Attention is the beginning of devotion.
Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man.
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in eternal awareness or pure consciousness.
I need solitude for my writing; not 'like a hermit' - that wouldn't be enough - but like a dead man.
Writing is a deeply immersive experience. When the words are flying, the house could be burgled and I wouldn’t notice. I have a low boredom threshold and I like intensity – writing is a way of escaping the quotidian.
One's attention has to penetrate the chaotic activity, pass through all the layers of subtle thought, and at last emerge into silence. This is the basic process of transcending.
Contemplating an object fixedly with the mind, asking myself, 'What is it?' without thinking of any other object or relating it to anything else for hours on end.
To do much clear thinking a person must arrange for regular periods of solitude when they can concentrate and indulge the imagination without distraction.
In meditation you are not unconscious, you are conscious - more conscious than ever.
The more the capacity to concentrate is developed, the more often the profound tranquility in work is achieved, then the clearer will be the manifestation of discipline within the child.
Meditation is not passive sitting in silence. It is sitting in awareness, free from distraction, and realizing the clear understanding that arises from concentration.
It is a commonplace among artists and children at play that they're not aware of time or solitude while they're chasing their vision. The hours fly. The sculptress and the tree-climbing tyke both look up blinking when Mom calls, 'Suppertime!'
You are truly focused when you're so focused that you don't know you're focused.
Reading is the work of the alert mind, is demanding, and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy.
I have a single track mind. I work on an idea for a long time. It's like getting acquainted with a person, and I don't get acquainted easily.
A concentrated mind and a sitting body make for better prayer than a kneeling body and a mind half asleep.
Whenever I get into something, I shut out everything else.
When you're writing there's a deep, deep level of concentration way below your normal self. This strange voice, these strange sentences come out of you.
The solitude of writing is a solitude without which writing could not be produced, or would crumble, drained bloodless by the search for something else to write.
It's easy to forget that your best work is done when your attention is fully engaged.
Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterized by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating gyroscope.
The power to concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one’s eyes without seeing anything.
How much more the seeker of abstract truth, who needs periods of isolation, and rapt concentration, and almost a going out of thebody to think!
Samadhi doesn’t just come of itself; it takes practice.
Concentration is the key that opens up to the child the latent treasures within him.
