method to improve concentration-TRAATAK

the word traatak means the fixed gaze by three (eyes). the third eye is supposed to be in the middle of the two eyes on the forehead.

the traatak is one of the shat-karma of the yoga to be precise the hath-yoga. shat karma were devised to attain complete control of the body and mind and the traatak is primarily to contain and control the relentless thoughts coming to our mind and to improve the attention and focus of the mind.

it is said that it has magical hypnotic powers and if after practice the self suggestions are made while doing traatak the body immediately accepts them.

it is also supposed to increase the eye sight but i did not find any proper research done on this so i am unable to comment on that.

traatak has many methods but to start with here is a simple start up. i am sure you will enjoy as you may not have experienced anything of this type if not done earlier . its an entirely different experience.

sit in a comfortable position . the seating suggested by the shat karma is kamalasan , sidhdhasan , padmasan or something like that .

close your eyes.and try to see what is there in the middle of both the eyes. you may see initially red color and movement of this color if you right now close your eyes while reading this and try this immediately. if you continue to watch the black or white will start taking over from the red. thats it now for the next step.

open your eyes and try to see the tip of your nose without straining your eyes. you will experience a sweet pain in the forehead or some warmth at the forehead . but this is not a problem its only because you tried this for the first time.

now continue to watch the tip of the nose and pay attention to your thoughts. whenever thoughts come you drive your attention to the tip of the nose. mind it your attention can be only at one place either you will watch the tip of the nose or you will be engrossed in the thoughts flow.

now repeat the process from the start.

this is just a warm up of the traatak .

now for another warm up before you go to the actual traatak.

reverse the process that is when you close the eyes fix your attention at the tip of the nose and when you open your eyes fix your attention to the middle of both the eyes. this place is supposed to be the place of third eye.

you must feel the sweet pain even stronger than the earlier one if you have never tried this earlier. but do not worry this will not be a problem .

now the actual traatak

fix your gaze at the tip of the nose for one minute . and watch your breathe with open eyes . loosen all your body strains . relax all the muscles. now your attention should be only on the breathe and the focus on the tip of the nose.

after a minute when you are relaxed and free from strains. slowly without changing your eyes at any other places close your eyes. now again you will see the color in the eyes. now try to discover which eye is looking at the color . distribution will be for one of the eye depending on the swar (surya or chandra swar) then experience which nostril is breathing and which is not from the place of the tip of the nose. if you concentrate on the breathe you will know which one nostril is this. it is amazing that most of the people even do not know that every body uses only one nostril to breathe at a time and the nostril keeps altering after each one and half hour.

now concentrate back on the middle of the eyes. you will have to keep gazing without altering your attention to right or left . since you are not habitual your eyes will try to see something else after every now and then but just neglect this and slowing without force bring back to the middle of the eyes on the place of the third eye. after a while with practice and patience you will start looking a small circle of the size of your both the eyes contours and this circle is the same color as the background color but the circle is little darker or bright. if you do not change the gaze which tries to change at every throb of the veins this circle will show movement going towards the centre of your attention you have to concentrate on the point of the cirlce where it disappears. its not easy to find this . as you may not even see this circle even after many days of practice if your gaze is not fixed . this circle only appears with the fixed gaze for at least a minute and finding the centre of the circle disppearing is also not easy as the mind is like a drunken monkey it keeps itself busy by hopping from one place to other to keep it concentrated and fixed without any change is most difficult job of the world . so this part will take days to complete.

when you have learned to fix your gaze at the centre of this cricle disappearing you have got the point of the traatak. which is called dhyan bindu. now you have to only think about this point and try to understand what images are appearing at this point . when images appear the mind will pull out its memory files to relate the images with your previious experiences but just do not pay attention to this . keep just looking at these appearing images . after some time you will be able to fix your mind attention eyes and breath all at one place for quite some time. you may see images which you may have never seen in your life the creatures you may not have seen or even imagined and reason will not prevail over this point. just keep away curiosity and logic . you only have to see as the silent uninterested viewer. after practice of some days you will be able to keep in this state for quite some time. this is the traatak .

there are many activities of mind control and body control which can be started from this point but they all are beyond the topic. there are other methods of traatak but the method which i briefed is called anter-traatak. the internal traatak.

the mirror technique of the traatak is called chhaya traatak as in the good old times it was practiced at the still water looking at your own image . but now you have mirrors . keep the mirror in front of you vertically with no angles means perpendicular to the earth like on a wall. keep it at a distance where you can see the details of your face properly and exactly. do not keep it too close or far away . this will distract you in many ways. 

now practice what i narrated in the earlier method . this only has changed the point of precipitation as now you will concentrate on the middle of the eyes of your chhaya or the mirror image of the self. 

to make this interesting and simple just start looking at your own eyes as if you are looking at another person fix your gaze you will start seeing many images of your own self if you do not change the gaze. 

this is interesting you may not have seen so many different images of yourself. 

you can continue to repeat this warm up for a few initial days before you actually indulge in the method of traatak.

this is a little advanced technique of traatak called surya chandra traatak. i do not recommend this for a person to practice this without learning from yoga guru as without learning it from proper master of this technique this may harm your eyesight and half knowledge of this technique may even have some orientation problems with your thought process . 

this technique is for yogi who actually want to attain spiritual goals. you have to follow other shat karma before you practice this technique and also you have to maintain strict time schedule of the chandroday moon rise and sun rise. 

this method is taken up when you have mastered the technique of anter and bahir traatak. 

at the sunrise when the sun is not lit up when it is not glowing . this time is only for about 8 minuetes and few seconds you have to start early everyday at the morning at this 8 minutes time. it is only to gaze through the third eye direct eye contact may harm your eye sight.  so although there are immense benefits of this traatak but only after learning perfectly with master of this technique. 

one more important fact is that you have to do chandra traatak when you do surya traatak without fail. 

internal traatak 

internal traatak is done with the closed eyes and dhyan bidnu is set at closed eyes. 

external traatak

external traatak is done with open eyes like mirror technique. 

left brain right brain does seperate reaction and work for us. the orientation is properly achieved and the skill of the mind increases by traatak.

flow of thoughts it gives you a platform from where you can watch your thought process and easily control it.

concentration on the middle. this method gives you concentration and focus.

stops flow of thoughts

after learning it properly you can use it convert your thoughts to positive and body learns to easily accept what commands you give in this state. 

this is little bit like a self hypnosis.