Thought and Concentration

Concentration is not through thought, although we believe it to be. Concentration is where our attention is focused, and attention is not necessarily where we place our thoughts. Our focus of attention, which is our concentration, lies in our beliefs and it will be our beliefs that are expressed outwardly for this is the film fed into our projector. If we hold a belief that we can’t do something then that is where our concentration lies and that will be what we create. We might affirm over and over, “I can, I can,” but we would not need the affirmation if we believed we could. The affirmation is a lack of trust in our ability to create what we want. We believe (concentrate on) we can’t and that is what our perception projects outward as a creation.

Thought is fleeting. When we turn our attention to thought it is limited, momentary and sporadic. We constantly hold our attention and concentration on beliefs without a thought process being involved. It is this that generates the reality. If we turned our attention to thought every single moment of every single day we would be paralysed. It would take a week just to cross the street. As we alter our beliefs, or as we alter our attention to our beliefs rather than to our thoughts by paying attention to what we do, we will be able to alter the entirety of our reality.

Since we believe concentration lies in focusing our thinking we have begun medicating millions of children who allow their real attention free reign. We have given them a label that places them outside the narrow highway called ‘normal.’ These are the children we refer to as suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD. Children and now adults with ADD see themselves as impaired because they believe in the same faulty definition of thought and attention. They simply pay attention to where their real attention is directed, not where we as a mass culture believe it should be directed. They’re punished and medicated for it. We are not.

Our concentration (the belief that is outwardly expressed) objectifies our subjective states as a physical manifestation. By doing affirmations we are reinforcing our beliefs that we can’t create what we want. It is a lack of trust. Once we set a probability in motion, let’s say acquiring a new car, our constant turn to our thinking actually acts as a block to the manifestation of the car. The key to getting the car would be trusting that you will and the acceptance of self. Patience, which is allowance, also plays into the equation. Trust allows an objective knowing that we have already set the probability in motion and that it will be actualized. It also frees our attention to move in other directions. As Elias says, “The knowing is set… therefore it is unnecessary to be objectively concentrating.” Here he means constantly turning our attention to thought regarding the car.

Objective concentration is what we currently assign to the tool of thought. But this is a direct expression of a lack of trust, in that it is a reinforcement of what we are really concentrating on. Through positive thinking we reinforce doubt, a lack of knowing and the lack of trust in our ability to create what we want. Why would we need to say “I can, I can, I can,” if we really trusted that we could. We don’t create what we want when our thought processes do not match the underlying concentration through beliefs. The belief is usually a discounting of our ability to create what we want. Concentration and attention are nearly synonymous, but our concentration is what we believe, not what we think. What we believe is what projects our energy outward and we will therefore attract that which reinforces our belief, not what we think, unless thought has interpreted correctly.

Let’s say we want to quit smoking. What we typically do is get the nicotine patch or join a support group because what we believe is that smoking is addictive and that we will need help. What we believe is our reality. This is our concentration and this is what we will create; difficulty and failure. We hold these beliefs as universal truths and therefore do not accept them as simply our own individual truths. Once we accept our beliefs their power is lessened and other options open. Maybe the addiction will lessen. Maybe we’ll be able to quit with ease. If we continue to feel the strong pull of the addiction then what we are concentrating on is that particular belief. Continue to accept the belief without the judgment of good or bad. Trust that you will create a cessation of smoking and you’ll see results. Again, concentration is focused on what belief is outwardly expressed, not what we want. The belief is the energy that is projected. In this last photo is an acorn that holds the treee within itself. It doesn't obsess about the weather or the rain or the sunshine. It trusts in its ability to become the tree.
Bill Marshall