Attention Management and Application

To write the following I was prompted by an article in Geektimes “Meditation is an ancient hacking of reality in modern times”. At the beginning I wanted to write a short comment that became big and resulted in this article. I want to say right away that I do not have enough knowledge or experience to touch on such a deep topic, but I have been fortunate enough to live in India for many years near the great Teachers of Buddhism and yoga and listen to their instructions, as well as study texts. My understanding of the theory and practice, understood as “meditations”, is still in the process of becoming, therefore, I’m considering this article not as truth, but only as a direction to think, which may help others to better understand this topic.

The term “meditation” has now included everything that is not laziness, denoting to them a multitude of practices used in spiritual traditions (and not only in Eastern traditions, Christian vigils can be attributed to them as well as much more). This term has no unique equivalent in Indian (Tibetan, etc.) languages, the meaning of the term “dhna” is one of many generalized by it.

The term "meditation" can define the practice of working with attention in which we:

a) we concentrate our attention, we subordinate it to our will, as a result of which we acquire the skill of concentration of attention;
b) subordinate to the will, focused attention on various aspects of perception, including analysis and experiences of the external world, the body, mental processes for their study and transformation.
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One text says that our attention is like a candle flame in windy weather; it constantly fluctuates, making it impossible to see the frescoes on the wall at night. The focused attention is like a flame of a candle enclosed by glass; it burns evenly and helps to see everything wherever it is directed.

What does it mean to subordinate attention to the will? To do this, there are practices of unidirectional focusing, which include:

- returning attention to the selected object,
- stay focus on the selected object,
- fully unidirectional concentration.

To understand how this works, you need to turn to the theory set forth in Indian philosophy (in this case, Buddhist), which says: "One moment - one consciousness."

It often seems to us that we can simultaneously hear and see and reflect at the same time, that is, at the same time there are many simultaneous awareness filled with different processes (the consciousness of the visible, audible, olfactory, taste, tactile, mental). But it is not. Our consciousness exists as a sequential process of flashes of consciousness, where at one moment (an extremely small unit of time) only one consciousness occurs (only the perception of the visible, or the audible, etc.). But since the flashes of consciousness-perception occur very quickly, we create the illusion of their simultaneous (two or more) manifestations.

If we conditionally take 100 consecutive flashes of consciousness, it turns out, for example, that the first few flashes are busy perceiving the visible, the next several perceptions are tactile, the next are olfactory, the next is audible, the next is gustatory, and the next is mental. They can be in any order. When we begin the practice of concentration, we select one object with which we intend to continuously fill the entire sequence of flashes of consciousness. These objects can be external - a point, a stone, etc., breath, a pronounced sound, an image in the mind (symbol, teacher, deity), a representation of oneself in another image (for example, a deity). Since our mind is not used to consistently hold the same object in each subsequent moment of consciousness, we have to apply a constant effort to return attention to the selected object. For this we develop:

- Remembrance - remember constantly what we are sitting at all and what we are doing here (usually accumulating throughout the day as a reflection on the benefits of concentration and the intention to carry it out qualitatively),
- Vigilance - to notice when attention is distracted,
- Effort - return to the selected object (the mind does not want to do this and starts to persuade you to think out some thought, and only then return to the object, think about something, etc.).

In order to get at least the minimum effect, the practice of concentration is performed at least 2-3 times a day for 35 minutes and longer. It is believed that only during this time the mind performs the minimum necessary number of actions to develop a skill. When you return attention to the selected object, you are kind of training attention, as a result of which you acquire the skill of concentration. This is similar to lifting a dumbbell to train a muscle, and as a result gain muscle strength.

When you have already gained some skill of focusing attention and, for example, out of one hundred consecutive flashes of consciousness more than fifty are busy with the chosen object, your mind will naturally stay on the object, you need to put much less effort into it, and you can already use your attention to study and transform your experience of the world. When all one hundred of one hundred consecutive flashes of consciousness are occupied by one object, this is completely unidirectional concentration, where even experiencing oneself as a subject and object, as something separate from you, stops, since there are no flashes of consciousness left filled with tactile or other perceptions.

But only to return attention is not enough, you need to understand how to do it, so the practice of unidirectional concentration alternates with the practice of focused thinking, in which you understand how to properly concentrate.

And that is not all. It is also necessary to create conditions in the mind and everyday life that promote concentration of attention. These are the actions of the body, speech and mind, which allow the mind and body to not be agitated and pliable.

Having focused attention, we can direct it to the mind itself, comprehending how it creates a set of perceptions called reality (where “I” and “WORLD” are not duality, but are generated by consciousness, in which there are assigned experiences that we consider to be, and not appropriated, which we consider to be the outside world), to develop good qualities (not only to make efforts to do good and not to do wrong, but also to detect and eliminate the cause of delusions, which impel one to perform unfriendly deeds), to transform his reality cutting. Without the skill of concentration, it becomes impossible or extremely inefficient. As said:

“Whatever you do - read mantras,
Long years of austerity held,
If this mind distracted,
Everything is useless, so said the Wise. "

I will not widely disseminate here the goals and methods that use the concentrated mind, due to the fact that I do not have sufficient knowledge and experience for this. But I can say one thing: even the practice of concentration brings many benefits, including the ordering of life, the ability to accomplish goals, delve into tasks and solve them in the most efficient way. Another important result of the practice of focusing attention is the opportunity to take a break from yourself. In certain exercises, it is believed that every moment of our response postpones in us the imprints that accumulate throughout our lives. And these prints are not just dead weight, but all the time require our attention and energy for self-maintenance, which we always give them unconsciously. And the longer we live, the more our attention and energy is absorbed by them, the less we are left for active life. Time begins to run faster, and we are increasingly absorbed in various thoughts and experiences that are not related to the present moment. We get tired of constantly chewing on thoughts.

When we practice concentration of attention, then, returning attention to the selected object, we gradually select attention from everything else, thereby depriving the imprints of their “food”, as a result of which they fade and become less manifest. The processor of our mind, being not occupied by the open windows of prints, begins to work more efficiently and with less effort, releasing its resource in the direction we need. And we can say that we are relieved. We rest, rest from ourselves.

In principle, all these methods can really be called "hacking" of reality, but you need to understand that this is a lot of work, work on yourself and five minutes of practice in the morning and evening will not give even a small result. In addition, it is a consistent deep method of working with consciousness, and in order for it to be productive, you need to turn to those traditions that are time-tested and have real teachers with the necessary knowledge, own practice and experience.

But we can make “hacking” of reality and in more simple things - in making well-considered decisions and their steady implementation. One text says that karma is good, not good, and karma of yogis (sometimes even neutral is considered). What is the difference between karma of yogis and others? The fact that the yogi, knowing that certain actions lead to strictly defined results, and knowing what results he wants to get, takes a deliberate decision, and strictly executes it. For example, he decided every morning to concentrate, pray, run, not eat sweets, etc. And he does it. One morning he has a karmic predisposition to this and he wants to do it, and he does it, but on another morning there is no predisposition, and he does not want to, but he does it anyway. So he "hacks" (opens) his mind. But before making a decision to do something or not, it is important to think it over very carefully, not to take up big things right away so as not to burn out later and not to break, and starting from small things, fill your whole life with conscious actions.

I apologize for the rather chaotic presentation that reveals little, but this topic is quite often touched upon and, perhaps, my writings will create for someone a new direction in thinking.