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I think we're trying to say the same thing, although you expressed it more expensively. Concentrating on the breath is an excellent entry point to a set of muc
by freshhawk 10y ago
I think we're trying to say the same thing, although you expressed it more expensively.
Concentrating on the breath is an excellent entry point to a set of much deeper and more interesting experiences.
A video game is not going to lead you to these, because it is too distracting/complex/engaging. The breath can. Boring was perhaps not a good way to express this, but it was simple, without the pull of these subtler sensations being noticeable there is no path forward.
This stream is exponentially less noticeable while doing something less boring, like gaming, to a beginner.
Perhaps "stimulating" is a better concept than "boring" to explain it?
- freshhawk 10y agoAlso I meant that your breath is always there literally. No matter where your attention is, if you are alive you are breathing. It is something available to all beginners at all times and works well as a place to refocus. And at that stage the main challenge is stopping constant mind wandering and narrativising.
- freshhawk 10y agodammit, "expansively"
- aaimnr 10y agoI see what you mean and agree. Actually Culadasa has a very precise way of describing what happens in this case - sustaining attention on a single object allows peripheral awareness to be more clear (in a way that looking at the flagpole allows to see the wide patterns of clouds moving in the background). When attention moves, on the other hand, its changing content is too prominent and it foreshadows the awareness. And it's the awareness, not the attention, that allows us to see the entirety of the mind.