Concentration

Concentration is “to bring to a common center, or to a closer union; to cause to approach nearer to a point, or center; to bring nearer to each other; e.g. as, to concentrate particles of salt by evaporating the water that holds them in solution; to concentrate the troops in an army; to concentrate rays of light into a focus.”–Oxford American Dictionary

“Concentration holds you down to mere imagery. Turn your imagination up, into soul vision.”–Edna Lister

   The root concenter derives from the Greek, meaning “a goad, a sharp point, a center; to prick or goad. The primary sense is a point. To concenter means to come to a point, or to meet in a common center; used of converging lines, or other things that meet in a point; to draw, or direct to a common center; to bring to a point; as two or more lines or other things.”
  Concentration is a law of doing under the absolute and abstract principle of Mind.

Edna Lister on Concentration

The golden silence is a soul state of consciousness high in the Light, not the mental concentration that freezes mind at the intellectual level. Don’t try to make your mind a blank, or a vacuum. You cannot enter the silence with tense nerves and muscles, or relax when tensing the muscles to concentrate. Yet you can enter the heart of the silence by complete surrender to the Light. It takes relaxation in the Light to surrender self.–Edna Lister, The Golden Silence, January 20, 1933.

Concentration is a purely mental effort, a use of will power. Will is a mental faculty. You can concentrate on only one thing at a time, so if you concentrate upon manifesting supply, you cannot be doing anything else. Surrender to the Power, send forth love, speak the Word, sending it directly to the right place; the Power can go anywhere. I focus my attention on one thing, which is my surrender to the Power. I focus on releasing the Power, and “Not I but the Father” (Who is the Power) goes forth and doeth the work.–Edna Lister, Creating Your Own Success and Wealth, January 27, 1933.

In each realm, phase, or technique, you must use all your resources on a higher plane to bring a miracle to pass from the invisible. Jesus used physical loaves and fishes to manifest enough to feed the multitude. Formerly, metaphysical teachers taught people to concentrate, which is the mental use of the law, and which creates force by separating Mind from Substance and Power. Many teachers still teach this way.

We teach this process differently. Lift everything into the kingdom of heaven first by giving it to God. Then build the form of the good mental picture of imagination of what you desire in that level’s degree of substance. Do not use force by demanding anything. Instead, use loving praise to call your miracle into visibility. The only way to succeed in this is by “looking up to heaven” in expectancy of soul. You must repeat this process at every degree of your ascension–Edna Lister, A Miracle of Loaves and Fishes, March 16, 1934.

When you concentrate upon supply, you must demonstrate, which means you must manifest, exhibit or show proof. Concentration is forcing the mental faculty of thinking. Since you can concentrate on only one thing at a time, concentration does not pay enough dividends. Instead, surrender to Power, which is always working now. Lift the physical and subconscious mental into the spiritual perception.–Edna Lister, April 15, 1934.

Ascend in consciousness through the mental-intellectual faculties to open the endocrine glands of “soul knowing.” You can develop the soul faculties of intuition and illumination through consecrated, concentrated outer study in class or in books. However, you can “know” only by standing under the Light.–Edna Lister, December 8, 1934.

Many souls who concentrate their efforts on the Adept Degree put their hands on their knees or in their laps to meditate, thus focusing their consciousness in the lower centers, cutting off the etheric currents, which carry the white Light of the Christ. They work on the magnetic currents of earth alone. Concentrating on the navel center limits you to working only from the abdominal brain at the solar plexus, not from the brain’s frontal lobes, which divorces individual cognition from the Mind of God. This creates self-centered reasoning and rationalizing that drags you down in consciousness.–Edna Lister, January 3, 1936.

Leave concentration behind in favor of the clear, sharp focus of attention.–Edna Lister, The Science of Character Building: Positive and Negative Powers of Life, January 4, 1936.

To refine silver or gold, you need a crucible, which is “a vessel used for melting and calcining a substance that requires a high degree of heat; a severe test; a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development.” Earth is the crucible for refining and trying the soul. God will say, “These are My people” when we have finally become seekers after perfection. Then we shall say, “The Lord is my God.”–Edna Lister, Our Mission in Life, December 26, 1937.

Remember, it is the concentrated quality of our prayers of praise, our songs of joy, and our love in releasing Power that we, as members of the Elect, have always known was required of us. Our numbers or being “seen or heard of men” do not count.–Edna Lister, October 11, 1942.

You can color ideas by your will and desire, which are teammates when united in balance, pulling together. Imagination enthroned in the driver’s seat guides the teammates of conscious will and desire in the right direction, which is up. When they are pulling apart, the soul is both working and enjoying leisure activities.
  You need will power. Will is potential power, which you must put into action. Desire heats it, but your will power transforms the potential into kinetic energy. Some manufacturers use boilers to create steam to drive the wheels of industry. You must apply the will to produce in order to concentrate desire that is hot enough to mold substance into form, while determination pipes it to your goal.–Edna Lister, Imagination Enthroned, March 11, 1945.

The act of creating: First your desire must be all-powerful and all-consuming. Then you must offer a knowing faith that also entails gratitude to God. Next you must act by lifting your consciousness in love, motivated by your desire and faith, to the highest mental concentration as the focus of Light. With all your being, visualize what you would create. Then speak the Word for Light to fill your mental creative mold with God’s Light as substance. This is your first action, then daily work to raise your consciousness higher, seeing the Christ Light filling your creative mold as divine substance. Then daily thank the Father 1,000 times an hour that your desire-mold is now filled and ready to manifest.
  The outer manifestation of your creation depends on your white hot degree of faith. The Master would say that you must live the law to become the law and to rise above the law. The white heat of the greatest consecration through Light can bring forth the manifestation of your creation only in this way. This describes the positive side of the creative Word spoken by creators who have surrendered all self to the Power of God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
  In your heart of hearts you know when you are being selfish. It is not so much what you desire to create, but the why, the motive behind your desire. Your motive must be pure and selfless, for the good of others, surpassing any outward appearance of some lesser good. You face a danger point here, for negative words will create negativity as they never have before. A vitriolic tongue or any judgmental condemnation, will recreate whatever you have said carelessly, in anger, and more.
  To guard your tongue you must first guard your thinking. Take a split second to lift in Light. Let it become automatic as you work. Lift each soul on your lines of Light and responsibility so that you are not guilty of negative creation. Guard this gift, this treasure, well. It brings you a greater degree of responsibility than you have ever had before. Use it for the highest good. Yet remember that it is a supreme test. Bless all those whom you contact.–Edna Lister, January 14, 1947.

The Adept, by the use of will power plus concentration, seeks control of self and persons and events outside himself. He is thoroughly proficient in using Power, but does not ascend. This is where the world gets stuck.–Edna Lister, April 22, 1947.

Concentrate this week on declaring your least favorite good. Split darkness wide open by declaring, “This is good! You are good!” Shout it aloud or mentally.–Edna Lister, Be-Attitudes: A Bible Study, July 24, 1951.

Thought is both electrical and magnetic in nature; therefore, thought and all forms of mental activity occupy their own places in the electromagnetic spectrum, according to degree and kind. When you speak the Word, the Master’s own Legions of Light can actually “herd” the fragments of misused mind, the dark or downright evil thought forms, to concentrate them into a location, a receptive degree of mental activity or creature intelligence to give them a form to occupy. Thus, they can be held in place until enough thought substance and energy is concentrated in that form for sacking and removal to the corona of our Sun where the name and number is burned away from each life spark. The result is that exact amount of Mind, Substance, and Power redeemed and cleansed of all evil tendencies, which may then be invested in good and perfect works.
  Thought forms are always busy searching the mental “auras” of earth’s masses to identify those souls with the most compatible sets of opinions and prejudices, who then become the prey upon which the thought form feeds. You could say that thought forms feed on the full spectrum of ideas that man thinks about or entertains. Politics and religion are the most popular items on the menu of ideas that serve as thought form fodder. However, when you reach out and hold people in your arms of Light, they no longer feel the pull of darkness, no matter how great it may be.
  A roving thought form entity will feed on any vortex of energy, such as a tornado, hurricane or a cyclone. 1 Always speak the Word for the implosion of an electrical or vortex storm because such storms suck the life and energy from everything in their path. The roving thought form descends through the air to wherever atomic or electrical energy is concentrated. Thus, the atomic test explosions enticed many thought forms to feed on their explosive energy. Explosion feeds the greedy thought form until it implodes, according to the power of the Word you speak.–Edna Lister, June 22, 1953.

The self-centered soul exerts its will, which at this point insists, “Do it my way.” Here, the soul still firmly believes that “I” forms the majority under God. This type is unconsciously seeking to strengthen their will by concentrating it as determination, and often use self-will and intellect with great force.–Edna Lister, From Acceptance to Obedience, September 2, 1953.

Sometimes a dozen people concentrate their criticism to push one person off his high point. Don’t be one of them.–Edna Lister, Your Life Practice, May 23, 1954.

When you concentrate your imagination, you use the Light as Power to create a mere image. Concentration holds you down to imagery. When you turn your imagination up, into soul vision, you surrender to be possessed by God’s Power.
  What is the difference between concentration and surrender? Concentration is an action of purely personal will. Surrender is letting, always giving up all personal will to God. When you surrender, you cannot use concentration or only dribbles of Light as Power will come through. Light enters under surrender of self because surrender is not an act of personal will. Concentration does not surrender self or your expressions of personal will.–Edna Lister, June 18, 1954.

Where your treasures are there your heart is. The “heart” of anyone’s life will revolve around their “treasure.” All your words follow the “meditation of your heart.” If you devote yourself to possessing a child, husband or wife as yours, concentrating your life of soul on them, nothing remains of your life if they leave or are taken from you.–Edna Lister, Your Treasures, January 15, 1956.

You may hear people say, “Well, I’ll try. I’m trying to pray.” Waste no time concentrating on trying, just bless, bless, bless what you have now, and use the visible for increase.–Edna Lister, Two Miracles of Increase, March 11, 1956.

Jesus never taught us to sit and concentrate to produce something from nothing, out of thin air. People are afraid to let go of the old; they fear giving away something they might need later. Yet you must give to start increase and expansion flowing. Give to get. Giving is the key to receiving.–Edna Lister, The Miracle of Increase, April 27, 1956.

When the fakir 2 concentrates on the navel, he is floating out of his body, but may produce phenomena, sometimes called white magic. All this is directly related to the Adept Degree, below the Gates of Light and the higher degrees of initiation. The Adept uses Power, control, manipulation and force do this. Voodoo is a low form of this type of adept technique.–Edna Lister, August 4, 1956.

One great Neophyte initiation is to maintain concentration and focus in a room where dozens of languages are being spoken at once so that the noise echoes and reechoes. Combinations of rates of vibration create form. The spoken Word is a rate of vibration within the range of tone or sound. You can hear a low vibration (a sound) with yours ears, but to hear God as tone you must listen with your brain cells.
  Breathe deeply and ascend through the top of your head to your Oversoul star so that the higher vibration permeates your brain cells. This explains part of how Light acts as your soul’s protective sheath on earth. This works with your faculty of vision also. For example, if you ascend high enough, you can scarcely tell which is real, the tree itself or its reflection in the clear, still waters of your consciousness.–Edna Lister, October 21, 1956.

From the beginning of his war against the Light, Belial, the Father of Lies, gathered and hatred and condensed force into a hard, spherical core at the center of the Sargasso Sea. 3 He used this to magnify and send forth all force he could gather from lukewarm Christians’ release of Power with greater kinetic energy to harm. As a swimmer racing in a pool pushes against the pool wall to gain speed and distance, so Belial used his hardball of force to gather to itself all manners of substance and energy; it was, and still is, a magnet to gather force as described above.
  The treatment now is to concentrate all possible power of love in shafts of Light which will be sent forth from the highest possible Source of Power. See it moving through this hard core of magnetic power in the Sargasso Sea, to shatter, to scatter it until Belial is unable to attract force to this sea again. Carry this out in all prayers. Pray for a special shaft of Light and fire to be used to concentrate the Power released on the center of force. 4 Then watch for any mention in the news of any type of activity in the Sargasso Sea or strange floating objects.–Edna Lister, March 7, 1959.

High concentration, when it comes from above, is the ability to focus all the faculties in one direction and hold them there.–Edna Lister, June 26, 1959.

What did Jesus mean when he spoke of “taking thought” or spending time trying to add a cubit to your height. Some people practice sitting and concentrating to bring their desires into visibility. They call this “precipitating” directly from the invisible. One couple practiced this mental process by concentrating together. Eventually they brought forth a red lump, “like a stone.” What did they gain for their effort? Proof? Perhaps they experienced some side effect, but no soul development. Faith is easier. To mentally concentrate this way is not surrender to the Power of God. All you need do is simply to accept and ascend in consciousness to the Father, praising Him that He has already answered your need.
  “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?”–Luke 12:2. This verse especially applies to those who seek to change their appearance. It directly forbids concentrating to make things visible, which is precipitation under the Adept Degree, though some think it a miracle. If you read the Bible and pray fervently enough, you can have your miracle in ten minutes. If you cannot increase your stature by congratulating self or boasting about your accomplishments, why do these things? The Master warns us not to waste time or to misuse the power of the Word.–Edna Lister, Consider the Lilies May 29, 1960.

The spoken Word is a powerful vibration. Good words and declarations of the good concentrate extra Light and Power in your spoken words. Yet idle words misuse that Power and your own soul substance.–Edna Lister, October 3, 1960.

Why do we pray instead of practicing meditation? On the whole, meditation is just a “ceiling bumping” form of concentration that tightens the nerves and takes you nowhere fast. Prayer is different from meditation. Prayer raises your vibration, since it expresses the law of “My Father works hitherto, and I work.”–John 5:17. Prayer goes forth according to the fervor of your words and brings the answer from the invisible to visible form.–Edna Lister, When Prayer Is At Work, June 4, 1961.

Even perfect concentration can never fully ascend you, because it limits you to Adept Degree work. The slightest surrender of self may ascend you to the heights of glory.–Edna Lister, Do You Trust Your Own Decisions? June 20, 1961.

You give two ways, consciously or unconsciously. Everyone unconsciously radiate pictures from imagination, emotions from desire, and thoughts from thinking. People understand you, and you understand them back without a word spoken. When you dwell on or rehash what others do or say, you are concentrating on the darkness of your resentment or bruised self. Self is devoted to human nature, the instinctive intelligence that is just one step up from the animal kingdom. Soul is attuned to the one divine Mind.
  You can tune out the echo chamber of self in a few simple steps: First, you tune out earth’s sound waves, the heavy physical earth noises. Then you tune out the composite world mind and random mental suggestions. Next you tune out thought waves from others’ mental concentrations. This process is not mental concentration. Now that you have silenced the irritants to self, you can tune in your own high frequency in the immensity of the golden silence.–Edna Lister, The Key to Right Action, October 1, 1961.

Concentrate on swimming with the currents of the River of Life and it will straighten out every area of your life.–Edna Lister, The Twelve Wheels of Ezekiel, December 5, 1961.

You can pray from any position, but you sink in vibration when you are too comfortable. Relax from the head up by plugging your live wire of omnipotence into God’s powerhouse above. You can’t think yourself into Heart of God, but must be at about the medium heat of intellect, not too hot or too cold. Your mental faculties are under your skull, but your soul faculties are in the heart of your Oversoul star. Using the mechanics of prayer with thought is good, but you miss something when you merely concentrate; you involve yourself with subconscious mind and the world. Those who teach to dwell on only one word or phrase in prayer are teaching from the mental level only, not from the soul.–Edna Lister, June 25, 1963.

Do not use the term “concentration” to describe what you are doing as a pioneering Mystic. You may focus Light on a person or situation, but if you concentrate the Light, you may burn or singe the good in the situation or the person’s aura, doing more harm than good.–Edna Lister, July 28, 1963.

When you ascend in consciousness to the world of spiritual illumination, you necessarily leave behind the lesser method of mental concentration. Balance love and wisdom to live as children of Light and dwell under the protection of nonresistance.–Edna Lister, Love and Wisdom, October 4, 1964.

“If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.”–Matthew 5:40-41. Nonresistance is irresistible. Some say that to be irresistible you must learn to concentrate on the love of God. Concentration is of the self, an act of will, which is not the way to be irresistible. Concentration must move up into determination to give beyond the “coat” or “mile.” Determination becomes an impulse of soul, the fire of the soul in action, which takes you to the Mount of Transfiguration where you receive a new pattern for life, a conqueror no longer afraid of standing naked or unprotected, no longer afraid of the Light.
  Concentration never took anybody to God, but makes a skull bumper of whoever practices it. Concentration is a first step, but as you ascend in consciousness under surrender to all the Power, you give up self, which quickens soul. You must focus your attention on God!–Edna Lister, What Is Nonresistance?, May 23, 1965.

Do not mistake mere concentration for properly focusing your attention. Your lifeline of Power always moves along your line of attention, and the Power follows. When your attention sags into aches and pains, for instance, the Power line follows, and flows into the aches and pains to nourish and sustain them. When you center your attention on needs, you have more needs, a “miracle of needs.” Any increase from the invisible to the visible is a miracle. This is how you can increase the aches and pains into ever larger miracles of pain. Power is always working miracles of increase according to the quality and quantity of your faith.
  The way you focus you attention is all-important. You must center your attention steadfastly and unwaveringly because you cannot succeed if you blow hot and cold. You scatter the Power if you let your attention waver in intensity. From birth to transition, you always focus your attention on something. Since Power concentrates wherever you focus your attention, you have a miracle there. If you focus your attention on nothing, you have a miracle of nothing.
  Center your attention on what you really want. When you center your attention on the God-high stature of Christ in you, your soul will accomplish a God-high life. Become enraptured with God, enthralled with the stature of Christ, with the beauty of the Christ life itself. Believe, in full faith, that God is, and that you can be God-high. Are you convinced that your soul can accomplish anything? The quality of your faith and quantity of your love must be exceptional. Your faith stretches your soul, and love fills your creative prayer molds with substance. Constantly offer more praise, for praise carries your gifts of faith and love upward to God.–Edna Lister, Your Soul’s Accomplishment, May 30, 1965.

Yoga is a complete method by which you may concentrate in practice to gain spiritual consciousness. In the East, Hindus have practiced concentration and contemplation to the exclusion of action. In the West, we practice action—through diet, breathing, exercise, memory training, etc.—and leave out concentration and contemplation. You learn the power of direction and control over your own faculties through Hatha Yoga. Rajah Yoga is the practice of the presence of God. Pythagoras was the first western teacher to formulate a mystical practice which includes the Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah together with the true Gnostic mysteries of early Christianity, not the abominations that history records.–Edna Lister, The Yoga of the West, May 24, 1966.

You dwell amid many different vibrations and need various imperative powers of concentration of your imagination. [An imperative power of concentration is aimed at a specific need or vibration, as opposed to a nonspecific general focus.] This is good, for you will need them all to ascend.–Edna Lister, June 10, 1966.

A formula is a process, which must become an automatic act of ascension. Each has his own formula for living in everything he does. Order is heaven’s first law, even in housework. You must work out your formula for daily life as you do for diet, exercise, and proper breathing, but you cannot be too rigid about it. You must grow above the formula to actively ascend.
  The way to God is as simple and easy as walking through a physical door. Like moving beyond addition on your fingers and toes, you add or subtract until you have only what you need to ascend into the Light. Close out the mental waves of a noisy vibration and move up into the Light. However, no amount of meditation or concentration can take you up into the golden Light to become one with the Source. The “engrafted Word” (James 1:21) is a vibration of Light made into life and implanted within your physical body to vitalize, quicken your soul.
  Apply what you see and hear to what you do. Do not just look at others to criticize, but look clearly at yourself to see what you have done wrong. Do not descend from the Light, but be alive and alert to live on three levels at once. When you clear the trash of self from your subconscious mind, you will notice every detail before you miss it, and clear up a fogged mind overnight. If you are so fond of your own voice, your own ideas, how will you hear or know when your implanted Word has spoken to your soul? You have all the equipment, the prayer formula, everything you need, but must regularly monitor your formula for living to see whether it is still successful.–Edna Lister, Always Wear Your Crown, December 11, 1966.

When the evil of earth is concentrated to be lifted, it draws the angel of death as strong or battering winds. [You can speak the Word to initiate such a concentration, but do this only in a prayer group.] A death vibration of disintegration is essential to lift and cleanse an old vibration or nothing physical could or would disintegrate.–Edna Lister, May 15, 1967.

When you need income, expect it but do not concentrate on it. If you concentrate on the physical, you will not ascend. Let the law use you. The right question is, are you using money for the honor and glory of God. The Light, as Mind, Substance, and Power, is there to meet your needs in every situation. Hold your vibration by moving up to the hub of the wheel where Power backs imagination and dynamically holds you in place.–Edna Lister, Power and Imagination, May 21, 1967.

In the practice of soul ascension you work from the crown of your head down, and at the heart from the inside out to sublimate the propensities and tendencies of self to be subject to the soul’s command. For example, if you concentrate on the golden bowl, your other vital centers will open automatically.–Edna Lister, The Phenomenon of Death or Personality Survival, December 12, 1967.

When concentration and meditation comprise your contemplation, you become vulnerable. The Adept works under the Gates of Light. When your compassion degenerates, a heavier veil of illusion drops and your compassion touches the sympathy chord, which degenerates it into maudlin sentimentality.–Edna Lister, March 10, 1968.

You may always use your powers of concentration to focus on the proper locations to release Power, but never to get what you want personally.–Edna Lister, undated papers, 1933-1971.

Endnotes

1^ Treat the thought forms that feed on all nuclear waste sites, e.g. Hanford Reservation, Chernobyl, Fukushima, landfills, toxic waste dumps, etc., declaring them drained of all Mind, Substance, Power, and energy.

2^ Fakir: A Muslim or Hindu ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance.

3^ The Sargasso Sea is in the North Atlantic Ocean, between the West Indies and the Azores, at 30 degrees North latitude. This relatively still area is the center of a great swirl of ocean currents and is noted for the abundance of seaweed on its surface. Bermuda lies in the Northwestern part of this sea.–Concise Columbia Encyclopedia

4^ Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are all rotating storms spawned in the tropics. These storms rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Hurricanes are formed in the Atlantic and Northern Pacific. So, the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and the Caribbean, as well as (less frequently), the U.S. and Mexican west coasts, all get hurricanes.

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