Attachment: The Concentration which got stuck

Once Spiderman went to Himalayas to sharpen his climbing abilities. He was climbing a cliff when he came across an old saint in the jungle. The saint was trying to climb a tree to pick a fruit but his grip was weak and he fell down. The Spiderman laughed at him and said “You have such a poor grip. You need to learn from me”. The saint smiled and said “I am very old to have a firm grip. I bless that your grip should become more strong and firm”. The Spiderman feeling proud looked down the saint and started climbing up the cliff. He felt his grip become stronger. He understood that it was due to the blessing of the saint. By the time he reached the top of the cliff, he found that his grip was so strong that he was unable to release his grip. His hands were glued to cliff and he was unable to separate his hand from the surface he was holding to. He was unable to move forward inspite of his every effort to move. The Spiderman understood having a firm grip will help him hold, but ability to release it at his will is important to progress.

Attention is the capacity to hold an object in the focus. The ability to hold the attention on a point for a long time is called concentration. Most of the human suffering is not due to inability to concentrate but due to the inability to detach the attention from the point of concentration. We love a person, place or a thing and feel bad when it leaves us. Swami Vivekananda says to love is to concentrate, but to cry on the loss of a thing is due to our inability to detach our concentration. This is nothing but attachment. Concentration is blissful but attachment becomes painful.

If a person loves another person, or a thing he enjoys its presence. If the object of his love is out of sight, he craves or struggles for its presence or satisfy himself with the memories of it. When a person's concentration is locked on the memory of the object which is located somewhere else, he tends to miss the world right infront of him. It is like his limb of the attention locked to the impressions in the mind. The person is unable to disengage the attention at his will. He tends to miss the present moment right infront of him.

The two important aspects of the concentration are

1 The content which rules the consciousness

2 The emotion which is associated with the content in the consciousness.

The content of the consciousness:

In Hindu mythology, there was a mention about Hiranya Kashipa a demon King and his saintly son Prahlada. Prahlada had an unshakable devotion to Lord Vishnu however his father Hiranya Kashipa brewed enormous hatred to the same. Both the father and son continuously thought of  the Lord Vishnu more than anything else in the world. After the Lord Vishnu killed Hiranya Kashipa to save Prahlada , he granted "Moksha" to Hiranya Kashipa also. The reason Lord Vishnu gave was , “If I keep his hatred aside, Hiranya Kashipa also kept me (Sri Vishnu) in his consciousness more than anything else in his life just like his son. I offer the bliss to those who let me rule their consciousness”. Among thousands of people in the kingdom only the father and the son had strong emotions associated with the Lord. These two people concentrated on the same thing having two different emotions.

What is the role of the emotion in concentration?

Emotion is the glue which attaches the focus to its content. Both the desire and hatred to a thing makes that particular thing rule the consciousness. The only difference is the energies during the desire are directed to protect or procure that thing and the energies during the hatred are directed to destroy or avoid the same thing. The same emotions which facilitates our concentration prevents us in detaching our concentration from that point.

Concentration and survival: The primary purpose of the concentration in early part of the evolution was primarily to ensure the biological survival (by escaping the threat) and expand the species (by finding an appropriate mate). The concentration is the strongly linked to the basic emotions like fear and desire. As the organisms evolved the same emotions which ensured the survival or physical body also started protecting the psychic body (ego). Whenever there is perceived threat to the physical or psychic bodies the shift of concentration towards the threat is a reflex and unconscious. Until the conscious logic is completely convinced about the mitigation of the present and potential threats, the emotion will not dissolve. As long as the emotion is there the detachment of the concentration from the perceived threat becomes difficult .

 

Struggle for survival and desire to expand are the primary driving forces behind concentration.

There was a very powerful elephant called Gajendra who was the devotee of Vishnu. Once it was held by a crocodile when it was drinking water in a lake. Gajendra used to be proud of its strength and power. It was surprised by the strength of crocodile in the water. Gajendra directed all its focus and energies into the fight. After fighting for days together Gajendra was exhausted. Finally, Gajendra submitted itself and prayed Lord Vishnu who came for its rescue. Submission after exhaustion is not retreating it is progressing in a different dimension. At a point where our resources are inadequate submission opens the possibility to detach ourself to allow the higher intelligence to take over. Submission is a way to break the Concentration-Survival loop. 

The main reason for the battle of Kurukshtera in Mahabharata was vengeance of Duryodhana for his cousin brothers. He spent years of concentrated planning for their destruction. Forgiving is another emotion which relives us from the phenomenon of compulsive concentration.

 

There was a King called Asoka. He wanted to conquer the world. After waging wars and defeating many countries he lost his passion for the conquer and expand his kingdom. He started questioning himself “What did I achieve after this blood shed?”. He finally became a Buddhist monk. This is a state of Vairagya. Vairagya is a way to break the Concentration-Expansion loop.

Yoga means union with the self. Yoga actually is Viyoga which means detaching from the impressions (thoughts and memories). Union with the self is only possible with detachment from the thought. In Yoga the Yama and Niyama (The path of the ethical discipline) facilitates detachment while Samyama (control of mind) helps in concentration. Concentration and detachment are interdependent.Concentration with attachment is like having the gun with its trigger at your finger but its barrel locked elsewhere.