Quotes about Concentration

For him who has no concentration, there is no tranquility.

To achieve that state of lasting happiness and absolute peace, we must first know how to calm the mind, to concentrate and go beyond the mind. By turning the mind's concentration inward, upon the self, we can deepen that experience of perfect concentration. This is the state of Meditation.

Some people do not know the difference between "mindfulness" and "concentration." They concentrate on what they're doing, thinking that is being mindful. . . . We can concentrate on what we are doing, but if we are not mindful at the same time, with the ability to reflect on the moment, then if somebody interferes with our concentration, we may blow up, get carried away by anger at being frustrated. If we are mindful, we are aware of the tendency to first concentrate and then to feel anger when something interferes with that concentration. With mindfulness we can concentrate when it is appropriate to do so and not concentrate when it is appropriate not to do so.

Aimed at as something terminal or ultimate or absolute, quiescence is, from the standpoint of life, a form of death, a stillness and inertia, an impassivity. Life is infinite sensitivity to all things, the quicksilver sympatheticism of everything that belongs in the natural cosmos. The mind and will do close out or exclude extraneous distractions as a means to their powers of self-concentration ("Thinking is a momentary dismissal of irrelevancies," Buckminster Fuller). But Buddhism makes this quiescence not a means but an end in itself, incompatible as it may be with the very life of spirit and of will. Taken as a mere exercise or tonic, it has an utterly different value of course.

When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the way. 

Do what you're doing while you're doing it.

To meditate is to become one with God. It means to STOP THINKING and thus get out of the awareness of body. One can be aware of his body and of material things only while, and because, one is thinking.
… To concentrate is to think very hard and focus your thoughts to a point. To meditate is just the opposite – it means to expand one’s thoughts into space until one stops thinking and steps into the still Light of KNOWING.
Thinking is sensing, and sensing is vibratory motion. Conversely, meditation is becoming still in order to talk with God. When I say “talk with God” I mean become inspired with His Light of all-knowing. One talks with God in timeless Light. Inspiration comes in flashes of still Light – invisible Light.
If you want to know anything whatsoever, just desire to know it, then stop thinking. Try to get into a state of universal ecstasy or inner joyousness, which is a state of consciousness like unto the God-Mind. Void your mind of thoughts, thought forms and ideas. Become perfectly blank insofar as idea and form are concerned.
In that manner, you become transformed from man as an individual unit of mankind, and become all Soul – the universal Soul. In that manner you make the transition from the state of sensing some things materially to knowing all things cosmically.

In meditation, you are not supposed to “concentrate” on the things that arise in the mind. Rather, you are supposed to “bear witness” to the things that arise in the mind. Now bearing witness means what? It means to stand aside and observe, become aware, and examine: “Yes this is there. That is there. This is happening. That is going on.” This is very important because it lays the foundation for the actual inner spiritual work that the meditation will provoke. Meditation is the foundation for deeper spiritual evolution.

Concentration is well disciplined when it follows  with the path of love. For it is this path which leads to the mansion of truth. Allow your concentration to fly...for with love there is no closed doors.

As long as we have practiced neither concentration nor mindfulness, the ego takes itself for granted and remains its usual normal size, as big as the people around one will allow. 

Seth can get irritated/frustrated with Jane and me.  This exerpt is from the private session of November 11, 1979:  "… the same kind of reaction, however, are involved in all activities, and it is sometimes frustrating for me that you cannot perceive the fascinating facets of any event.  You still - and I do not simply mean you two alone - do not feel the unsurpassable force that thoughts have.  You do not understand that they do form events, that to change events you must first change thoughts.  You get what you concentrate on."

The 7 factors of enlightenment: mindfullness, investigation of mental objects, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration and equanimity.