ng their attention, but have allowed it to
become almost involuntary, and they become a slave to it, forgetting
themselves and everything else, and often neglecting necessary affairs.
This is the ignorant way of concentrating, and those addicted to it
become slaves to their habits, instead of masters of their minds. They
become day-dreamers, and absent-minded people, instead of Masters. They
are to be pitied as much as those who cannot concentrate at all. The
secret is in a mastery of the mind. The Yogis can concentrate at will,
and completely bury themselves in the subject before them, and extract
from it every item of interest, and can then pass the mind from the thing
at will, the same control being used in both cases. They do not allow
fits of abstraction, or "absent-mindedness" to come upon them, nor are
they day-dreamers. On the contrary they are very wide awake individuals;
close observers; clear thinkers; correct reasoners. They are masters of
their minds, not slaves to their moods. The ignorant concentrator buries
himself in the object or subject, and allows it to master and absorb
himself, while the trained Yogi thinker asserts the "I," and then directs
his mind to concentrate upon the subject or object, keeping it well under
control and in view all the time. Do you see the difference? Then heed
the lesson.

The following exercises may be found useful in the first steps of
Concentration:

(a) Concentrate the attention upon some familiar object--a pencil, for
instance. Hold the mind there and consider the pencil to the exclusion of
any other object. Consider its size; color; shape; kind of wood. Consider
its uses, and purposes; its materials; the process of its manufacture,
etc., etc., etc. In short think as many things about the pencil as
possible allowing the mind to pursue any associated by-paths, such as a
consideration of the graphite of which the "lead" is made; the forest
from which came the wood used in making the pencil; the history of
pencils, and other implements used for writing, etc. In short exhaust
the subject of "Pencils." In considering a subject under concentration,
the following plan of synopsis will be found useful. Think of the thing
in question from the following view-points:

(1) The thing itself.

(2) The place from whence it came.

(3) Its purpose or use.

(4) Its associations.

(5) Its probable end.

Do not let the apparently trivial nature of the inquiry discourage you,
for