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The Mind Illuminated has a catchy spin on “ADD”. The author(s) thinks the real problem is “awareness deficit disorder”. Attention is overused. It is after all a

The Mind Illuminated has a catchy spin on “ADD”. The author(s) thinks the real problem is “awareness deficit disorder”. Attention is overused. It is after all a faculty that we feel we can control to a large degree. But our mind (or the untrained mind, meditation-wise) only has so much power/strength. If attention gets over-used then awareness will fail. Because you need a balance of attention and awareness (the ultimate balance is a state of mindfulness). You can train attention. Meditation helps. But a simpler start is to stop attending so much. Your problem might be overused attention; trying to “deal with” attention head-on (which we so often do—just fixate on the prima facie problem until it is solved) might just frustrate you. Many years ago I felt like I was emotionally fried. I couldn’t deal with my narrating mind. I guess the real solution was to get a life. But that felt overwhelming. So I started taking walks every day. Eventually they became daily meditation walks (described in the book). Eventually I reached a point where I had so much awareness (due to not attending/fixating every waking second?) that I was more content with the world around me as it happened. I didn’t feel like I had to distract myself as much. It was a start.

wslh 2y ago
I don't think that solving distraction solves attention in an epistemological way because when you have attention you have then the problem of choice. You can't say, generally, if your attention is right or wrong. Using your meditation example, if you are a zen buddhist attention has a different meaning that focusing on learning math.
- keybored 2y ago
  (from the same book) The conflict that we sometimes feel between “I shouldn’t be spending my time on this” versus “but I’m gonna do it” can be caused by different subminds (of the mind) that disagree on what would make the organism (you) happy. All the subminds have that same goal but they might disagree on what. Training attention and awareness through meditation eventually results in unification of mind where all the subminds unify and work together. No more angel/devil on your shoulders. Just your executive subminds with all the other subminds working efficiently together. That’s the phenomenological answer to the problem.
kranner 2y ago
It should be noted that The Mind Illuminated defines "attention" and "awareness" in specific ways. This is from the TMI subreddit: > Attention is what is at the focus of your experience, while awareness Is a broader 'knowing' of your field of consciousness. For instance, while reading this, your attention is on the words on your screen, while you are also still aware peripherally of forms around you, sounds, smells, feelings, etc. Awareness is the ability to be conscious of all thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc that make up your experience. Attention is the ability to focus on one thing, and hold that one thing exclusively as the object of your focus. In other words, awareness might be compared to flood lights while attention might be more like a spotlight. This is very much in line with Marion Milner's book A Life of One's Own and Les Fehmi's work on "open attention" that have been discussed on HN recently.

wslh 2y ago

I don't think that solving distraction solves attention in an epistemological way because when you have attention you have then the problem of choice. You can't say, generally, if your attention is right or wrong. Using your meditation example, if you are a zen buddhist attention has a different meaning that focusing on learning math.

keybored 2y ago
(from the same book) The conflict that we sometimes feel between “I shouldn’t be spending my time on this” versus “but I’m gonna do it” can be caused by different subminds (of the mind) that disagree on what would make the organism (you) happy. All the subminds have that same goal but they might disagree on what. Training attention and awareness through meditation eventually results in unification of mind where all the subminds unify and work together. No more angel/devil on your shoulders. Just your executive subminds with all the other subminds working efficiently together. That’s the phenomenological answer to the problem.

kranner 2y ago

It should be noted that The Mind Illuminated defines "attention" and "awareness" in specific ways. This is from the TMI subreddit: > Attention is what is at the focus of your experience, while awareness Is a broader 'knowing' of your field of consciousness. For instance, while reading this, your attention is on the words on your screen, while you are also still aware peripherally of forms around you, sounds, smells, feelings, etc. Awareness is the ability to be conscious of all thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc that make up your experience. Attention is the ability to focus on one thing, and hold that one thing exclusively as the object of your focus. In other words, awareness might be compared to flood lights while attention might be more like a spotlight. This is very much in line with Marion Milner's book A Life of One's Own and Les Fehmi's work on "open attention" that have been discussed on HN recently.