The Concentration of Theron Dumont and Zen-attuned Living
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- The Concentration of Theron Dumont and Zen-attuned Living
- Refuse Great Encouragement
- Had through Concentration
- The Costs of Bigwigs T
- Concentration Finale T
Theron Dumont's Teachings in a Nutshell
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| The great work is hardly ever to do one's very best in the sense of straining oneself by exertions over and over. |
Learn Theron Dumont's great and good points on concentration in the art of living. These teachings or suggestions tie in with deep meditation (Sanskrit: dhyana, Japanese: Zen). In some cases it can increase one's efficiency. And it can be a very beneficial practice. Here are selected instructions:
"GREAT work can be accomplished by every man if he can be awakened to do his very
best." - TD
COMMENT. What should be understood by "doing his very best"? A boat at top speed does not last long because of the strain that goes along with the speed. A boat that is not "doing its best", but perhaps 70 percent of its top speed, can last considerably longer and thus accomplish more and serve better. It depends on the time at our disposal.
There should be a lesson in this: Doing your very best is not doing your maximum for long. Do not over-exert or strain yourself, then; think of the long run and what can be accomplished by more sense and less hurry. Consider that "the human vehicle" - the body-and-mind - may be fatigued, depleted, fatigued, stressed and struck with a lot of diseases because of stress. Combat stress, including the stress of "doing your very best", if you understand that term in a less than passable way. "Doctors estimate that emotional stress plays an important role in more than half of all medical problems." Many psychosomatic diseases are wholly or partly due to ongoing stress. [Hi 505]
In order not to get slowly stressed and diseased, slow down, learn to relax, and train yourself calmly, methodically. These are sound measures that can help after some time. As you train yourself calmly you have to get more able, or skilled. That could help. Buddha says, in fact, that five pleasant things can be gained by acting skillfully:
These five things are welcome, agreeable, pleasant, and hard to obtain in the world. Which five? Long life... beauty... pleasure... status... rebirth in heaven . . . If they were to be obtained by reason of prayers or wishes, who here would lack them? . . . The disciple of the noble ones who desires long life should follow the path of practice leading to long life. In so doing, he will attain long life, either human or divine...(Similarly with beauty, pleasure, status, and rebirth in heaven)..." [Anguttura Nikaya 5.43]It boils down to "Do what it takes." That is where training in getting proficient may offer help. A very common alternative nowadays is getting stressed, burnt out, and diseased without having enough control. Relaxed, ongoing awareness is a good help. Bring it into your eating, interactions, work situation, whatever. A common alternative is stress and pains, also called dukkha. The Pali word is translated into both "stress," "unsatisfactoriness," "suffering", and more. A particularly needed derivate of one of Buddha's main tenets is "There is stress involved in living; but put a stop to it (not to living, but to undue stress)." Buddha says,
Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are dukkha; association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are dukkha." — S Nikaya 56.11]Compare Rahes and Holmes' well-known stress scale. The two researchers devised a way of stipulating the stressors (dukkhas) in an average American's life. On their scale the most stressing event is death of one's spouse (assuming he or she was all right to be with in the first place). As you may see, people do not see eye to eye here either. Some are actually relieved by the death of their spouse, but many taboos hinder full expression of joy in such cases. Mourning is normally called for.
And so on for the other top factors of their scale. People and circumstances differ. Averages are still useful, and may bring helpful indications, but need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Another reason for that, is that people react to stress (dukkha) differently. Stress-management helps, stress may be handled better by knowledge and skills, and different persons differ in their general stress resistance. However, by knowledge, learning to work with ease enough, picking a fit partner, getting money enough for your work, and so on, you improve your odds and may lead a far better life than if you do not.
Buddha's words about dukkha are solidly relevant for stressed people today too, and the recurrent stress (emphasis) on getting skilful in his teachings is ein gefundenes Fressen, a titbit. There is much to learn from him, that is certain.
Buddha also talks for exerting oneself. It has to be suitably done, with as little strain as possible, or strain-linked dangers may be brewing. Hence, when Theron Dumont claims that ""Great work can be accomplished by every man if he can be awakened to do his very best," the key word is "awaken". Get a clearer view, get an education, become rational, in part by education, learn to be attentive and relaxed here and now, and go for better insights. In the end such measures may help. They do help some.
Also consider that at times top speed is needed. The strain from it has effects that often run deep, weakening the depth of man (and boat), so make sure to take time to relax in between and recuperate too. It is in the art of living.
THESE lessons can be found to be utterly practical. The exercises can even be thoroughly tested. Yet do not become discouraged, if you find yourself unable to hold your thought on the subject very long at first. There are very few that can. - If you will just practice a little from the art of Zen and do a fair concentration exercise or three every day, you can find you soon develop prowess - it can lead into wonderful inside power. [Cf. introductory words by TD in The Power of Concentration .] [#3]
AS YOU should know, it can be of great value to know how to concentrate, if you have
nothing better to do. Through fair play that harms no one or very, very little, many evolve
stayer ability and enlarge their focus. Then, some try to make the greatest success of
anything by focusing on a main idea they need to kep up with for some reason. The hunting
cat does that. It also know how to relax much and often. It comes naturally.
It is very wise to look to a cat to understand that concentration needs a "victim".
The target is the victim outside Zen training, and much one-sided focusing (control) should
be coupled with loose, lax living in between in order to enjoy life from day to day. Some
appear to ignore and next "forget" that corollary - and neither ignoring nor forgetting a
thing like that is wise.
This hinted at, let us go on to see into concentration. It can and should be handled
as an art. It is done that way in one of the major schools of Zen, called Soto Zen. That
school is marked by much sitting. One method consists in staring without thought on a white
wall - use a calm surface, then, for these sessions, if you find you could use them. The
regular drill is often 35 minutes for each sitting, and maybe twice a day could suit
you.
Once you make progress in the art of concentration without objects, you may
apply it on objects. And what next? It depends.
- OUT: If you turn your attention to the outside world, maybe you master more and better or faster through it. There is that hope, initially.
- INSIDE: If you think your way inwards by "riding" on thoughts like masters learnt to do in order to go far inwards, you may come up with different abilities than those about you. If it cannot be hidden, it cannot be helped. The standard counsel is to keep silent about such findings, at least for a long time. We leave out exceptional cases in this Reden (discourse).
- BOTH COMBINED THROUGHOUT THE DAY: There you have it - two grand avenues staked out for beginners. One makes use of sensible amounts of awareness to turn inside, the other mobilises focusing on targets in the world. And you should know how to combine the inward-turn with outward accomplishments. That is advised in some yoga schools too.
Refuse Great Encouragement
A HOPEFUL writer-to-be once approached George Bernard Shaw at a party and tried to make the celebrity read a manuscript to find out if the aspiring one had talent. Shaw did not look at the manuscript.
"No," he said. "I will not recommend you to get further."
"But why?" protested the other, "you have not even read what I have written."
"You ask for another's opinion. Maybe in need of encouragement. If you mean business in these matters, you do it no matter what others deal or say. That is largely why." - Well, G.B. Shaw said at least something that came close to this.
- Great encouragement - it could be best to have nothing of it. Moderate encouragement can be OK though.
- If you cannot stand aloof from the opinions of others, take care. Writer fights are very hard, in part independent of others.
"DO IT FOR YOURSELF FIRST AND FOREMOST" - And maybe you find encouragement from others as time goes by. It happened to the world-famous humorist Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002), one of Sweden's greatest writers ever. She saw that the thing she was involved with, was to humour and entertain the Child inside her. If that Child does not like what you are up to, and hardly finds it interesting and smart, think better, no matter what "major others" decree.
Now, another point is fit to bring to your notice as well: Remain a sense of proportions. Fair artists strive for that - not just through the arts they are recognised through, but most of all through how they live and regulate their lives throughout. Perhaps a bit opposed to that sanity-linked point of view, some recognised artists may be said to grovel in the dirt, shabby and unkempt, while they try to pinpoint this and that onto some minor segment of what is in front of them, through the art they are involved in. Some may also be labeled black sheep of the family. The "black cat" is a smoother term than "black sheep" in this setting.
Speaking of black sheep that go too far and fall victims to ruses, misleading guidance, ensnaring plots of others that try to get the best of them: We should not let things like that happen to you. Learn to focus better. Keep things in perspective and manage things better as you grow. That often helps, and could function well all life through. We advocate it. And from this you see you have to find out many things yourself, at least ordinarily.
As they say: "Concentration may bring a way". Maybe not. That happens too. A sense of balance and perspective helps. What is the big art that most other arts are kept inside? The long art of living (along - day by day, week after week, month after month, year after year throughout a life). Many great choices may help that course. And interestingly, such helping choices may not look big at all. Yet they can be helpful if they serve the regulated, balanced fare that eases things and allows one to build up reserves of more than one kind for a rainy day.
We can be completely controlled by our concentrated thought. What about this one?: One man's opportunity is usually another man's loss. Concentrated thought is often helpful, like an encouraging tonic. It should be utilised the same day, then, by putting forth some effort in a direction that is interesting or even better.
Through concentration on reading, some get good grades, and also get more prepared for jobs that help easy living, good living and things like that matter. Your services and sincere interests both could profit for getting upgraded, for once you reach a top of your career, there is only one way to move - downhill. Having hobbies, interests and friends that mean a lot to you somhow, can and should help you as the downhill phases of life and career sets in. Mature living is the mark of having attained the phase that goes before going downhill.
You have to manage these teachings, or you may not be up to managing life. But maybe you kan revivify yourself and someone of your kin by getting into your natural, big talents and evolving some of them at the very least. It can be largely revivifying to learn the arts. Maybe not all of them, but fondness of what you are doing ties in with evolving properly. See to that. Maybe you possess a gift or something else that others do not. If you can succeed through making use of things like that, learn to consider real well before you take actions. Good old Plotin once thought that activity is due to lack of contemplation. Think about it -
Anyway, conditions are hard for good-natured beginners in a sea of sharks. That is what business life may be portrayed as in Norways. In the realm of business, just a few succeed the majority fail: nine out of ten started business enterprises in Norway - they fail. Official statistics show it.
Often persons fall victims to bad ones. In such cases law and justice often fail too. And the statistics is not encouraging in these waters either. So learn to take very solid precautions, no matter how things appear at the start, and much can be saved that would otherwise go down the drain later. It pays to be prepared. Here is Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong, sooner or later someone will see to it that it does. Bulwarking is basic help against that, along with other sane measures and precaution well in time. It helps.
Most artistically gifted students may fail too, if they need to make money from their developed artistic prowess. That is due to market plots and how life often runs for many artists. Some get recognitions after they are dead, most may not get much recognition even then. A few get it, and some of their works get prized over and above what is natural - all due to market mechanisms in the realm of "having art" to flaunt by and better.
Had Through Concentration
IF ARTLIKE AND catlike concentration brings on suggestive influence and lots of
yoga-linked powers and progress, what could be the end of it? Could it bring you to Hades in
the long run, in the end?
Many men possess the power to concentrate differently than they should - it can be
turned into very good practice. Concentration means strength of mind. Through mental
strength one may stand and withstand many unwelcome repercussions from going ascance or
deviating from bad ones. It depends. And by deviations the route opens to the Palace of Hard
Knocks. Thus, by mental strength we may go far in deviations - some are for good, remember -
and learn many lessons on top of things like,"By surviving faulty steps and those of others, we learn. By learning and pinpointing it, we arrive at wise adages that can and should be handed over to good-natured beginners. They need to be warned, because not all ways that appear to be good and fair, are that in the long run or around the bend."
The person unable to concentrate never accomplished a great deal, and those that learn to inspect and consider beforehand many avenues that open up, may derive benefit from the art of contemplation, much as Plotin suggested. Forethought is helpful. "Look before you leap" is standard British counsel too.
Concentration can be developed. If your fields are not fertile, the farmer has to get frugal. And, likewise, there is more need to cultivate special plots instead of "sailing along" in a ripe, fertile field of a very lush, attractive tract.
You have perhaps found out that masculine man is said to plough a woman - liken her to his field of labour. Some find it excellent to judge his capacities for loafing through a simile like that. This outlook can be enlarged on. Does the one you are married to own her own castle? Are her fields full of vines and flocks of cattle? Are there more than a couple of millions in her bank accounts? Hope to get rich through ploughing a "fertile field" like a man to bring changes into you living - rather welcome ones, we dare say. Who knows what otherwise could happen -
It is halfway glimpsed through this that the need to concentrate happens to speak of less welcome surroundings than what we have an inborn right to as sons and daughters of the couple back in paradise. And yet, an ice bear has got it fairly ideal for himself anyway, but he is a beast of prey and fond of tourists too. Take care.
If your conditions demand frugal goings, maybe you could improve your lot by great ideas, carefully meted out things (measures) and more control and forethought than others may muster and master. That could help, but do not ask for how long, or what the internal price to pay could amount to. It may vary. Lots of things vary.
Perhaps the one who able to concentrate much gains wicked power to control others. They say it is a fruit of much yoga training. At any rate, some persons have a more powerful influence than others. Some become leaders through that, others not. One may become influential for good and bad. One of the best ways to influence another is to try to keep your inborn facilities intact, hold your own fort, and try more all-round exercise. It could work for some decades and make life far better.
The Costs of Bigwigs
Big guys very seldom want to be explicit about the huge costs of bigness.
Big guys tell you what they
want
SOME APPARENTLY big guys earn money as author and lecturers. And some of these guys
seem to delight in telling you that you can get what you want - and how often does it
happen? It helps to be able to count better than 1-2-3. Probability calculations can bring
great benefits into lives because they make the proficient guys able to reckon with odds, be
alerted to some dangers and take precautions accordingly. Sane measures are not to be
forsaken by those that take up yoga.In these times some are dumbfounded by spectables and persons involved in PR business. That is not good. Nor is it really good to be slowly turned into one of the screen jellyfish or "big fellah" successes show business in such a mental "fairy age" or TV appearance age as ours looks like a blunder. If so, the fault may be all your own.
At times it helps to change some ideals to think differently. Besides, not all thoughts are welcome thoughts.
"LIFE IS one continuous unfoldment." [Theron Dumont]. Well, maybe it is not
unfoldment or unfolding most of the time. Some compartmentalise their lives and strive to
shut off this and that nasty habit or trait if they feel unwelcome for things like that. A
lot of persons lack personal integration, or integrity. The prize to pay for not being
whole-heartedly oneself mainly and most of the time, could be lack of congruence, boredom
with life and hankering for the god and other assets of others. Beware.
And what is more, a jolly good genius is not sinister, and not lacking in day-to-day
competence either. If he is much engrossed in things, it may look that way, however.
¤
You should concentrate on the little business first. If it later flourishes, you
have made yourself an entry to gaining many of the things you like and want. Do not forget
those you like, and do not concentrate only on wants.
Be engrossed in good and savoury outfits for the fare to improve, if you can. How
may you otherwise inspire confidence in others if you do not trust yourself? It looks nearly
impossible, and "many near-impossible doings over and over" is hard to carry on as your
trademark. Try not to catch others into helping you too much and far and wide in your
personal pits of your own doing. Undo the tricks and repercussions of whatever errors you
can as your life makes progress or halts for the better. And do not cheat others or yourself
in your operative betterment process. For example, do not affirm that good things flow into
your life each night if your day-to-day and hard-won experiences run contrary to that.
Affirmations need better tenets to cement in your psyche than light swindles. Note that the
best instructor will help you survive and next flourish.
Good things, ample outfits and funds may be needed to make a business survive, and
that is how it is with a sound and healthy family too. You should like what you are
doing.
Count the future and inward
costs of swindles if you can
SAVOURY all-round instruction could be of the greatest importance: Disciplining
oneself like a donkey through training the will, appears to be a common mistake made by
yogis. Be more discreet. Also, appreciate your own standing a whole lot better. There could
be a whole lot of sensible reasons for it behind the curtains too - "you never know, do
you?"There are some that apparently need to thrive better. To do so, there is at times a need to relax from straining exercises and programs, to "loosen the goddamn will" thankfully, and learn to cope better. In time it could help, but there is no guarantee given from here, up north.
IF YOU feel this is not the particular age for wealth-sustaining, rewarding
all-round teachings against teachings that bring benefits to bandits, what is the age where
it is needed, or needed better? ¤
If you try hard to do less so as to get more aware, you could end up tense. That is
not clever, so do not try. A major benefit of relying less on your adamant efforts of will
or other facets of one-sidedness, is that you may learn to see a lot better that way. So
look around from time to time. That could help and bring such half-blessings as the sight of
flowers along your path. No one knows what they can do till they try. And try a little at
first to taste things with care and consideration first. You have to gauge many sorts of
doses yourself.
The entrance to greater awareness is here: "Listen out" laxly in the hereness and
fasten that sense of awareness if you can, much like a light bulb. It is part of being
yourself first and foremost. That is in the expert training too. Enlarging awareness is good
for some.
Here you are told that
day-to-day habits help a lot too
"BUSINESS as usual" is good in fair waters. If in debt, you should pay. Maybe you
can disarm your enemy also. Who knows what a life expert can do?You can pay many things in a bank; make sure it is the right one, then, and that payment is due. If you have offended others, ask forgiveness of the right ones before creeping to the house of God; that is in the general teachings of Jesus. Why not looking into this "corollary" as well: Consider so well that you learn to thank the right ones for blessings in your life. Do not thank the "God" by whim if real persons are the ones that favour your fare, after all.
Consecration is hard, and concentration on difficult objectives may be harder still.
Yet many a man can overcome bad habits: A little concentration on lines that offend fool's
play and idiotic customs might help, at least in a good group, and among welcoming peers
somehow.Summary
- As big guys tell you what they want, often on your behalf, you may tell yourself what you really want. Go deep inside in searching for it.
- Study the future fare and inward costs of swindlers if you can, so as to refuse dealing with swindlers at length. It could be good for you; if not here, then after time.
- Our daily living consists in no small degree of habits or half-habits. Study your day-to-day habits to get a better life and more ample quality time.
Want to go deep, to plunge, for it could be good for you. Much research into effects of transcendental meditation and a derivate (Acem) method, says that. As you bring the good effects into your life outside the meditating sessions, your life should improve if you proceed along some generally fit track that suits you personally.
Concentration Finale
Take heed that you don't let good and ample concentration aid you into a thrombosis.You have to discern which of the paternal statements above could suit you, in what sense, in what way(s) and how far and when. There are many things to consider. We have tried to make that discerment much easier by the round and smooth hints that follow.
Hint 1: Amount to something. God knows how.
"THE FIRST of each month, a person should sit down and examine the progress he has made. If he has not come up to "expectations" he should discover the reason". [Theron Dumont; 1]"The man that is the best able to accomplish anything is the one with a broad mind (...) always ... in demand ..." [Theron Dumont; 1]
"VIEW WITH delight the smooth plains that are in front of you. (...) Do not let a
setback stop you. [Do not get thwarted.] Think of it as a [something] that has to be overcome [avoided, etc.] before you can reach your goal." [Theron Dumont; 1]
"From this time on he begins to amount to something. Even old men have suddenly
changed and accomplished wonders." [Theron Dumont; 1] [#2.2]
Hint 2: Get great profit even from very small efforts - that is what Transcendental Meditation is about
"SOME DAY I hope to see a millionaire philanthropist start a school for the training of failures. I am sure he could not put his money to a better use. ... I trust that in the near future, someone will heed the opportunity of using some of his millions in arousing men that have begun to falter." [Theron Dumont; 1]"ANYTHING that requires only a small effort, utilises very few of our faculties". [Theron Dumont; 1]
"WHAT USUALLY turns out to be one man's opportunity, was another man's loss. In this day one man's brain is matched against another's. It is often the quickness of brain action
that determines the result."---"You alone can decide when the turning point will come. It is
a matter of choice whether we allow our diviner self to control us or whether we will be
controlled by the brute within us." [Theron Dumont; 1]
"Many persons read good books, but say they do not get much good out of them."
[Theron Dumont; 1] [Try to meditate a bit in between to get profit out of reading too.]
"I can think of nothing, but lack of health, that should interfere with one becoming
successful. There is no other handicap that you should not be able to overcome." [Theron
Dumont; 1] [#3.1]
Hint 3: Look to the good in yourself first, then alter or discard the bad elements you find. But you have to be sure they really are bad
"ONE OF the most beneficial practices I know of is that of looking for the good in everyone and everything". [Theron Dumont; 1] (2)[#4.2]In a Nutshell
- Amount to something on your own accord.
- Getting great profit even from very small efforts - that is Transcendental Meditation.
- Look to the good in yourself as you find it. That is a most beneficial practice. Note that Buddha says: "You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person will not be found: You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection."
Amount to giving adequate attention to yourself and what is yours first. Skills in plumbing (diving) and the work-life may lead to yourself deeper inside, and great profit at that and in other ways even from small efforts, and learn to live that way, you may come to deserve welcoming arms and affection.
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Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1975.
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main editor), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder. A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University, 1996.
Hi: Smith, Carolyn D., ed, et al. Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology. 14th ed. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2003.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971. – ONLINE 1st edition
Pco: Dumont, Theron Q. The Power of Concentration. Chicago: Advanced Thought Publishing Co., 1918. [etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DumPowe.html]
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
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