Concentration.  Whatever you are doing be master of your work.  If you are a cobbler mend shoes in a perfect manner; if a barber keep your razors and scissors in a state that will excite the admiration of your customers; if a tailor make the coat fit like a glove; if a clerk keep your accounts in apple-pie order; if a builder scorn your jerry-brother; if a singer enchant the listener with a concord of sweet sounds; if an actor enter into the spirit of the character and make the play-goer feel that

“All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and their entrance
And one man in his time plays many parts.”

If a leader in any department of thought or action, remember that if to you much is given, from you also much is required, for the responsibility of the lives and happiness of your fellows rests heavy on your shoulders, whether you know it or not and thousands may secretly curse your incapacity and bungling.  It is infinitely better to be a good cobbler than a bad ruler.

I believe the above advice if followed conscientiously by you would go to make you really fit for initiation into the more advanced stages of mastery.  Take it to heart by all means.  Be convinced, the man who looks for quick results and a royal road to the mastery of Mental Science breaks down in frequent despair at apparent failures and neglects his daily work will never go far.  In fact, his very impatience will lead to failure.  No individual life is fully rounded out unless some useful work forms part of it.  The Yogi who has renounced the world has already done his work and is ahead of the times.  The real hermit and the saint are the Pillars of Strength on which this world stands.  I cannot repeat this too often.  The mere fact of their breathing the same atmosphere as you is a benediction and an inestimable boon unto the race.

PRELIMINARY STEPS.

“The first requisite,” says Mr. Atkinson, “of concentering is the ability to shut out outside thoughts, sights and sounds; to conquer inattention; to obtain perfect control over the body and mind.  The body must be brought under the control of the mind; the mind under the direct control of the Will.  The Will is strong enough, but the mind needs strengthening by being brought under the direct influence of the will.  The mind, strengthened by the impulse of the will, becomes a much more powerful projector of thought vibrations than otherwise and the vibrations have much greater force and effect.”

The first four exercises are meant to train the mind to readily obey the commands of the mind.  Take them in the privacy of your own room and never talk of them to others.  Also do not let their apparent simplicity lead you to neglect them.  If you are one of those empty-brained men who go about talking of their exercises hoping in this way to win praise, you will never succeed.  Be serious, earnest and