What is concentration?  

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Concentration means the fixing of attention or a high degree of intensity of attention. To concentrate on an object is to employ all attention on it. In his ‘Heartbreak House’, G.B. Shaw asked, “Has he attained the seventh degree of concentration?” Concentration means
sustained attention
Concentration is not a faculty of the mind, but depends upon control of attention. Attention itself is defined as the process of psychological selectivity by which we select from a vast number of potential stimuli, only those which are related to present needs and
interests. For example, when we are deeply involved in an interesting conversation, we usually are not much aware of the temperature and furnishing of the room or the noises of traffic outside. To quote William James, “It (attention) is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatter-brained state which in French is called distraction and Zerstreutheit in German.” In English the opposite of ‘attention’ is inattention, that is, scattered attention; educationally, attention to something other than the lesson

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