Procrastination and Unification of the Mind

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This topic contains 2 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  meditator675 5 years, 8 months ago.

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  • #335

    Blaz Simcic
    Member

    Below I post the correspondence about Procrastination and Unification of the Mind between Matthew and me. Please feel free to comment or add any tips or ideas you may have. Blaz

    My question was:

    Dear Matthew,

    I’m really sorry to bother you. Would you mind if I ask you a question?

    In the last year I listened to many Culadasa’s audio teachings and I also started meditating (I’m somewhere between 6th and 7th stage now). I started meditating for a number of reasons, one of them is certainly procrastination. I usually waste 2 hours a day surfing the Internet every day at work (non intentionally, when I do that my mindfulness completely disappears). My hope is that with the unification of the mind (8th stage) this will stop. Can I expect that from stage 8? Thanks in advance for your answer,

    Blaž

    Matthew answered:

    Hi Blaz

    Losing mindfulness when you’re at work on the internet makes sense to me. My guess is you’re probably not only surfing the web, but doing a little bit of this and that, here and there – in other words, multi-tasking. We tend to lose mindfulness when we multi-task because as our attention scatters between various objects there is very little peripheral awareness. This loss of peripheral awareness is because our conscious awareness simply is not strong enough. Conscious awareness is, in a sense, the power source we have for both attention and peripheral awareness. Another way to say this is, attention and awareness both draw off the power of conscious awareness. When all of our conscious power is going into attention, such as when we’re multi-tasking, then awareness diminishes. That is, there simply isn’t enough power in conscious awareness for both attention and awareness.

    In meditation, especially in the training of mindfulness, you’re working to not only balance attention and awareness, you also need to increase the total power of conscious awareness available. The primary way you do this is by intentionally focusing in on the meditation object and all its various details, while intentionally remaining aware of everything else. So yes, in theory, by Stage Eight, you should have enough conscious power to multi-task with mindfulness. But the stages you can reach on the cushion and daily life may not be totally aligned.

    But procrastination is somewhat of another beast. What’s usually at work in procrastination is the classic Hindrance of Laziness and Lethargy. But that’s a whole other story.

    Anyway, I’m really happy to reply. But I do want to encourage you to post this correspondence for others to provide some advice. There are some really excellent meditators who may have specific advice on multi-tasking and meditation. But it’s up to you.

    Be well, and keep up the diligent practice.
    Matthew

    #2697

    Sanjeev
    Member

    “So yes, in theory, by Stage Eight, you should have enough conscious power to multi-task with mindfulness.” Even if this is true, we should not wait for this to happen and procrastinate meanwhile. And, the theory itself says that loss of mindfulness happens because of multitasking. There are multitasking situations where it is absolutely compulsory to respond, and we will have to wait for the conscious power to develop. But, in most of the procrastination situations, we can help ourselves by blocking distraction. Of course, that needs a clear intension.

    #3170

    meditator675
    Member

    I’m really curious to know the “whole other story”! 🙂

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