Comments on: Attention, Please…Please? Pretty Please?! http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/attention-pleaseplease-pretty-please/ Peer-supported Dharma study and vipassana meditation practice Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:02:43 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Tim Little http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/attention-pleaseplease-pretty-please/#comment-135 Tim Little Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:29:09 +0000 http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/?p=87#comment-135 August 3, eh? We'll try to be there! All of this reminds me of Sylvia Boorstein's book "Pay Attention for Goodness Sake." http://www.amazon.com/Pay-Attention-Goodness-Sake-Buddhist/dp/0345448111 Another one to add to my reading list, I guess.... August 3, eh? We’ll try to be there!

All of this reminds me of Sylvia Boorstein’s book “Pay Attention for Goodness Sake.”

http://www.amazon.com/Pay-Attention-Goodness-Sake-Buddhist/dp/0345448111

Another one to add to my reading list, I guess….

]]> By: mike4u http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/attention-pleaseplease-pretty-please/#comment-133 mike4u Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:52:50 +0000 http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/?p=87#comment-133 But of course :-) But of course :-)

]]> By: brogers http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/attention-pleaseplease-pretty-please/#comment-132 brogers Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:51:01 +0000 http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/?p=87#comment-132 Mike and Tim -- this is so right on with what I want to talk about on my summer service on Aug 3 at First Parish -- I can't believe I didn't make the connection until just now....would you mind if I quote liberally? With attribution, of course! Mike and Tim — this is so right on with what I want to talk about on my summer service on Aug 3 at First Parish — I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection until just now….would you mind if I quote liberally? With attribution, of course!

]]> By: Tim Little http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/attention-pleaseplease-pretty-please/#comment-130 Tim Little Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:10:34 +0000 http://kalyanamittasangha.wordpress.com/?p=87#comment-130 One might almost say that we -- as a culture -- suffer from collective attention deficit disorder. As long as our primary motivation is to fuel the engines of economic growth -- which depends on a never-ending cycle of creation and satisfaction of "needs" -- rather than a more comprehensive view of individual and social wellbeing, this should not be at all surprising. What is encouraging is that many people are feeling the need to get off the "gerbil wheel," and that "stress reduction" and contemplative practices are becoming more mainstream as a result. (Witness the recent Pew Forum study that says 6 in 10 Americans practices some sort of meditation: http://blog.tricycle.com/?p=624.) There was an article in the Globe a few months ago on meditation being introduced to kids in Boston-area schools ( http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2008/03/05/stressed_out_teens_get_lessons_in_relaxing/?page=1 ), and the New York Times ran a similar article last summer ( http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=7,4331,0,0,1,0 ). Of course stress-reduction, relaxation, and attention are not identical, but there is a close relationship, as is cited for example in the Buddhist analysis: namely that liberating insight (vipassana) arises from contemplative absorption (jhana), which itself arises from the cultivation of relaxation (passadhi) and concentration (samatha). I've often thought that the world would be a much saner place if people were more mindful of what it is they were actually doing. Of course there's no guarantee that greater attention by itself will necessarily lead to wiser behavior, but mindlessness is certainly a recipe for misery. One might almost say that we — as a culture — suffer from collective attention deficit disorder. As long as our primary motivation is to fuel the engines of economic growth — which depends on a never-ending cycle of creation and satisfaction of “needs” — rather than a more comprehensive view of individual and social wellbeing, this should not be at all surprising.

What is encouraging is that many people are feeling the need to get off the “gerbil wheel,” and that “stress reduction” and contemplative practices are becoming more mainstream as a result. (Witness the recent Pew Forum study that says 6 in 10 Americans practices some sort of meditation: http://blog.tricycle.com/?p=624.)

There was an article in the Globe a few months ago on meditation being introduced to kids in Boston-area schools ( http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2008/03/05/stressed_out_teens_get_lessons_in_relaxing/?page=1 ), and the New York Times ran a similar article last summer ( http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=7,4331,0,0,1,0 ).

Of course stress-reduction, relaxation, and attention are not identical, but there is a close relationship, as is cited for example in the Buddhist analysis: namely that liberating insight (vipassana) arises from contemplative absorption (jhana), which itself arises from the cultivation of relaxation (passadhi) and concentration (samatha).

I’ve often thought that the world would be a much saner place if people were more mindful of what it is they were actually doing. Of course there’s no guarantee that greater attention by itself will necessarily lead to wiser behavior, but mindlessness is certainly a recipe for misery.

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