[MohnishMember]

Hey Mimi!

This is fantastic, thanks for replying here. What I thought was cool: when you couldn’t get enough sitting in, you ramped up a few practices in daily life. Really neat frame to think about your sitting practice.

Being consistent – while also being adaptable – seem like two traits that help keep a sustainable habit going, even when life gets a bit disruptive, so really great to hear that those are reflected in your practice.

Curious – do you do half-day mini retreats by yourself (just set the timer for a long time), or is there an established retreat center that does this? And for roughly how long?

[MohnishMember]

Hey Culadasa! Great to hear from you. Seriously – thanks for doing a deep dive here.

The point that awareness needs to be there at all times – even it’s just at 2% – definitely escaped me, so thanks for clarifying that.

Again, there’s intentionally getting lost in thought (i.e. let me think about x), and unintentionally getting lost in thought – here, it looks like intentionally doing that is totally fine, since it’s a high state of concentrated attention and you’re not being pulled by aversion or desire. Also, with more total conscious power (with more practice), you get the best of both worlds (high attention / high awareness).

I’ll look into the appendix again, and check out some of the research on problem solving, but this was a wonderful, in-depth reply, so thanks.

Mohnish

[MohnishMember]

Hey Ivan! Thanks for the follow-up.

Just for clarification:

– Mindfulness is the appropriate balance of awareness and attention (both inside and outside your head)
– That balance can change depending on the context – whether you’re reading, talking, or just walking
– Technically, that balance can be 100% attention and 0% awareness, if the situation calls for it, but you should generally try to have both

So if those hold true, there’s two patterns I want to spotlight:
– Unintentionally getting lost in thought (i.e. mind wandering, thinking about something irrelevant)
– Intentionally getting lost in thought (i.e. solving a computer problem)

It seems like getting lost in thought unintentionally and getting lost in thought intentionally (i.e. I want to stew over this math problem, so let me think about it) seem to have the same profile and character. Essentially, they feel the same, because in both, you’re lost in thought (if you’re thinking about a computer problem, you’re not aware that you’re thinking, you’re simply getting lost in thought about the particular thing you intended to think about). The only thing that’s different is that one is an accident, and the other is intentional.

Here’s my question: if you are intentionally getting lost in thought about something (i.e. solving a computer problem), is that still being mindful? Intentionally getting lost in thought is a common thing that happens when you’re working (because it’s the only way to problem-solve or think through an issue), yet it doesn’t exactly feel like mindfulness – it just feels like thinking. Let me know!

Also, thanks for all the awesome advice here. Appreciate the time.

[MohnishMember]

Ivan – you’re the man.

This is fantastic. Totally cleared this up. When you said “there’s a sense of the room, too” (i.e. there’s still peripheral awareness) that clarified it for me.

Obviously, focusing on work is great, but it looks like when you focus too much, that peripheral awareness goes away (i.e. that “sense of the room” is gone). Finding that sweet spot – between focusing too little (can’t understand the words) and focusing too much (peripheral awareness goes away) – seems to be key.

Let me know if I’m on base here, but thanks again!

[Author]

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