Yoga & Concentration Week 1 Module 1 PDF

Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana Bengaluru 560105 Week 1: Module 1 INTRODUCTION TO YOGA AND CONCENTRATION Science and Technology in the modern era In the las...

Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana Bengaluru 560105 Week 1: Module 1 INTRODUCTION TO YOGA AND CONCENTRATION Science and Technology in the modern era In the last couple of centuries, science and technology has progressed rapidly and due to such evolution, there are several breakthrough achieved by the human race. The world has become a global family, brought closer by air travel, television, computers and mobile phones. The advancement of technology has brought in dimensions of robotics to artificial intelligence. The challenges of the modern world There are several challenges associated with such rapid development. To name a few would be pollution due to industrial development and stress of day to day activities. Several steps have been taken to reduce the carbon footprints such as enhanced motor engines for the automobile, reducing the environmental impact, plantation of more trees, and newer methods to handle the waste management. But, the other challenge of stress has been largely unattended and thus has brough tremendous problems to individual’s lives and also as a society. Challenge of stress The stress in everyday activity has increased and is leading to several problems today Social unrest Drug culture Gun and terrorism Non communicable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure Stress also impacts our concentration and ability to perform the work at hand There is a need to address the challenge of stress and its implications on us. In schools and colleges, the students under stress are unable to cope up and there are several incidences of people getting in depression and even committing suicide. There is very limited work that has happened in the area of stress management in the modern medical system. And that is because of the limited understanding of human being at only the physical level. If we wish to address the challenges, we 1  Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana Bengaluru 560105 will have to look at the problems holistically and that is where the Indian wisdom is extremely essential for all of us. Application of Yoga for concentration The goal of yoga is to usher the global social order and bring peace of earth. As Swami Vivekananda has explained, yoga is a way of life and should bring in overall personality development. Human personality has all the dimensions, physical, mental, social, spiritual and the ability to concentrate is also part of this personality. The path of yoga described by Swami Vivekananda includes: Raja Yoga: the path of psychic control Karma Yoga: the path of action Bhakti yoga: the path of devotion Jnana Yoga: the path of intellect There is a need to change the matter-based paradigm to consciousness-based paradigm. This knowledge base needs to brought to everyday action. Swami Vivekananda’s vision was to enhance concentration for the man-making education from the bread-earning education. Western method of understanding concentrate Attention is the ability to focus on the task at hand. Concentration is the ability to sustain the attention process. It can easily be broken by distractions and the intense energy demands that is required for the act of concentration itself. There are five areas of attention identified 1. Focused attention 2. Selective attention 3. Sustained attention 4. Shared attention 5. Divided attention All these processes of attention are processed in the part of brain called cerebral cortex. The transmission of impulses in the brain are carried out by neurotransmitters, eg. Dopamine, GABA, adrenaline, noradrenaline. There are several neural pathways of attention. There are some genes 2  Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana Bengaluru 560105 that are also associated with the process of attention. In summary, attention is considered to be the functioning of the left part of the brain. Eastern perspective of concentration Mind can exist without even body, and is conglomeration of throughts. Yoga is gain mastery over the mind. Usually, the mind is distracted (chanchalata). We need to evolve, to state of Ekagrata (concentration) and further to dharana (intense focussing) and dhyana (effortless defocussing). Higher the concentration, better is the performance. Yoga also helps in reducing the stress and thereby reduce distractions not just at physical level, but at all levels of once’s personality. 3