Freedom from Boredom - Benefit of Eka-Gratha

[Guest guest]

Eka-gratha or One-pointedness is given great significance in our

scriptures and as a very important spiritual discipline.

 

Here is an excerpt from a book on Meditation by Eknath Easwaran:

 

The Benefits of One-Pointedness

 

The one-pointed mind, once we have obtained it, gives us tremendous

loyalty and steadfastness. Like grasshoppers jumping from one blade

of grass to another, people who cannot concentrate move from thing

to thing, activity to activity, person to person. On the other hand,

those who can concentrate know how to remain still and absorbed.

Such people are capable of sustained endeavor.

 

I’m reminded of a story about a great Indian musician, Ustad

Alauddin Khan. When Ravi Shankar, the sitarist, was a young man, he

approached Khan Sahib for lessons, passionately promising to be a

diligent pupil. The master turned his practiced eye upon Ravi and

detected in his clothes and manner the signs of a dilettante. He

said, “I don’t teach butterflies.†Fortunately, Ravi Shankar was

able after many months â€" a test of his determination â€" to persuade

the master to reconsider. But we can readily understand the

teacher’s reluctance to waste his precious gift on someone who might

jump from interest to interest, dissipating all his creative

energies.

 

People who cannot meet a challenge or turn in a good performance

often suffer from a diffuse mind and not from any inherent

incapacity. They may say, “I don’t like this job,†or “This isn’t=

my

kind of work,†but actually they may just not know how to gather and

use their powers. If they did, they might find that they do like the

job, and that they can perform it competently. Whenever a task has

seemed distasteful to me â€" and we all have to do such things at

times â€" I have found that if I can give more attention to the work,

it becomes more satisfying. We tend to think that unpleasantness is

a quality of the job itself; more often it is a condition in the

mind of the doer.

 

The same may be said for boredom. Few jobs are boring; we are bored

chiefly because our minds are divided. Part of the mind performs the

work at hand and part tries not to; part earns his wages while the

other part sneaks out to do something else or tries to persuade the

working half to quit. They fight over these contrary purposes, and

this warfare consumes a tremendous amount of vital energy. We begin

to feel fatigued, inattentive, restless, or bored; a grayness, a

sort of pallor, covers everything. How time-conscious we become! The

hours creep, and the job, if it gets done at all, suffers. The

result is a very ordinary, minimal performance, since hardly any

energy remains with which to work; most of it goes to repair the

sabotage by the unwilling worker.

 

When the mind is unified and fully employed at a task, we have

abundant energy. The work, particularly if routine, is dispatched

efficiently and easily, and we see it in the context of the whole

into which it fits. We feel engaged; time does not press on us.

Interestingly too, it seems to be a spiritual law that if we can

concentrate fully on what we are doing, opportunities worthy of our

concentration come along. This has been demonstrated over and over

in the lives not only of mystics but of artists, scientists, and

statesmen as well.

 

http://www.nilgiri.org/LearnToMeditate/LearnToMeditate.cfm?id=75

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

 

Thanks for the brilliant and very useful quote from Shri Eknath

Easwaran.

 

Some personal thoughts (you can call them doubts as well)on egAgrata

that crossed my mind in this context:

 

Is ekAgrata (advaitic) really single-pointedness? If we are dealing

with spikes, nails and spears, well that may the be correct

translation. But, not in our advaitic quest.

 

I do not know how ekAgrata is defined in Sanskrit. My interpretation

would be: agre eka iti ekAgrata (one finally or at the end is

ekAgrata). Advaitically, it cannot be agrata eka iti ekAgrata (one

in front is ekAgrata).

 

In his Sreemat NArAyanIyam, the author, Shri Bhattathiripad sings

ecstatically: "Agre pashyAmi….." . (Prof. Krishnamurthyji's

brilliant interpretation of NarAyanIyam, posted a couple of months

ago, is available in our archives for every one to enjoy.).

Although, Shri Bhattathiripad uses the word "pashyAmi" (I see), what

he writes about is not to be understood as a seeing experience with a

subject-object separation. It is sat-chit-Ananda, being the Ultimate

(agra) One without any separation.

 

By this reckoning, ekAgrata connotes being the Ultimate One and shall

not, therefore, be used, at least by advaitins, to mean the

pedestrian meaning of single-pointedness, which, in my humble

opinion, verges on unfortunate pedantry.

 

Why? Mind is always single-pointed in the sense that, irrespective

of whether engrossed or bored, it can deal with only one subject (or

aspect or detail of the subject) at a time, be that a second or a

micro-micro second.

 

When we are bored reading tedious text, the mind still works in a

single-pointed manner. However, it does not dwell on the details

adequately long for a sense of understanding to dawn. It is then

that we yawn.

 

Whereas, when it is engrossed in an interesting subject, like a

mathematician working on an interesting problem or a music enthusiast

listening to a melodious instrument, there is a continuity of

engagement with the general subject with the result that he or she

feels that the endeavour or experience is enjoyed. Even in this

case, the mind is not fully at one point. It has invariably wandered

(single-pointedly of course) onto inevitable associations like

similar mathematical problems solved in the past or the varying

details and figures of the problem itself, or, in the case of music,

the musician's demeanour, musical concerts of the past and other

musicians.

 

The only difference is that, in boredom, the wandering is much off-

limits from the subject in hand whereas in enjoyment the wandering is

within relevant periphery. The latter is called swajAtIya chintana.

It is not continuous single-pointedness of mind. It is at best

general attentiveness. And, attentiveness is definitely not ekAgrata.

 

No wonder, therefore, SwajatIya chintana is recommended by sAstrAs

and masters in the path towards achieving advaitic ekAgrata.

 

In the context of Shri Eswaran's excellent advice, I thought that we

must first of all accept the fact that the mind is naturally single-

pointed even in wandering and ekAgrata is akin to Shri

Bhattathiripad's ectasy of "agre pasyAmi" where there is no

Bhattathiripad, Lord Krishna or experiencing. Then what to speak of a

mind? It can make no claims due to its very non-existence. In

conclusion, ekAgrata connotes the virtual, effective total undoing of

the actually non-existent mind.

 

Why non-exiastent? This undoing of the mind occurs every micro-

second or micro-micro second when a minute detail is appreciated.

But, unfortunatley, it seems to rise like the sphinx the very next

moment to again get undone in another engagement with another detail

or a remembering of the past detail. Thus, so to say, the mind is

actually non-existent. We only have an erroneous conception that it

exists and that is our undoing. And, it is this basically non-

existent entity that erects this samsAra of seemingly interminable

woes for us! Back again to Sankara's snake on the rope, eh?

 

One can watch the evening star (planet Venus) single-pointedly. But

that so-called single-pointedness will naturally move between the

wholeness of the object, its glow, love (as Venus denotes it), and

scientific details like the predominance of carbon dioxide in its

atmosphere, greenhouse effect and what not. What sort of single-

pointedness is it!?

 

I am not being critical. I am only making a technical attempt at the

advaitic logic of it all while fully appreciating the great practical

benefits of Shri Easwaran's advice.

 

Pranams.

 

Madathil Nair

____

 

 

advaitin, "Sundar Rajan <avsundarrajan>"

<avsundarrajan> wrote:

> Eka-gratha or One-pointedness is given great significance in our

> scriptures and as a very important spiritual discipline.

>

> Here is an excerpt from a book on Meditation by Eknath Easwaran:

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Madathil Rajendran Nair

<madathilnair>" <madathilnair> wrote:

> Namaste.

>

> Thanks for the brilliant and very useful quote from Shri Eknath

> Easwaran.

>

> Some personal thoughts (you can call them doubts as well)on

egAgrata

> that crossed my mind in this context:

>

> Is ekAgrata (advaitic) really single-pointedness? If we are

dealing

> with spikes, nails and spears, well that may the be correct

> translation. But, not in our advaitic quest.

>

> I do not know how ekAgrata is defined in Sanskrit. My

interpretation

> would be: agre eka iti ekAgrata (one finally or at the end is

> ekAgrata). Advaitically, it cannot be agrata eka iti ekAgrata

(one

> in front is ekAgrata).

>

>

Ekagratha or one-pointedness refers to the mind. My earlier post was

to show that this spiritual discipline also has very practical

benefits. Regarding Advaita - In Katha Upanishad 1.3.12 "He (the)

supreme reality is seen through a pointed and fine intellect"

 

Lord Krishna has repeatedly enjoined in the practice of dhyana or one

pointedness as in 6.10 'A yogi should constantly concentrate' and in

6.12.

 

Sundar Rajan