Form Focus & Fiow Arjuna s invincibility
Arjuna was declared a Shrestha, а hero, when he hit the eye of a wooden bird hung on a tree in roan’s school. Arjuna's most powerful weapon was not his Gandiva. His power me from ekagrata-the foundation of meditative mind. Heroes diligently cultivate a meditaemind. A meditative mind is more an just a concentrated mind. In a ncentrated mind our attention is muted by our goals or targets for a train duration of time. Even an denary mind can concentrate one peasant object or experience. It is so sy to freeze our glance on a beautiful ce or on a sensational image for a miserable period of time. The real allenge is to be able to pull out ttention from what is pleasurable or preya to the preferable, which is Shreya. Arjuna can pull his mind easily out of the beautiful forest and a flowing river to the preferable work at hand, which is seeing only the eye of the bird. The first stage of creating a meditative mind is to form the mind. A goal helps by giving it direction. Goals create boundaries for our attention. This is called dahanam or holding the mind to a form. Before the mind achieves a state of dahanam, the hero has to gradually withdraw the mind from other competing forms. This process called pratyahara involves withdrawing the senses from external distraction. Arjuna achieves this with consummate ease. How did he do that? Arjuna selected from vast streams of information only those bits and pieces that make up the eye of the bird. Thus he is able to hold and fix his attention on the target. In the second stage Arjuna has to maintain an unbroken focus on the bird's eye for some period of time. The process of bringing the target to one's unbroken focus is called hyena. Whereas dahanam was about fixing attention on an object, Dhanna is about sustaining this attention. The difference between the two is the difference between pouring oil drop by drop from a bottle to a pan and pour- ingoil in a stream of unbroken arc from abottle to pan. Like the stream of oil, attention moves from the mind to the target. At this stage Arjuna uses his intellect to overcome the mind's distractions and keep his physical and mental actions going in the set direction. Arjuna has learnt the technique of moving from concentration to consistency He sustahis attention onjust the eye of the bird away from everything else. This consistency of attention like the smooth flowoil takes Arjuna to the state of dhyanaIn the final stage Arjuna's mind iscompletely occupied by his action, lilpainter who is lost in his painting. Thmental vibrations of the archer Arjuachieve unity with the physical vibration of the target. This state of unity exists at the edge of the human mind. This stage the boundary between minand target is removed. The mind, targand flow of mind toward the target become one seamless awareness. Thisthe third stage of attention called samadhi. In samadhi, Arjuna enters zone of invincibility. (The writer is former director, IIM Kozhikode.)
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Debashis Chatterjee and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Debashis Chatterjee and Speaking Tree,Times of India
Form Focus & Fiow Arjuna s invincibility
Arjuna was declared a Shrestha, а hero, when he hit the eye of a wooden bird hung on a tree in roan’s school. Arjuna's most powerful weapon was not his Gandiva. His power me from ekagrata-the foundation of meditative mind. Heroes diligently cultivate a meditaemind. A meditative mind is more an just a concentrated mind. In a ncentrated mind our attention is muted by our goals or targets for a train duration of time. Even an denary mind can concentrate one peasant object or experience. It is so sy to freeze our glance on a beautiful ce or on a sensational image for a miserable period of time. The real allenge is to be able to pull out ttention from what is pleasurable or preya to the preferable, which is Shreya. Arjuna can pull his mind easily out of the beautiful forest and a flowing river to the preferable work at hand, which is seeing only the eye of the bird. The first stage of creating a meditative mind is to form the mind. A goal helps by giving it direction. Goals create boundaries for our attention. This is called dahanam or holding the mind to a form. Before the mind achieves a state of dahanam, the hero has to gradually withdraw the mind from other competing forms. This process called pratyahara involves withdrawing the senses from external distraction. Arjuna achieves this with consummate ease. How did he do that? Arjuna selected from vast streams of information only those bits and pieces that make up the eye of the bird. Thus he is able to hold and fix his attention on the target. In the second stage Arjuna has to maintain an unbroken focus on the bird's eye for some period of time. The process of bringing the target to one's unbroken focus is called hyena. Whereas dahanam was about fixing attention on an object, Dhanna is about sustaining this attention. The difference between the two is the difference between pouring oil drop by drop from a bottle to a pan and pour- ingoil in a stream of unbroken arc from abottle to pan. Like the stream of oil, attention moves from the mind to the target. At this stage Arjuna uses his intellect to overcome the mind's distractions and keep his physical and mental actions going in the set direction. Arjuna has learnt the technique of moving from concentration to consistency He sustahis attention onjust the eye of the bird away from everything else. This consistency of attention like the smooth flowoil takes Arjuna to the state of dhyanaIn the final stage Arjuna's mind iscompletely occupied by his action, lilpainter who is lost in his painting. Thmental vibrations of the archer Arjuachieve unity with the physical vibration of the target. This state of unity exists at the edge of the human mind. This stage the boundary between minand target is removed. The mind, targand flow of mind toward the target become one seamless awareness. Thisthe third stage of attention called samadhi. In samadhi, Arjuna enters zone of invincibility. (The writer is former director, IIM Kozhikode.)
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Debashis Chatterjee and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Debashis Chatterjee and Speaking Tree,Times of India