present position as your permanent one. Keep your eyes open, and add those qualities to your makeup that will assist you when your opportunity comes. Be ever alert and on the watch for opportunities. Remember, we attract what we set our minds on. If we look for opportunities, we will find them. If you are the man you should be, someone is looking for you to fill a responsible position. So when he finds you, don't let your attention wander. Give it all to him. Show that you can concentrate your powers, that you have the makeup of a real man. Show no signs of fear, uncertainty, or doubt. The man that is sure of himself is bound to get to the front. No circumstances can prevent him. Lesson 14. The Art of Concentrating by Means of Practical Exercises Select some thought and see how long you can hold your mind on it. It is well to have a clock at first and keep track of the time. If you decide to think about health, you can get a great deal of good from your thinking besides developing concentration. Think of health as being the greatest blessing there is, in the world. Don't let any other thought drift in. Just the moment one starts to obtrude, make it get out. Make it a daily habit of concentrating on this thought for, say, ten minutes. Just until you can hold it to the exclusion of everything else. You will find it of the greatest value to centralize your thoughts on health. Regardless of your present condition, see yourself as you would like to be and be blind to everything else. You will find it hard at first to forget your ailments, if you have any, but after a short while you can shut out these negative thoughts and see yourself as you want to be. Each time you concentrate, you form a more perfect image of health, and as you come into its realization you become healthy, strong, and wholesome. I want to impress upon your mind that the habit of forming mental images is of the greatest value. It has always been used by successful men of all ages, but few realize its full importance. Do you know that you are continually acting according to the images you form? If you allow yourself to mold negative images, you unconsciously build a negative disposition. You will think of poverty, weakness, disease, fear, etc. Just as surely as you think of these will your objective life express itself in a like way. Just what we think we will manifest in the external world. In deep concentration you become linked with the great creative spirit of the universe, and the creative energy then flows through you, vitalizing your creations into form. In deep concentration your mind becomes attuned with the infinite and registers the cosmic intelligence and receives its messages. You become so full of the cosmic energy that you are literally flooded with divine power. This is a most desired state. It is then we realize the advantages of being connected with the supraconsciousness. The supraconsciousness registers the higher cosmic vibrations. It is often referred to as the wireless station, the message recorded coming from the universal mind. There are very few that reach this stage of concentration. Very few even know that it is possible. They think concentration means limitation to one subject, but this deeper concentration that brings us into harmony with the infinite is that which produces and maintains health. When you have once come in contact with your supraconsciousness you become the controller of your human thoughts. That which comes to you is higher than human thoughts. It is often spoken of as cosmic consciousness. Once it is experienced it is never forgotten. Naturally it requires a good deal of training to reach this state, but when you do it becomes easier each time to do, and in the course of time you can become possessed of power which was unknown to you before. You are able to direct the expression of almost infinite power while in this deeper state of concentration. Exercises in concentration. The rays of the sun when focused upon an object by means of a sun-glass produce a heat many times greater than the scattered rays of the same source of light and heat. This is true of attention. Scatter it and you get but ordinary results. But center it upon one thing and you secure much better results. When you focus your attention upon an object your every action voluntary and involuntary is in the direction of attaining that object. If you will focus your energies upon a thing to the exclusion of everything else you generate the force that can bring you what you want. When you focus your thought you increase its strength. The exercises that follow are tedious and monotonous but useful. If you will persist in them you will find they are very valuable as they increase your powers of concentration. Before proceeding with the exercises I will answer a question that just comes to me. This person says after he works all day he is too tired to practice any exercise. But this is not true. We will say he comes home all tired out, eats his supper and sits down to rest. If his work has been mental the thought which has been occupying his mind returns to him and this prevents him from securing the rest he needs. It is an admitted fact that certain thoughts call into operation a certain set of brain cells. The other cells of course are not busy at that time and are rested. Now if you take up something that is just different from what you have been doing during the day you will use the cells that have not done anything and give those that have had work to do a rest. So you should regulate the evenings that you have and call forth an entirely different line of thought so as not to use the cells which you have tired out during the day. If you will center your attention on a new thought you relieve the old cells from vibrating with excitement and they get their needed rest. The other cells that have been idle all day want to work and you will find you can enjoy your evenings while securing needed rest. Once you have learned to master your thoughts you will be able to change them just as easily as you change your clothes. Remember the real requisite of centering is to be able to shut out outside thoughts, anything foreign to the subject. Now in order to control your intention first gain control over the body. This must be brought under direct control of the mind, the mind under the control of the will. Your will is strong enough to do anything you wish but you must realize that it is. The mind can be greatly strengthened by being brought under the direct influence of the will. When the mind is properly strengthened by the impulse of the will it becomes a powerful transmitter of thought because it has more force. The best time to concentrate is after reading something that is inspiring as you are then mentally and spiritually exalted in the desired realm. Then is the time you are ready for deep concentration. If you are in your room first see that your windows are up and the air is good. Lie down flat on your bed without a pillow. See that every muscle is relaxed. Now breathe slowly, filling the lungs comfortably full of fresh air. Hold this as long as you can without straining yourself. Then exhale slowly. Exhale in an easy rhythmic way. Breathe this way for five minutes letting the divine breath flow through you which will cleanse and rejuvenate every cell of brain and body. You are then ready to proceed. Now think how quiet and relaxed you are. You can become enthusiastic over your condition. Just think of yourself as getting ready to receive knowledge that is far greater than you have ever received before. Now relax and let the spirit work in and through you and assist you to accomplish what you wish. Don't let any doubts or fears enter. Just feel that what you wish is going to manifest. Just feel it already has. In reality it has. For just the minute you wish a thing to be done it manifests in the thought world. Whenever you concentrate just believe it is a success. Keep up this feeling and allow nothing to interfere and soon you will find you have become the master of concentration. You will find that this practice will be of wonderful value to you and that rapidly you will be learning to accomplish anything that you undertake. It will be necessary to first train the body to obey the commands of the mind. I want you to gain control over your muscular movements. The following exercise is especially good in assisting you to acquire perfect control of the muscles. Exercise 1. Sit in a comfortable chair and see how still you can keep. This is not as easy as it seems. You will have to center your attention on sitting still. Watch and see that you are not making any involuntary muscular movements. By a little practice you will find you are able to sit still without a movement of the muscles for fifteen minutes. At first I advise sitting in a relaxed position for five minutes. After you are able to keep perfectly still increase the time to ten minutes and then to fifteen. This is as long as it is necessary but never strain yourself to keep still. You must be relaxed completely. You will find this habit of relaxing is very good. Exercise 2. Sit in a chair with your head up and your chin out, shoulders back. Raise your right arm until it is on the level with your shoulder pointing to your right. Look around with head only and fix your gaze on your fingers and keep the arm perfectly still for one minute. Do the same exercise with left arm. When you are able to keep the arm perfectly steady increase the time until you are able to do this five minutes with each arm. Turn the palm of the hand downward when it is outstretched as this is the easiest position. If you will keep your eyes fixed on the tips of your fingers you will be able to tell if you are keeping your arm perfectly still. Exercise 3. Fill a small glass of water and grasp it by the fingers. Put the arm directly in front of you. Now fix the eyes upon the glass and try to keep the arm so steady that no movement will be noticeable. Do this first for one moment and then increase it to five. Do the exercise with first one arm and then the other. Exercise 4. Watch yourself during the day and see that your muscles do not become tense or strained. See how easy and relaxed you can keep yourself. See how poised you can be at all times. Cultivate a self-poised manner instead of a nervous, strained appearance. This mental feeling will improve your carriage and demure. Stop all useless gestures and movements of the body. These mean that you have not proper control over your body. After you have acquired this control, notice how ill it eases people are that they have not gained this control. I have just been sizing up a salesman that has just left me. Part of his body kept moving all the time. I just felt like saying to him, do you know how much better appearance you would make if you would just learn to speak with your voice instead of trying to express what you say with your whole body? Just watch those that interview you and see how they lack poise. Get rid of any habit you have of twitching or jerking any part of your body. You will find you make many involuntary movements. You can quickly stop any of these by merely centering your attention on the thought, I will not. If you are in the habit of letting noises upset you, just exercise control. The door slams, or something falls, etc., just think of these as exercises in self-control. You will find many exercises like this in your daily routine. The purpose of the above exercises is to gain control over the involuntary muscular movement, making your actions entirely voluntary. The following exercises are arranged to bring your voluntary muscles under the control of the will, so that your mental forces may control your muscular movements. Exercise 5 Move your chair up to a table, placing your hands upon it, clenching the fists, keeping the back of the hand on the table, and the thumb doubled over the fingers. Now fix your gaze upon the fist for a while, then gradually extend the thumb, keeping your whole attention fixed upon the act, just as if it was a matter of great importance. Then gradually extend your first finger, then your second, and so on until you open the rest. Then reverse the process, closing first, the last one opened, and then the rest, and finally you will have the fist again in the original position with the thumb closed over the finger. Do this exercise with the left hand. Keep up this exercise first with one hand, and then the other until you have done it five times with each hand. In a few days you can increase it to ten times. The chances are that the above exercises will at first make you tired, but it is important for you to practice these monotonous exercises so you can train your attention. It also gives you control over your muscular movement. The attention, of course, must be kept closely on each movement of the hand. If it is not, you will of course lose the value of the exercise. Exercise 6 Put the right hand on knee, both fingers and thumb closed, except the first finger, which points out in front of you. Then move the finger slowly from side to side, keeping the attention fixed upon the end of the finger. You can make up a variety of exercises like these. It is good training to plan out different ones. The main point you should keep in mind is that the exercise should be simple and that the attention should be firmly fixed upon the moving part of the body. You will find your attention will not want to be controlled and will try to drift to something more interesting. This is just where these exercises are of value, and you must control your attention and see it is held in the right place and does not wander away. You may think these exercises very simple and of no value, but I promise you in a short time you will notice that you have a much better control over your muscular movements, carriage and demure, and that you will find that you have greatly improved your power of attention and can center your thoughts on what you do, which of course will be very valuable. No matter what you may be doing, imagine that it is your chief object in life. Imagine that you are not interested in anything else in the world but what you are doing. Do not let your attention get away from the work you are at. Your attention will no doubt be rebellious, but control it and do not let it control you. When once you conquer the rebellious attention you have achieved a greater victory than you can realize at the time. Many times afterwards you will be thankful you have learned to concentrate your closest attention upon the object at hand. Let no day go by without practicing concentrating on some familiar object that is uninteresting. Never choose an interesting object as it requires less attention. The less interesting it is, the better the exercise will it be. After a little practice you will find you can center your attention on uninteresting subjects at will. The person that can concentrate can gain full control over his body and mind and be the master of his inclinations, not their slave. When you can control yourself you can control others. You can develop a will that will make you a giant compared with the man that lacks willpower. Try out your willpower in different ways until you have it under such control that as soon as you decide to do a thing you go ahead and do it. Never be satisfied with the I did fairly well spirit, but put forward your best efforts. Be satisfied with nothing else. When you have gained this you are the man you were intended to be. Exercise 7 Concentration Increases the Sense of Smell When you take a walk or drive in the country or pass a flower garden concentrate on the odor of flowers and plants. See how many different kinds you can detect. Then choose one particular kind and try to sense only this. You will find that this strongly intensifies the sense of smell. The differentiation requires, however, a particularly attentive attitude. When sense of smell is being developed you should not only shut out from the mind every thought but that of odor, but you should also shut out cognizance of every odor Save that upon which your mind, for the time, is concentrated. You can find plenty of opportunity for exercises for developing the sense of smell. When you are out in the air be on the alert for the different odors. You will find the air laden with all kinds, but let your concentration upon the one selected be such that a scent of its fragrance in after-years will vividly recall the circumstances of this exercise. The object of these exercises is to develop concentrated attention and you will find that you can, through their practice, control your mind and direct your thoughts just the same as you can your arm. Exercise 8. Concentration on the Within Lie down and thoroughly relax your muscles. Concentrate on the beating of your heart. Do not pay any attention to anything else. Think how this great organ is pumping the blood to every part of the body. Try to actually picture the blood leaving the great reservoir and going in one stream right down to the toes. Picture another going down the arms to the tips of the fingers. After a little practice you can actually feel the blood passing through your system. If at any time you feel weak in any part of your body, will that an extra supply of blood shall go there? For instance, if your eyes feel tired, picture the blood coming from the heart passing up through the head and out to the eyes. You can wonderfully increase your strength by this exercise. Men have been able to gain such control over their heart that they have actually stopped it from beating for five minutes. This however is not without danger and it is not to be practiced by the novice. I have found the following a very helpful exercise to take just before going to bed and on rising in the morning. Say to yourself, every cell in my body thrills with life. Every part of my body is strong and healthy. I have known a number of people to greatly improve their health in this way. You become what you picture yourself to be. If your mind thinks of sickness and connection with self, you will be sick. If you imagine yourself in strong, vigorous health, the image will be realized. You will be healthy. Exercise 9. Concentrating on sleep. What is known as the water method is, although very simple, very effective in inducing sleep, put a full glass of clear water on a table in your sleeping room, sit in a chair beside the table and gaze into the glass of water and think how calm it is. Then picture yourself getting into just as calm a state. In a short time you will find the nerves becoming quiet and you will be able to go to sleep. Sometimes it is good to picture yourself becoming drowsy to induce sleep and again the most persistent insomnia has been overcome by one thinking of himself as some innate object, for instance, a hollow log in the depths of the cool quiet forest. Those who are troubled with insomnia will find these sleep exercises that quiet the nerves very effective. Just keep the idea in your mind that there is no difficulty in going to sleep. Banish all fears of insomnia. Practice these exercises and you will sleep. By this time you should have awakened to the possibilities of concentration and have become aware of the important part it plays in your life. Exercise 10. Concentration will save energy and appearance. Watch yourself and see if you are not in the habit of moving your hands, thumping something with your fingers or twirling your mustache. Some have the habit of keeping their feet going, as for instance tapping them on the floor. Practice standing before a mirror and see if you are in the habit of frowning or causing wrinkles to appear in the forehead. Watch others and see how they needlessly twist their faces and talking. Any movement of the face that causes the skin to wrinkle will eventually cause a permanent wrinkle. As the face is like a piece of silk you can make a fold in it a number of times and it will straighten out of itself, but if you continue to make a fold in it, it will in time be impossible to remove it. By concentration you can stop the worry habit. If you are in the habit of worrying over the merest trifles, just concentrate on this a few minutes and see how needless it is. If you are also in the habit of becoming irritable or nervous, at the least little thing, check yourself instantly when you feel yourself becoming so. Start to breathe deeply, say, I will not be so weak, I am a master of myself, and you will quickly overcome your condition. Exercise 11. By concentration you can control your temper. If you are one of those that flare up at the slightest provocation and never try to control yourself, just think this over a minute. Does it do you any good? Do you gain anything by it? Doesn't it put you out of poise for some time? Don't you know that this grows on you and will eventually make you despise by all that have any dealings with you? Everyone makes mistakes, and instead of becoming angry at their perpetrators, just say to them, Be more careful next time. This thought will be impressed on them, and they will be more careful. But if you continually complain about their making a mistake, the thought of a mistake is impressed on them, and they will be more likely to make mistakes in the future. All lack of self-control can be conquered, if you will but learn to concentrate. Many of you that read this may think you are not guilty of either of these faults, but if you will carefully watch yourself you will probably find that you are, and if this is so you will be greatly helped by repeating this affirmation each morning. I am going to try today not to make a useless gesture or to worry over trifles or become nervous or irritable. I intend to be calm, and in no difference what may be the circumstances I will control myself. Henceforth I resolve to be free from all signs that show lack of self-control. At night quickly review your actions during the day and see how fully you realized your aim. At first you will, of course, have to plead guilty of violation a few times, but keep on, and you will soon find that you can live up to your ideal. After you have once gained self-control, however, don't relinquish it. For some time it will still be necessary to repeat the affirmation in the morning and square your conduct with it in the evening. Keep up the good work until at last the habit of self-control is so firmly fixed that you could not break it even though you tried. I have had many persons tell me that this affirmation and daily review made a wonderful difference in their lives. You too will notice a difference if you live up to these instructions. Practice talking before a glass. Make two marks on your mirror on a level with your eyes, and think of them as two human eyes looking into yours. Your eyes will probably blink a little at first. Do not move your head but stand erect. Concentrate all your thoughts on keeping your head perfectly still. Do not let another thought come into your mind. Then still keeping the head, eyes, and body still. Think that you look like a reliable man or woman should, like a person that anyone would have confidence in. Do not let your appearance be such as to justify the remark, I don't like his appearance. I don't believe he can be trusted. While standing before the mirror, practice deep breathing. See that there is plenty of fresh air in the room and that you are literally feasting on it. You will find that, as it permeates every cell, your timidity will disappear. It has been replaced by a sense of peace and power. The one that stands up like a man and has control over the muscles of his face and eyes always commands attention. In his conversation he can better impress those with whom he comes in contact. He acquires a feeling of calmness and strength that causes opposition to melt away before it. Three minutes a day is long enough for the practice of this exercise. Look at the clock before you commence the exercise, and if you find you can prolong the exercise for more than five minutes, do so. The next day sit in a chair and, without looking at the picture, concentrate on it and see if you cannot think of additional details concerning it. The chances are you will be able to think of many more. It might be well for you to write down all you thought of the first day and then add to the list each new discovery. You will find that this is a very excellent exercise in concentration. Exercise 13. The Control of Sensations. Think how you would feel if you were cool. Then think how you would feel if you were cold. Again how would you feel if it were freezing? In this state you would be shivering all over. Now think of just the opposite conditions. Construct such a vivid image of heat that you are able to experience the sensation of heat even in the coldest atmosphere. It is possible to train your imagination until you do this, and it can then be turned to practical account in making undesirable conditions bearable. You can think of many very good exercises like this. For instance, if you feel yourself getting hungry or thirsty and for any reason you do not wish to eat, do not think of how hungry or thirsty you are, but just visualize yourself as finishing a hearty meal. Again, when you experience pain, do not increase it by thinking about it, but do something to divert your attention, and the pain will seem to decrease. If you will start practicing along this line systematically, you will soon gain a wonderful control over the things that affect your physical comfort. Exercise 14. The Eastern Way of Concentrating. Sit in a chair with a high back in upright position. Press one finger against the right nostril. Now take a long, deep breath. Drawing the breath in gently as you count ten. Then expel the breath through the right nostril as you count ten. Repeat this exercise with the opposite nostril. This exercise should be done at least twenty times at each sitting. Exercise 15. Controlling Desires. Desire which is one of the hardest forces to control will furnish you with excellent exercises and concentration. It seems natural to want to tell others what you know, but by learning to control these desires, you can wonderfully strengthen your powers of concentration. Remember, you have all that you can do to attend to your own business. Do not waste your time in thinking of others or in gossiping about them. If from your own observation you learn something about another person that is detrimental, keep it to yourself. Your opinion may afterwards turn out to be wrong anyway, but whether right or wrong, you have strengthened your will by controlling your desire to communicate your views. If you hear good news, resist the desire to tell it to the first person you meet and you will be benefited thereby. It will require the concentration of all your powers of resistance to prohibit the desire to tell. After you feel that you have complete control over your desires, you can then tell your news. But you must be able to suppress the desire to communicate the news until you are fully ready to tell it. Persons that do not possess this power of control over desires are apt to tell things that they should not, thereby often involving both themselves and others in needless trouble. If you are in the habit of getting excited when you hear unpleasant news, just control yourself and receive it without any exclamation of surprise. Say to yourself, Nothing is going to cause me to lose my self-control. You will find from experience that this self-control will be worth much to you in business. You will be looked upon as a cool-headed business man, and this in time becomes a valuable business asset. Of course, circumstances alter cases. At times it is necessary to become enthused, but be ever on the lookout for opportunities for the practice of self-control. He that ruleeth his spirit is greater than he that ruleeth the city. Exercise 16 When You Read No one can think without first concentrating his thoughts on the subject in hand. Every man and woman should train himself to think clearly. An excellent exercise is to read some short story, and then write just an abridged statement. Read an article in a newspaper, and see how in a few words you can express it. Reading an article to get only the essentials requires the closest concentration. If you are unable to write out what you read, you will know you are weak in concentration. Instead of writing it out, you can express it orally if you wish. Go to your room and deliver it as if you were talking to someone. You will find exercises like this of the greatest value in developing concentration and learning to think. After you have practiced a number of these simple exercises, read a book for twenty minutes and then write down what you have read. The chances are that first you will not remember very many details, but with a little practice you will be able to write a very good account of what you have read. The closer the concentration, the more accurate the account will be. It is a good idea when time is limited to read only a short sentence and then try to write it down word for word. When you are able to do this, read two or more sentences and treat similarly. The practice will produce very good results if you keep it up until the habit is fixed. If you will just utilize your spare time in practicing exercises like those suggested, you can gain wonderful powers of concentration. You will find that in order to remember every word in a sentence, you must keep out every thought but that which you wish to remember, and this power of inhibition alone will more than compensate for the trouble of the exercise. Of course, success in all of the above depends largely upon cultivating through the closest concentration, the power to image or picture what you read, upon the power, as one writer expresses it, of letting the mountains of which we hear loom before us and the rivers of which we read roll at our feet. Exercise 17 Concentration Overcomes Bad Habits If you have a habit that you want to get rid of, shut your eyes and imagine that your real self is standing before you. Now try the power of affirmation. Say to yourself, you are not a weakling. You can stop this habit if you want to. This habit is bad and you want to break it. Just imagine that you are someone else giving this advice. This is a very valuable practice. You, in time, see yourself as others see you. The habit loses its power over you and you are free. If you will just form the mental image of controlling yourself as another person might, you will take a delight in breaking bad habits. I have known a number of men to break themselves of drinking in this way. Exercise 18 Watch Concentration. Sit in a chair and place a clock with the second hand on the table. Follow the second hand with your eyes as it goes around. Keep this up for five minutes, thinking of nothing else but the second hand. This is a very good exercise when you only have a few minutes to spare if you are able to keep every other thought in the stream of consciousness subordinate to it. As there is little that is particularly interesting about the second hand, it is hard to do this, but in the extra effort of willpower required to make it successful lies its value. Always try to keep as still as possible during these exercises. In this way you gain control over nerves and this quieting effect is very good for them. Exercise 19 Faith Concentration. A belief in the power to concentrate is, of course, very important. I purposely did not put this exercise in the beginning where it naturally belongs, because I wanted you to know that you could learn to concentrate. If you have practiced the above exercises, you have now developed this concentration power to a considerable extent, and therefore you have faith in the power of concentration, but you can still become a much stronger believer in it. We will say that you have some desire or wish you want fulfilled, or that you need some special advice. You first clearly picture what is wanted, and then you concentrate on getting it. Have absolute faith that your desires will be realized. Believe that it will, according to your belief, be fulfilled. Never at this time attempt to analyze the belief. You don't care anything about the wise and wherefores. You want to gain the thing you desire, and if you concentrate on it in the right way, you will get it. A caution. Never think you will not succeed, but picture what is wanted as already yours, and yours it surely will be. Self-Distrust. Do you ever feel distrust in yourself? If you do, just ask yourself, which self do I mistrust? Then say, my higher self cannot be affected. Then think of the wonderful powers of the higher self. There is a way to overcome all difficulties, and it is a delight for the human soul to do so. Instead of wasting precious thought-force by dreading or fearing a disagreeable interview or event, instead devote the time and concentrated thought in how to make the best of the interview or event, and you will find that it will not be as unpleasant as you thought it would be. Most of our troubles are but imaginary, and it is the mental habit of so dreading them that really acts as a magnet in attracting those that really do come. Your evil circumstances are created or attracted by your own negative fears and wrong thoughts, and are a means of teaching you to triumph over all evils by discovering that which is inherent within yourself. You will find it helpful in overcoming self-distrust, to stop and think, why are you concentrating your forces, and by so doing you become more closely attached to the higher self, which never distrusts. End of Lesson 14 Lessons 15 and 16 of THE POWER OF CONCENTRATION This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. THE POWER OF CONCENTRATION by Theron Q. Dumont A man forgets because he does not concentrate his mind on his purpose, especially at the moment he conceives it. We remember only that which makes a deep impression, hence we must first deepen our impressions by associating in our minds certain ideas that are related to them. We will say a wife gives her husband a letter to mail. He does not think about it, but automatically puts it in his pocket, and forgets all about it. When the letter was given to him, had he said to himself, I will mail this letter, the box is at the next corner, and when I pass it I must drop this letter. It would have enabled him to recall the letter the instant he reached the mailbox. The same rule holds good in regard to more important things. For example, if you are instructed to drop in and see Mr. Smith while out to luncheon today, you will not forget it. If at the same moment the instruction is given, you say to yourself something similar to the following, when I get to the corner of Blank Street, on my way to luncheon, I shall turn to the right and call on Mr. Smith. In this way the impression is made, the connection established, and the sight of the associated object recalls the errand. The important thing to do is to deepen the impression at the very moment it enters your mind. This is made possible not only by concentrating the mind upon the idea itself, but by surrounding it with all possible association of ideas, so that each one will reinforce the others. The mind is governed by laws of association, such as the law that ideas which enter the mind at the same time emerge at the same time, one assisting in recalling the others. The reason why people cannot remember what they want to is that they have not concentrated their mind sufficiently on their purpose at the moment when it was formed. You can train yourself to remember in this way by the concentration of the attention on your purpose in accordance with the laws of association. When once you form this habit the attention is easily centered and the memory easily trained. Then your memory, instead of failing you at crucial moments, becomes a valuable asset in your everyday work. Exercise in Memory Concentration Select some picture, put it on a table, and then look at it for two minutes. Concentrate your attention on this picture, observe every detail, and shut your eyes and see how much you can recall about it. Think of what the picture represents, whether it is a good subject, whether it looks natural. Think of objects in foreground, middle ground, background, of details of color and form. Now open your eyes and hold yourself rigidly to the correction of each and every mistake. Close your eyes again and notice how much more accurate your picture is. Notice until your mental image corresponds in every particular to the original. Nature is a wonderful instructor. But there are very few who realize that when we get in touch with nature we discover ourselves, that by listening to her voice with that curious inner sense of ours we learn the oneness of life and wake up to our own latent powers. Few realize that the simple act of listening and concentrating is our best interior power, for it brings us into close contact with the highest, just as our other senses bring us into touch with the coarser side of human nature. The closer we live to nature the more developed is this sense. So-called civilization has overdeveloped our other senses at the expense of this one. Children unconsciously realize the value of concentration. For instance, when a child has a difficult problem to solve and gets to some naughty point which he finds himself mentally unable to do, though he tries his hardest, he will pause and keep quite still, leaning on his elbow, apparently listening. Then you will see, if you are watching, sudden illumination come, and he goes unhappily and accomplishes his task. A child instinctively, but unconsciously, knows when he needs help. He must be quiet and concentrate. All great people concentrate and owe their success to it. A doctor thinks over the symptoms of his patient, waits, listens for the inspiration, though quite unconscious perhaps of doing so. The one who diagnoses in this way seldom makes mistakes. An author thinks his plot holds it in his mind, and then waits, and illumination comes. If you want to be able to solve difficult problems, you must learn to do the same. Lesson 16. How Concentrating Can Fulfill Your Desire It is a spiritual law that the desire to do necessarily implies the ability to do. You have all read of Aladdin's lamp, which accomplished such wonderful things. This of course is only a fairy story, but it illustrates the fact that man has within him the power. He is able to use it to gratify his every wish. If you are unable to satisfy your deepest longings, it is time you learn how to use your God-given powers. You will soon be conscious that you have latent powers within capable, when once developed of revealing to you priceless knowledge and unlimited possibilities of success. Man should have plenty of everything, and not merely substance to live on, as so many have. All natural disease can be realized. It would be wrong for the infinite to create wants that could not be supplied. Man's very soul is in his power to think, and it therefore is the essence of all created things. Every instinct of man leads to thought, and in every thought there is great possibility, because true thought development, when allied to those mysterious powers that perhaps transcended, has been the cause of all the world's true progress. In the silence we become conscious of that something which transcends thought and which uses thought as a medium for expression. Many have glimpses of that something, but few ever reach the state where the mind is steady enough to fathom these depths. Silent concentrated thought is more potent than spoken words, where speech distracts from the focusing power of the mind by drawing more and more attention to the without. Man must learn more and more to depend on himself, to seek more for the infinite within. It is from this source alone that he ever gains the power to solve his practical difficulties. No one should give up when there is always the resources of infinity. The cause of failure is that men search in the wrong direction for success, because they are not conscious of their real powers that when used are capable of guiding them. The infinite within is foreign to those persons who go through life without developing their spiritual powers. But the infinite helps only he who helps himself. There is no such thing as a special providence. Man will not receive help from the infinite except to the extent that he believes and hopes and prays for help from this great source. Concentrate on what you want and get it. The weakling is controlled by conditions. The strong man controls his conditions. You can be either the conqueror or the conquered. By the law of concentration you can achieve your heart's desire. This law is so powerful that that which at first seems impossible becomes attainable. By this law what you at first see as a dream becomes a reality. Remember that the first step in concentration is to form a mental image of what you wish to accomplish. This image becomes a thought seed that attracts thoughts of a similar nature. Around this thought, when it is once planted in the imagination or creative region of the mind, you group or build associated thoughts which continue to grow as long as your desire is keen enough to compel close concentration. Form the habit of thinking of something you wish to accomplish for five minutes each day. Shut every other thought out of consciousness. Be confident that you will succeed. Make up your mind that all obstacles that are in your way will be overcome and you can rise above any environment. You do this by utilizing the natural laws of the thought world which are all powerful. A great aid in the development of concentration is to write out your thoughts on that which lies nearest your heart and to continue little by little to add to it until you have as nearly as possible exhausted the subject. You will find that each day as you focus your forces on this thought at the center of the stream of consciousness, new plans, ideas, and methods will flash into your mind. There is a law of attraction that will help you accomplish your purpose. An advertiser, for instance, gets to thinking along a certain line. He has formed his own ideas, but he wants to know what others think. He starts out to seek ideas and he soon finds plenty of books, plans, designs, etc. on the subject. Although when he started he was not aware of their existence. The same thing is true in all lines. We can attract those things that will help us. Very often we seem to receive help in a miraculous way. It may be slow in coming, but once the silent unseen forces are put into operation they will bring results so long as we do our part. They are ever present and ready to aid those who care to use them. By forming a strong mental image of your desire you plant the thoughts seed which begins working in your interest and in time that desire, if in harmony with your higher nature, will materialize. It may seem that it would be unnecessary to caution you to concentrate only upon achievement that will be good for you and work no harm to another, but there are many who forget others in their rights and their anxiety to achieve success. All good things are possible for you to have, but only as you bring out your forces into harmony, with that law that requires that we met out justice to fellow travellers as we journey along life's road. So first think over the thing wanted, and if it would be good for you to have say, I want to do this, I am going to work to secure it, the way will be open for me. If you fully grasp the mental thought of success and hold it in the mind each day, you gradually make a pattern or mold which in time will materialize. But by all means keep free from doubt and fear the destructive forces. Never allow these to become associated with your thoughts. At last you will create the desired conditions and receive help in many unlooked four ways that will lift you out of the undesired environment. Life will then seem very different to you. Where you will have found happiness through awakening within yourself, the power to become the master of circumstances, instead of their slave, to the beginner in this line of thought, some of the things stated in this book may sound strange, even absurd, but instead of condemning them, give them a trial. You will find they work out. The inventor has to work out his idea mentally before he produces it materially. The architect first sees the mental picture of the house he is to plan, and from this works out the one we see. Every object, every enterprise, must first be mentally created. I know a man that started in business with thirteen cents and not a dollar's worth of credit. In ten years he has built up a large and profitable business. He attributes his success to two things—belief that he would succeed and hard work. There were times when it did not look like he could weather the storm. He was being pressed by his creditors who considered him bankrupt. They would have taken fifty cents on the dollar for his notes and considered themselves lucky. But by keeping up a bold front he got an extension of time when needed. When absolutely necessary for him to raise a certain sum at a certain time, he always did it. When he had heavy bills to meet he would make up his mind that certain people that owed him would pay by a certain date and they always did. Sometimes he would not receive their check until the last mail of the day of the extension, and I have known him to send out a check with the prospect of receiving a check from one of his customers the following day. He would have no reason other than his belief in the power of affecting the mind of another by concentration of thought for expecting that check. But rarely has he been disappointed. Just put forth the necessary concentrated effort and you will be wonderfully helped from sources unknown to you. Remember the mystical words of Jesus, the Master. Whatsoever thing ye desire when ye pray, pray as if ye had already received and ye shall have. End Lesson 16