"Traditional training laid great stress upon...... observing the motion of the breath, concentrating on a tree or a stone, hearing the environment and observing the traditional cycle of the year in plants, animals and the earth itself."
____ Ian G. Rees, "The Therapist's Chair and the Seige Perilous," in R. J. Stewart, ed., "Psychology and Spiritual Traditions"
The preparation of bards, ovates and druids included training not only in the memorization of knowledge and practices but also in the stillness of attention that we call concentration. If you have even tried to learn a new skill that requires the memorization of long lists or subtle correspondences, you will know that modern memory can be often unprepared and evasive when it comes to remembering on command.
The traditional Celtic method of concentration is learned in stillness and in the contemplation of the natural rhythms and cycles, involving the whole of our body, not just our intellect. In this deep stillness, poets discern metaphor, musicians music, architects primordial design, thinkers archetypal patterns, and relationships, seers truthful visions. We too can achieve this kind of concentration if we slow down and exercise our deeper faculties into a robust vigor that sustains whatever we wish to learn.
"Find a quiet place where you can contemplate some aspect of nature: a stone, tree, plant or star, for example. If you are indoors, concentrate on the sky you can see from your window, or on a plant growing in your home. Be aware of the object of your contemplation. Gradually become aware of the space around the object, Now switch your attention from object to space and back again, backward and forward repeatedly. Finally become aware of both object and space at once, and then include yourself in the relationship and remain in stillness and waiting, entering into a deep communion. Record your feelings in a poetic or artistic way."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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