Well written! I can relate to most of the article. However, I find that
> To focus on one thing deeply, to give it your full attention, is to experience it fully. And when we do this, something remarkable happens. Time, which so often feels like it is slipping through our fingers, begins to slow.
doesn't really apply to me, or to many people I know and have worked with - it is when I focus on one task that "time flies", and it's distractions that end up throwing men out of the zone.
What you're describing is a state of flow which is good for things like work but the article seems to be talking about time metaphorically.
For example, imagine you're going to your daughter's piano recital and spend the whole time thinking about work. You would be missing out on the experience of watching her perform and grow. If you become mindful of these habits and say "My mind is focusing on something that I cannot change right now, I should be present" then you'll be able to fully experience a moment in your child's life. So rather than feeling like life is passing you by, you're able to experience it in the moment. The surrounding sentences of the line you quoted don't read like the author's describing time like you are:
"But in this process, we must remember something important: life is not meant to be rushed through. It is not a race, nor is it a problem to be solved. It is an experience to be lived, and living well requires presence. ... Moments become rich, textured. Even the simplest of tasks takes on a new significance when approached with care, with attention."
Maybe you're both right? Staying on the example of recitals. When I concentrate hard listening to the music they seem like they last forever while also being over in the blink of an eye!
Similar sensation to being in an isolation chamber
I do improvized couples dancing, and have experienced time slowing down. It is an unique kind of experience, not just a different conceptualization of an everyday experience.
Buddhists say that you are where your attention is. So if a sound captures 100% of my attention, I am that sound. This feels strange on the surface, but when you look deeper into it, it reveals deep wisdom about the human experience.
In my understanding, it is possible, through years of practice (meditation etc.), to learn to direct your attention. Most of us have very limited capability to direct our attention, because we have not practiced it. Actually, modern life trains us to become less capable of directing our attention.
Based on your description, when you talk about "focusing on one task", you describe a flow state where you are 100% absorbed in the task. In a way you have not consciously decided to focus your attention. (I use a very specific meaning for the word conscious here, it is more aligned with the buddhist sense of the word, instead of western sense of having-thoughts-about the thing).
Your attention has been captured by the task at hand. In a way you are lucky that an useful and productive task has captured your attention.
In my understanding, if you learn to direct and hold the attention consciously, there is a next stage you can learn, where you become able to split your attention, to be conscious of two things at the same time.
If you direct some of your attention to the task at had, and some attention to a part in you observing yourself doing the task, then it feels as if the task is "happening", instead of you "doing" the task.
When this happens, there are effects on the physical experience as well, such as time slowing down. I have been blessed with such experiences when dancing, It seems to be possible to have such experiences also without being able to consistently and consciously direct the attention, as I have been blessed with such experiences in my dancing. But in this case it is accidental.
In sports/competition isn't what you've described the ability to both execute technically extremely precisely while having presence of mind to dictate the flow of the game?
Good write-up. IME, you can meditate enough that you can sometimes consciously choose to slow time down to devote more and more attention to something.
The key advantage of this is you can jumpstart a flywheel: attention -> unmediated effort -> attention. I say unmediated because your talking mind gets out of the way or helps you (versus never shutting up). I have used this during guitar practice sessions and found them both very enjoyable and helpful in the learning process.
Author describes experiences that myself can fully confirm. Everything said in this article resonates very strong, including how time slows in observation. This incredible essay is a very organic, honest summary, yet without all the esoteric, of what a mindful presence can be (whenever achieved). A bliss retold in few paragraphs.
Indeed to let go of the worldly rush is truly liberating. What a pity it is not allowed to complement the scriptures with such insights.
I believe the original author referred to the importance of intentionally focusing on something that isn't stimulating enough to create a sense of flow. It requires mindful effort to truly pay attention.
In essence, it's about being present without an occupied mind. In my experience, this can make time seem to pass more slowly, but in a pleasant way, even if it's somewhat subdued compared to a state of flow.
I think it is helpful to differentiate between mindfulness and concentration.*
I would associate flow more with concentration. And if there is no mindfulness together with the concentration, time will just "fly by". At least for me.
*As it is done in Buddhism, where both are separate spokes of the dharma wheel.
They seem both similar but very different at the same time.
"Flow" to me feels like allowing the mind off its leash, but having it be completely focused on one task rather than its normal state of unfocused chaos.
Whereas "mindfulness" feels more like allowing the mind to rest and become still.
In the former time slips by so quickly, and the latter time can seem to stand still, but with both time becomes meaningless.
Maybe what both have in common is this disconnection from time.
Well put, but I think you’re using “focus” in a different sense than the author is.
The article discusses internal (intensional!) focus on the substance of experience itself as it’s presented to your unified Ego, and you’re discussing the much more common idea of external (extensional!!1!) focus, which is almost the exact opposite since it typically requires quieting your inner monologue to the greatest extent possible and letting your subconscious faculties act autonomously.
agree that the "clock of life" is a strange beast, when compared to the clock on the wall. i try to quit paying too much attention to the latter, and time becomes more nuanced and textured.
What I think he meant is that time slows down for him in the way that time around him speeds up while he can stay focused on one thing.
Now of course I’m not the author so I’m not sure but yeah the way you’re describing it (real time flying when you’re locked in on something) is how I feel it goes for most people
I have experienced slowing of time in improvised couples dancing. I may have to react to very complex situations in a time frame that feels impossible.
For example, at the same time my follower can be so tense that she cannot feel leading/following signals as well as if she was relaxed, and she mis-interprets my lead and goes where I was not expecting her to go, her clothing gets stuck, another couple comes into the space I have directed our dance and we are about to crash etc. All this while I am interpreting live music in an interesting way. (This is an extreme example, most of the time things go smoothly.)
It may be unbelievable that it is possible to be able to solve such problems in split second, but it happens all the time in improvised couples dancing. The analytical mind is way too slow for it, however. If I am experiencing time that has slowed down, there is ample time to do everything. It does not even feel I need to rush it, but I can stay relaxed, and continue improvising go the music.
Yep that’s my reading too. I like to see it from a dynamical systems perspective: as a system approaches an attractor, the phase flow slows down, while the wall time marches on steadily. If we consider the “perspective” of the system, which is wall time divided by phase flow, we get the time speeding up part.
Yes. For many years, working on hard problems was my "drug of choice", because while in that state time disappeared, as did emotional pain -- being fully invested in a problem used up enough of my brain to shut up the internal narrator and the consciousness of pain.
It still does. But eventually you become aware that you aren't solving the key problem, just making it worse by not addressing it.
This is something that I have always strived for, and try to practice every living moment. You put in clearer and more detailed words what I have been trying to develop by myself.
I will be forever grateful for the time I spent practicing martial arts when I was younger. I was lucky enough to find a master that did not teach the practice as a means to reach agonistic goals but instead as practicing mindfulness and self observation. It was never explicitly told or explained in detail how to do it, it was simply practiced over and over again, indirectly, by checking the positions of your body, legs and arms, are they in the correct position? Am I engaging the correct set of muscles? Does the position feel powerful? Is my attention (ki) flowing in the correct direction, in the right spot? Am I aware of my surroundings and perceptive of my practice partner?
We were slowly taught to pay attention, by means of watching ourselves trying to perfect something.
Later in life I realized how much of an impact this had on my ability to concentrate, be present, not only in the physical sphere but also in the mental and spiritual or emotional sphere.
I slowly began to realize that the real practice of the martial art and striving for the perfect form were always a mean to the real goal of instead practicing mindfulness and perseverence.
To me that is the “art” in martial arts. I am not trying to put them on a pedestal, I believe that this “art” is proper of any activity a human can do, that can become art when it is a means to practice this kind of mindfulness.
In regard to watching the mind, one thing I’ve observed is a little strange, and I was hoping to get other’s experiences.
I like to watch the movement of my attention. Nothing abstract, just to observe where attention is aimed - it takes a mere 30 seconds of watching.
What I’ve noticed, is it moves around, seemingly without my input, and lacking any conscious intent (a concept the blog post makes a point to reclaim).
The light of attention shines throughout the physical scene, but it is sensorily multidimensional. It might move to the pain in my back, or the sound of the frogs, or the mug on my desk, a random memory, or more relevant to the article, the latest arising thought.
I am watching this movement of ‘my’ attention, and yet I seem to be playing no part in the neither the objects of attention, or the movement of attention itself.
This isn’t to say I cannot decide right now to move my hand in front of my face and observe it, but this arising of intention is itself mysterious too.
In Buddhism this is linked to the central concept of Dependent Origination: things arise in dependence on other things, everything is conditioned by something else.
This includes movements of attention: attention is drawn to a sound perception because a frog makes a sound, then conditioned on interest being high interest dwindles, conditioned on that plus nerves shooting in the back a sensation catches the attention, it goes to a thought of planning that appears conditioned on you having a deadline tomorrow...
Even the arising of intention to move the hand arises at that moment conditioned on other things (that include you playing around with your perception a moment ago, pre-existing view around how decision work and wanting to prove it, having a hand...)
Looking for conditionality in everything we might identify with - thoughts, perceptions, intention... - is a central practice in numerous schools of Early Buddhism, and can lead to a deep, deep sense of letting go, inhabiting a flow of things "just unfolding", and classical insights around what our sense of self actually is.
"I am not my thoughts." Or, as I prefer, "these thoughts are not mine." Experience that over and over again and everything gets a little easier, a little clearer. That's when the detachment from thoughts begins.
I meditate a good bit, an hour a day, and it doesn't stop thoughts arising, so I've had some time to think about this.
My guess is, it's just an evolutionarily useful thing, for your brain to keep pinging you about various things.
It doesn't mean of course that meditation is not useful. But you want to have control over these thoughts. Without a meditative practice, it's all too easy to allow your consciousness to be consumed by these impulses (which can lead you astray).
The best we can do with them is to "pay them no mind", i.e. just let them pass though us and then into the void of non-effect. The important understanding is that we can choose to act upon them or ignore them. Ignoring negative impulses is essential for developing compassion as a way of life, and doing so is no less than warfare, the most important we can ever undertake. Of course, if the impulse is "you left the burner on", you should make sure it's not going to cause a fire! Discernment of the flavors of streams that present themselves to our consciousness is sublime and the work of our lifetime.
I made the Bhodisattva Vow nearly 30 years ago, and am now a very happy person with a very happy family, though we have lived in poverty for ~15 years now. Ask me how ;-)
Side note: I lived with yoga practioners and know of the possible dangers therein, so I highly suggest that you add a mantra of positivity to your practice. My experience is that the best are the various two syllable names of our Creator, to accompany your heartbeat. Such mantras are the best baseline for us to fall back into within the busyness of this 21st Century life, but choose what makes you feel happy, for happiness is within the grasp of our every choice.
I feel I am an abstract mesh of "virtual sensory nodes" inside the network of my brain. These nodes are free flowing in the abstract multi-dimensional network - but in varying degrees of freedom. While the inner core of this abstract sensory entity is the "me" I have total perfect grasp on, the outer nodes sway here and there a little bit. When I start meditating - I start to access the information touching these outer sensors. They are by default moving "a little", I just get more aware of them. But I being the core of this entity, can easily sway them to any other place.
Yes, indeed, but a study of the streams of thoughts and feelings that barge into our attention is more obviously fruitful to our improving our personal and collective well-beings. Learning how to discern negative/selfish/callous/viceous impulses from the positive/selfless/compassionate/virtuous ones is at the heart of the meaning of life and the purpose of our mind's abilities, as well as the human race's future.
I can't recommend Castaneda's work, but it does present interesting perspectives on intention and attention, even if I'm not sold that he was an honest or accurate or even well-intentioned narrator. That said, the character of Don Juan conveys much wisdom, but are the books allegorical fiction or fantastical non-ordinary-but-actual reality? I don't know yet, and maybe I never will.
I've never really liked the present-tense expression of this idea. If you are watching your attention, is that you directing your attention at your attention? Can you step back again and watch yourself watching yourself watch yourself?
Or is it really a past-tense thing where you notice that your attention has drifted?
Not GP, but I'll relate my experience. Your attention is always automatically attending to something. You can learn to attend to your attention continually while you're functioning normally in real life. Maintaining this light noticing of what we're noticing, reveals the attitudes of the mind to various objects as we go through our lives. It's a very interesting state to abide in. This is known as the Cittanupassana practice, one of the Vipassana practices described in the Satipatthana Sutta.
In answer to your question, it’s hard to explain. But no, I don’t find it possible to step back again and observe that meta process. I just tried.
And it is definitely a present-tense action.
It may be that it is merely as you say, directing attention to attention, but it doesn’t diminish the free-flow experiential aspect of the exercise, or the intellectual curiosity.
Just to flesh out the experience, if I’m not paying attention to my experience, attention is still wandering all over the place, I’m just “in it” so to speak, and not noticing. When I observe it happening it has a very different quality to it.
Not to get esoteric, but the best way I could describe it is that there seems to be some observing faculty seperate to the usual sense of self. Which might explain why the exercise can’t devolve into an endless paying attention to paying attention to paying attention…
One of Advaita’s (nonduality) pointers is to observe one’s choices and find this independent/free will we believe we have.
I’ve watched my choices for about a decade now and have not been able to find anything like independent choice.
Everything I observe is dependent on something else (genetics, conditioning, environment, external or internal event), or a manifestation of a preference, currently active desire, emotion, thought or need.
Once I noticed that these are all spontaneous or predetermined I can no longer see the concept of “free will” as anything but an unpacked box containing a bunch of phenomena.
Another pointer of Advaita is that our brains tend to hold a view of a free will universe, or a pre-determined universe - which is a limit of the mind not the universe itself :)
And yet he cannot explain where the impulses come from.
As to argument against free will: do you not have the ability to choose between giving the next homeless person you see some money or being rude to them? Of course you do. You are also free to believe and then claim that the world is flat, but that don't make it true.
We can each choose to be compassionate, callous, or cruel -- to whomever we choose, to whatever extent we choose. The choices most people make are usually no more than the inertia of our cultural inheritances, which are, themselves, usually born of generational ignorance of the importance of active compassion and service to others' happiness.
The inertias of our world cultures are rife with ignorance of the fact that the happiest people are those that care for those around them. Of course, if worldly success is your only benchmark, then you are free to choose Musk's or Trump's path to "success", but you aren't going to find happiness there, no matter how easy it is to climb that ladder in this world's assbackwards value system. I challenge you to look at Jimmy Carter's or MLK's smiles for observable experience. Such a smile is earned and evidenced over our lifetime as obviously as a tree's growth rings reflect its experiences. Ours are indicative of our cumulative choices, for we are the only beings on Earth that have a moral compass and the imperative to choose accordingly.
Excellent. Amazing what we programmers have time to explore while we stare at our screens as we try to "work" ;-)
Overall, as human beings in 2024, we are advanced technologically, but not spiritually (yet).
At the basis of our being is the most etheral and fundamental of our connections to the multidimensional universe, which we are a part of, ofc. That pair are our free will and our mind. We use our mind to control our free will, which we use to choose what we do with our physical body.
What you have noticed is that our inner world is always experiencing external thought impulses that seek to direct our attention this way and that; for most of us, we merely let it lead us as it suggests.
Note that what I describe here is born of my Sufi tradition's teaching, but can also be found in a much different sense in Carlos Castaneda's very bizarre and dubious books, which I read many times in my younger years, and have yet to validate as true, but have found to contain many valuable lessons (useful allegory or strange reality? idk which yet).
Regardless, we are multidimensional creatures in a multidimensional universe, that contains six onion layers of differing vibrational planes, one of which our physical bodies inhabit, and another our energy bodies inhabit (our souls). Another pair contains sources of thoughts/feelings that are suggested to our mind as courses of action. Our job as the only moral beings of our plane is to ascertain their positivity/negativity and act according to loving positivity.
One negative example of our reality is the child's urge to steal a candy bar, but we can see a more deleterious example in cultures that have adoped falsehoods as a foundation of belief (they are particularly dangerous here in America now). Note that we are free to choose to believe in anything whatsoever, no matter how untrue or ridiculous. It takes a lifetime of careful consideration to hone one's ability to know truth from falsehood, which is part thoughtfulness and part feeling. One cannont develop that ability without committing oneself to a life of compassion. (Finland is directly teaching its children about misinformation; good job, Fins!)
As to the physical multidimensionalness of the universe, 5/6th of the universe is dark matter, as the matter in the other layers of the onion do not directly interact with ours but yet (somehow -- I don't know the details yet) still affects the combined gravity (as evidenced by our measurements of galactic inertia). Dark matter is undetectable in our plane because we only have our plane's members to do the detection, but high-energy physics experiments can cause fleeting cross-over between the planes (I do not understand the details) since de Broglie (IIRC).
It's a huge topic, so I'll stop here, but my contact info is in my bio, and let me wrap with saying that we are not forced to become better or worse in terms of our contribution to the well-being of our fellow human beings and the Earth, itself, but a progression towards becoming utterly compassionate bearers of truth is the entire puspose of the "spiritual path", regardless of which flavor. Do note, please, that the liars of the world lose their ability to discern the truth, as a result of their abandoning compassionate service to humanity, which requires learning and living the truth of compassionate existence through choice.
You can also find a horrific example of what I describe here in the life of the Golden State Killer's, who describes how his being was invaded by an external entity that compelled him to do the awful things he did. The negative impulses we experience have the purpose of making creating unhappiness via the ramifications of our choices, both for ourselves and those around us. If you consider this carefully, you will begin to understand why the world is so polluted, is dangerously heating, and is filled with oppressors and the misery they inflict. It is our widespread ignorance of the truth of our beings that has left us mostly at the mercy of the selfish impulse-stream, instead of the drive to compassionately serve the happiness of others. The important fact is that we can each choose compassion as the basis for our choices, and that there are ways to purify our moral compass to effect a more perfect integration with the greater good.
Note that this is also the only path to personal peace and happiness, because karma is a fundamental law with our human-only moral plane. It is human-only because only we make moral choices in this physical plane. And all our choices affect all other human beings, to some level, and billions of us sure do add up.
It's a bit heavy on the purple prose (though I was guilty of a very similar writing style in my 20s, and as I got on in life the purity of the idea became more important than its surrounding ornamental structures).
The gist of the article reminds me of a quote from the famous pianist Clara Schumann who would admonish her more virtuosic students for striving to play through passages as rapidly as possible.
"Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?"
> It's a bit heavy on the purple prose (though I was guilty of a very similar writing style in my 20s, and as I got on in life the purity of the idea became more important than its surrounding ornamental structures).
Great article. The physics and neurophysiology of Nowness and attention are also complex.
Toward the end of his life Einstein had a conversation with Rudolf Carnap (ca 1953-54):
“Einstein said that the problem of Now worried him seriously. He explained that Now means something special for men, something essentially different from the past and the future, but that this important difference dies not and cannot occur within physics.”
Einstein was still struggling with counterpoints made by Bergson in their famous 1922 debate on time and the meaning of duration.
Neuroscience is just beginning to give us more insights into Now and I am reasonably confident that we will find solid (satisfying) physical explanations for human temporality (more so than those of Bergson, Husserl, and Heidegger). But this will not remove the personal mysteries of attention and being in the flow.
Stoicism explores these ideas. One of the basic premises is that all external events are out of our control and to focus on what is, basically what is in our mind and our actions. Then we should try to discipline our ideas around virtues which are always good instead of outcomes and externals. That summary doesn't do it justice, if interested in exploring further. There are some good books on amazon or check out dailstoic for a quick overview.
https://dailystoic.com/what-is-stoicism-a-definition-3-stoic...
Vipassana Meditation formalizes this to a large extent and is extremely approachable. I would highly recommend anyone looking at guided meditation to give this a try:
Seeing that Frees for sure is the one that I suggest people read. Long and slow read where every paragraph seems like I could read it and sit and appreciate what he says before needing to read the next paragraph.
Burbea has many talks as well, youtube or on other podcast platforms. Hours and hours and hours of talks that are all so helpful on understanding in the word form.
I kept expecting a Buddhism pitch in the article. It reminded me so much of the opening premise of The Untethered Soul.
I'm not too interested in Buddhism specifically, but I have been separating myself from technology more, and It's been great savoring the little moments I used to completely miss.
Stoicism is not resigned helplessness. It is a realization that you can do what you feel you need to do (vote/protest/influence) while also realizing that the outcome is not under your control.
An important part of Stoicism is making purposeful "responses" instead of suffering kneejerk "reactions." You can be more effective in all things, including political action, if you can master this.
I will also point out that one of the founding documents is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor. He was nothing if not political.
The article captures everything I believe when it comes to attention. Every word resonates with me.
However, there are two things I would like to share that the article doesn't mention but are of deep importance when it comes to directing attention and 'mastering' one's mind.
First, approaching this as a way to 'master' or conquer your mind isn’t going to take us very far. There is nothing to master. Our minds are the ones wandering, and we, as living conscious beings, can observe the mind and make use of it. However, the idea of mastery is the mind itself trying to master itself, which won't lead us anywhere. If one thinks they have mastered their own mind, it is just the mind in control again, and you are merely acting on its desires rather than on intent that comes from deep within.
Second, and of extreme importance: one cannot give their full attention to the present out of fear. To many, this may sound strange and incomprehensible, but from my own experience delving into meditation and exploring my consciousness through altered states (e.g., hallucinogens), I can confirm that it is fear that prevents us from giving all of our attention even to the smallest things: a still object, a sound, or the feeling of your feet touching the floor. All of these sensory experiences, which for the most part occupy and illuminate the present moment, require something that is the ultimate fear of our minds: death. To be totally present in the moment is to die to the ever-restless and busy mind, and the fear of this death is no different to your mind than the fear of physical death. Even if temporary, full attention in the present moment represents the end of your dreams, desires, and sense of identity, along with everything that permeates it. I know this because the liberation that comes through certain drugs unlocks the potential to fully focus on the present moment. When you try, you may fail miserably because you start fearing what you sense and what you see.
It's totally possible to master one's mind. Your statement is one of semantics; an individual has cognitive processes they consider autonomous, and processes they consider conscious, or deliberate. the article is about deliberate processes taking precedence over autonomous processes. It's about being truthful to oneself, and living or thinking in a way that aligns with one's stated goals.
For many you are correct. I can confirm, through my own observation, that many, not all, are controlled by fear, and fear of death is one of the most prevalent. Death is universal, but fear of death is not.
This is a really great description of why a meditative practice is worth taking time on and also why it’s worth railing against todays constant attention deficit and lack of empty, quiet spaces, both mental and physical. Excellent writing!
Readit News
> To focus on one thing deeply, to give it your full attention, is to experience it fully. And when we do this, something remarkable happens. Time, which so often feels like it is slipping through our fingers, begins to slow.
doesn't really apply to me, or to many people I know and have worked with - it is when I focus on one task that "time flies", and it's distractions that end up throwing men out of the zone.
For example, imagine you're going to your daughter's piano recital and spend the whole time thinking about work. You would be missing out on the experience of watching her perform and grow. If you become mindful of these habits and say "My mind is focusing on something that I cannot change right now, I should be present" then you'll be able to fully experience a moment in your child's life. So rather than feeling like life is passing you by, you're able to experience it in the moment. The surrounding sentences of the line you quoted don't read like the author's describing time like you are:
"But in this process, we must remember something important: life is not meant to be rushed through. It is not a race, nor is it a problem to be solved. It is an experience to be lived, and living well requires presence. ... Moments become rich, textured. Even the simplest of tasks takes on a new significance when approached with care, with attention."
Similar sensation to being in an isolation chamber
Buddhists say that you are where your attention is. So if a sound captures 100% of my attention, I am that sound. This feels strange on the surface, but when you look deeper into it, it reveals deep wisdom about the human experience.
In my understanding, it is possible, through years of practice (meditation etc.), to learn to direct your attention. Most of us have very limited capability to direct our attention, because we have not practiced it. Actually, modern life trains us to become less capable of directing our attention.
Based on your description, when you talk about "focusing on one task", you describe a flow state where you are 100% absorbed in the task. In a way you have not consciously decided to focus your attention. (I use a very specific meaning for the word conscious here, it is more aligned with the buddhist sense of the word, instead of western sense of having-thoughts-about the thing).
Your attention has been captured by the task at hand. In a way you are lucky that an useful and productive task has captured your attention.
In my understanding, if you learn to direct and hold the attention consciously, there is a next stage you can learn, where you become able to split your attention, to be conscious of two things at the same time.
If you direct some of your attention to the task at had, and some attention to a part in you observing yourself doing the task, then it feels as if the task is "happening", instead of you "doing" the task.
When this happens, there are effects on the physical experience as well, such as time slowing down. I have been blessed with such experiences when dancing, It seems to be possible to have such experiences also without being able to consistently and consciously direct the attention, as I have been blessed with such experiences in my dancing. But in this case it is accidental.
The key advantage of this is you can jumpstart a flywheel: attention -> unmediated effort -> attention. I say unmediated because your talking mind gets out of the way or helps you (versus never shutting up). I have used this during guitar practice sessions and found them both very enjoyable and helpful in the learning process.
Indeed to let go of the worldly rush is truly liberating. What a pity it is not allowed to complement the scriptures with such insights.
In essence, it's about being present without an occupied mind. In my experience, this can make time seem to pass more slowly, but in a pleasant way, even if it's somewhat subdued compared to a state of flow.
I would associate flow more with concentration. And if there is no mindfulness together with the concentration, time will just "fly by". At least for me.
*As it is done in Buddhism, where both are separate spokes of the dharma wheel.
They seem both similar but very different at the same time.
"Flow" to me feels like allowing the mind off its leash, but having it be completely focused on one task rather than its normal state of unfocused chaos.
Whereas "mindfulness" feels more like allowing the mind to rest and become still.
In the former time slips by so quickly, and the latter time can seem to stand still, but with both time becomes meaningless.
Maybe what both have in common is this disconnection from time.
The article discusses internal (intensional!) focus on the substance of experience itself as it’s presented to your unified Ego, and you’re discussing the much more common idea of external (extensional!!1!) focus, which is almost the exact opposite since it typically requires quieting your inner monologue to the greatest extent possible and letting your subconscious faculties act autonomously.
Now of course I’m not the author so I’m not sure but yeah the way you’re describing it (real time flying when you’re locked in on something) is how I feel it goes for most people
For example, at the same time my follower can be so tense that she cannot feel leading/following signals as well as if she was relaxed, and she mis-interprets my lead and goes where I was not expecting her to go, her clothing gets stuck, another couple comes into the space I have directed our dance and we are about to crash etc. All this while I am interpreting live music in an interesting way. (This is an extreme example, most of the time things go smoothly.)
It may be unbelievable that it is possible to be able to solve such problems in split second, but it happens all the time in improvised couples dancing. The analytical mind is way too slow for it, however. If I am experiencing time that has slowed down, there is ample time to do everything. It does not even feel I need to rush it, but I can stay relaxed, and continue improvising go the music.
Deleted Comment
It still does. But eventually you become aware that you aren't solving the key problem, just making it worse by not addressing it.
I will be forever grateful for the time I spent practicing martial arts when I was younger. I was lucky enough to find a master that did not teach the practice as a means to reach agonistic goals but instead as practicing mindfulness and self observation. It was never explicitly told or explained in detail how to do it, it was simply practiced over and over again, indirectly, by checking the positions of your body, legs and arms, are they in the correct position? Am I engaging the correct set of muscles? Does the position feel powerful? Is my attention (ki) flowing in the correct direction, in the right spot? Am I aware of my surroundings and perceptive of my practice partner? We were slowly taught to pay attention, by means of watching ourselves trying to perfect something. Later in life I realized how much of an impact this had on my ability to concentrate, be present, not only in the physical sphere but also in the mental and spiritual or emotional sphere. I slowly began to realize that the real practice of the martial art and striving for the perfect form were always a mean to the real goal of instead practicing mindfulness and perseverence.
To me that is the “art” in martial arts. I am not trying to put them on a pedestal, I believe that this “art” is proper of any activity a human can do, that can become art when it is a means to practice this kind of mindfulness.
I like to watch the movement of my attention. Nothing abstract, just to observe where attention is aimed - it takes a mere 30 seconds of watching.
What I’ve noticed, is it moves around, seemingly without my input, and lacking any conscious intent (a concept the blog post makes a point to reclaim).
The light of attention shines throughout the physical scene, but it is sensorily multidimensional. It might move to the pain in my back, or the sound of the frogs, or the mug on my desk, a random memory, or more relevant to the article, the latest arising thought.
I am watching this movement of ‘my’ attention, and yet I seem to be playing no part in the neither the objects of attention, or the movement of attention itself.
This isn’t to say I cannot decide right now to move my hand in front of my face and observe it, but this arising of intention is itself mysterious too.
This includes movements of attention: attention is drawn to a sound perception because a frog makes a sound, then conditioned on interest being high interest dwindles, conditioned on that plus nerves shooting in the back a sensation catches the attention, it goes to a thought of planning that appears conditioned on you having a deadline tomorrow...
Even the arising of intention to move the hand arises at that moment conditioned on other things (that include you playing around with your perception a moment ago, pre-existing view around how decision work and wanting to prove it, having a hand...)
Looking for conditionality in everything we might identify with - thoughts, perceptions, intention... - is a central practice in numerous schools of Early Buddhism, and can lead to a deep, deep sense of letting go, inhabiting a flow of things "just unfolding", and classical insights around what our sense of self actually is.
My guess is, it's just an evolutionarily useful thing, for your brain to keep pinging you about various things.
It doesn't mean of course that meditation is not useful. But you want to have control over these thoughts. Without a meditative practice, it's all too easy to allow your consciousness to be consumed by these impulses (which can lead you astray).
I made the Bhodisattva Vow nearly 30 years ago, and am now a very happy person with a very happy family, though we have lived in poverty for ~15 years now. Ask me how ;-)
Side note: I lived with yoga practioners and know of the possible dangers therein, so I highly suggest that you add a mantra of positivity to your practice. My experience is that the best are the various two syllable names of our Creator, to accompany your heartbeat. Such mantras are the best baseline for us to fall back into within the busyness of this 21st Century life, but choose what makes you feel happy, for happiness is within the grasp of our every choice.
With love and friendship.
I have enjoyed reading "The Mind Illuminated" by John Yates. The book is a meditation guide and includes descriptions of experiences like yours.
I feel I am an abstract mesh of "virtual sensory nodes" inside the network of my brain. These nodes are free flowing in the abstract multi-dimensional network - but in varying degrees of freedom. While the inner core of this abstract sensory entity is the "me" I have total perfect grasp on, the outer nodes sway here and there a little bit. When I start meditating - I start to access the information touching these outer sensors. They are by default moving "a little", I just get more aware of them. But I being the core of this entity, can easily sway them to any other place.
I guess meditation is fun.
I can't recommend Castaneda's work, but it does present interesting perspectives on intention and attention, even if I'm not sold that he was an honest or accurate or even well-intentioned narrator. That said, the character of Don Juan conveys much wisdom, but are the books allegorical fiction or fantastical non-ordinary-but-actual reality? I don't know yet, and maybe I never will.
I've never really liked the present-tense expression of this idea. If you are watching your attention, is that you directing your attention at your attention? Can you step back again and watch yourself watching yourself watch yourself?
Or is it really a past-tense thing where you notice that your attention has drifted?
In answer to your question, it’s hard to explain. But no, I don’t find it possible to step back again and observe that meta process. I just tried.
And it is definitely a present-tense action.
It may be that it is merely as you say, directing attention to attention, but it doesn’t diminish the free-flow experiential aspect of the exercise, or the intellectual curiosity.
Just to flesh out the experience, if I’m not paying attention to my experience, attention is still wandering all over the place, I’m just “in it” so to speak, and not noticing. When I observe it happening it has a very different quality to it.
Not to get esoteric, but the best way I could describe it is that there seems to be some observing faculty seperate to the usual sense of self. Which might explain why the exercise can’t devolve into an endless paying attention to paying attention to paying attention…
I’ve watched my choices for about a decade now and have not been able to find anything like independent choice.
Everything I observe is dependent on something else (genetics, conditioning, environment, external or internal event), or a manifestation of a preference, currently active desire, emotion, thought or need.
Once I noticed that these are all spontaneous or predetermined I can no longer see the concept of “free will” as anything but an unpacked box containing a bunch of phenomena.
Another pointer of Advaita is that our brains tend to hold a view of a free will universe, or a pre-determined universe - which is a limit of the mind not the universe itself :)
As to argument against free will: do you not have the ability to choose between giving the next homeless person you see some money or being rude to them? Of course you do. You are also free to believe and then claim that the world is flat, but that don't make it true.
We can each choose to be compassionate, callous, or cruel -- to whomever we choose, to whatever extent we choose. The choices most people make are usually no more than the inertia of our cultural inheritances, which are, themselves, usually born of generational ignorance of the importance of active compassion and service to others' happiness.
The inertias of our world cultures are rife with ignorance of the fact that the happiest people are those that care for those around them. Of course, if worldly success is your only benchmark, then you are free to choose Musk's or Trump's path to "success", but you aren't going to find happiness there, no matter how easy it is to climb that ladder in this world's assbackwards value system. I challenge you to look at Jimmy Carter's or MLK's smiles for observable experience. Such a smile is earned and evidenced over our lifetime as obviously as a tree's growth rings reflect its experiences. Ours are indicative of our cumulative choices, for we are the only beings on Earth that have a moral compass and the imperative to choose accordingly.
Overall, as human beings in 2024, we are advanced technologically, but not spiritually (yet).
At the basis of our being is the most etheral and fundamental of our connections to the multidimensional universe, which we are a part of, ofc. That pair are our free will and our mind. We use our mind to control our free will, which we use to choose what we do with our physical body.
What you have noticed is that our inner world is always experiencing external thought impulses that seek to direct our attention this way and that; for most of us, we merely let it lead us as it suggests.
Note that what I describe here is born of my Sufi tradition's teaching, but can also be found in a much different sense in Carlos Castaneda's very bizarre and dubious books, which I read many times in my younger years, and have yet to validate as true, but have found to contain many valuable lessons (useful allegory or strange reality? idk which yet).
Regardless, we are multidimensional creatures in a multidimensional universe, that contains six onion layers of differing vibrational planes, one of which our physical bodies inhabit, and another our energy bodies inhabit (our souls). Another pair contains sources of thoughts/feelings that are suggested to our mind as courses of action. Our job as the only moral beings of our plane is to ascertain their positivity/negativity and act according to loving positivity.
One negative example of our reality is the child's urge to steal a candy bar, but we can see a more deleterious example in cultures that have adoped falsehoods as a foundation of belief (they are particularly dangerous here in America now). Note that we are free to choose to believe in anything whatsoever, no matter how untrue or ridiculous. It takes a lifetime of careful consideration to hone one's ability to know truth from falsehood, which is part thoughtfulness and part feeling. One cannont develop that ability without committing oneself to a life of compassion. (Finland is directly teaching its children about misinformation; good job, Fins!)
As to the physical multidimensionalness of the universe, 5/6th of the universe is dark matter, as the matter in the other layers of the onion do not directly interact with ours but yet (somehow -- I don't know the details yet) still affects the combined gravity (as evidenced by our measurements of galactic inertia). Dark matter is undetectable in our plane because we only have our plane's members to do the detection, but high-energy physics experiments can cause fleeting cross-over between the planes (I do not understand the details) since de Broglie (IIRC).
It's a huge topic, so I'll stop here, but my contact info is in my bio, and let me wrap with saying that we are not forced to become better or worse in terms of our contribution to the well-being of our fellow human beings and the Earth, itself, but a progression towards becoming utterly compassionate bearers of truth is the entire puspose of the "spiritual path", regardless of which flavor. Do note, please, that the liars of the world lose their ability to discern the truth, as a result of their abandoning compassionate service to humanity, which requires learning and living the truth of compassionate existence through choice.
You can also find a horrific example of what I describe here in the life of the Golden State Killer's, who describes how his being was invaded by an external entity that compelled him to do the awful things he did. The negative impulses we experience have the purpose of making creating unhappiness via the ramifications of our choices, both for ourselves and those around us. If you consider this carefully, you will begin to understand why the world is so polluted, is dangerously heating, and is filled with oppressors and the misery they inflict. It is our widespread ignorance of the truth of our beings that has left us mostly at the mercy of the selfish impulse-stream, instead of the drive to compassionately serve the happiness of others. The important fact is that we can each choose compassion as the basis for our choices, and that there are ways to purify our moral compass to effect a more perfect integration with the greater good.
Note that this is also the only path to personal peace and happiness, because karma is a fundamental law with our human-only moral plane. It is human-only because only we make moral choices in this physical plane. And all our choices affect all other human beings, to some level, and billions of us sure do add up.
The gist of the article reminds me of a quote from the famous pianist Clara Schumann who would admonish her more virtuosic students for striving to play through passages as rapidly as possible.
"Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?"
I can see that.
Toward the end of his life Einstein had a conversation with Rudolf Carnap (ca 1953-54):
“Einstein said that the problem of Now worried him seriously. He explained that Now means something special for men, something essentially different from the past and the future, but that this important difference dies not and cannot occur within physics.”
Einstein was still struggling with counterpoints made by Bergson in their famous 1922 debate on time and the meaning of duration.
Neuroscience is just beginning to give us more insights into Now and I am reasonably confident that we will find solid (satisfying) physical explanations for human temporality (more so than those of Bergson, Husserl, and Heidegger). But this will not remove the personal mysteries of attention and being in the flow.
For a modern approach to this mindset I highly recommend "Seeing That Frees" by Rob Burbea.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/08772fe1-564c-4a95-9a5d-...
https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/index
Burbea has many talks as well, youtube or on other podcast platforms. Hours and hours and hours of talks that are all so helpful on understanding in the word form.
Channel of his talks: https://www.youtube.com/@boubabuddha
I find this playlist great as a starting point if you want to get into it, and one that I can go back to: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO6hhaAzLmioyOxMi8ELP...
I'm not too interested in Buddhism specifically, but I have been separating myself from technology more, and It's been great savoring the little moments I used to completely miss.
I will also point out that one of the founding documents is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor. He was nothing if not political.
However, there are two things I would like to share that the article doesn't mention but are of deep importance when it comes to directing attention and 'mastering' one's mind.
First, approaching this as a way to 'master' or conquer your mind isn’t going to take us very far. There is nothing to master. Our minds are the ones wandering, and we, as living conscious beings, can observe the mind and make use of it. However, the idea of mastery is the mind itself trying to master itself, which won't lead us anywhere. If one thinks they have mastered their own mind, it is just the mind in control again, and you are merely acting on its desires rather than on intent that comes from deep within.
Second, and of extreme importance: one cannot give their full attention to the present out of fear. To many, this may sound strange and incomprehensible, but from my own experience delving into meditation and exploring my consciousness through altered states (e.g., hallucinogens), I can confirm that it is fear that prevents us from giving all of our attention even to the smallest things: a still object, a sound, or the feeling of your feet touching the floor. All of these sensory experiences, which for the most part occupy and illuminate the present moment, require something that is the ultimate fear of our minds: death. To be totally present in the moment is to die to the ever-restless and busy mind, and the fear of this death is no different to your mind than the fear of physical death. Even if temporary, full attention in the present moment represents the end of your dreams, desires, and sense of identity, along with everything that permeates it. I know this because the liberation that comes through certain drugs unlocks the potential to fully focus on the present moment. When you try, you may fail miserably because you start fearing what you sense and what you see.