When we are beginning to learn meditation, it is important to develop our capacity to concentrate. In his writings regarding concentration, Sri Chinmoy comments that "Concentration is the arrow. Meditation is the bow."

The very nature of the mind is to roam and this is the one thing that people often find most challenging when learning meditation. If we can at first begin to harness the mind and develop the capacity to concentrate on a single simple concept, we set a foundation for developing the capacity to have excellent one pointed meditation as time goes by.

The following exercises are simple but effective concentration techniques offered by Sri Chinmoy:

Concentrate on only one object. If you want to concentrate on the tip of your thumb, start with imagination. Imagine that your only possession is your thumb. There is nothing else which you can claim as your own. The rest of the body does not belong to you — only the thumb. If you want to concentrate on the tip of your nose, feel that you are the possessor of only your nose; you are not the possessor of your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your limbs. If you begin to think of something else, feel that you are entering into foreign territory. In this way, you will develop your power of concentration.

You are at liberty to choose any part of your body to concentrate on, but try to use some part which you feel as your very own. And do not concentrate on your arm or your hand or your leg. Take a very small part of your body — the eye or the nose or a fingertip. The smaller the better for concentration. ( Source: Kundalini: the Mother Power)

Some seekers like to concentrate on their heartbeat. If you want to do this, do not be afraid that the heart will stop and that you will die. No, if you want to be a real hero in your spiritual life, you can try to concentrate on your heartbeat. This is the golden opportunity for you to enter into the endless life. Each time you hear the sound of your heartbeat, immediately feel there your infinite, immortal life. (Source: Meditation: Man-Perfection In God-Satisfaction)

The power of concentration
Can easily silence
All the clamour of the mind.
– Sri Chinmoy