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Reddit mentions of The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind
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Reddit mentions: 6
We found 6 Reddit mentions of The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind. Here are the top ones.
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- Great product!
Features:
Specs:
| Height | 9 Inches |
| Length | 6 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Release date | April 2006 |
| Weight | 0.7 Pounds |
| Width | 0.7 Inches |
10,000 hours are required for proficiency in any field of deliberate practice. They "only" reached ~3000-4000 hours of practice over 7 years. If they did a 3 year retreat with 10 hours a day like many Tibetan monks do, they would blow through that plateau - that's for sure. The Tibetan monks that have been investigated all show a much heightened gamma-wave amplitude in the brain and overall unionization of brain waves. This is accompanied by immense pliability of both body and mind and waves of bliss at all times along with compassionate wisdom arising from absorption.
B. Alan Wallace, who was leading the practice of the study participants, recommends shamatha or calm-abiding meditation which is what some call concentration meditation. It is the ability to hold your mind one-pointed on an object of your choosing for extended periods of time until stillness permeates and your mind doesn't move or flick from thought to thought, emotion to emotion or object to object.
Shamatha is described like this by him in his wonderful book which I recommend to everyone called The Attention Revolution:
>Following the realization of the ninth stage of attentional balance, after months or years of continuous, full-time practice, you are primed to achieve shamatha. The nine preceding stages entail many incremental changes, but the actual accomplishment of shamatha involves a radical tran- sition in your body and mind. You will be like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. This shift is characterized by specific experiences that take place within a discrete, relatively brief period of time.
>According to accounts from the Indo-Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, the first sign of the achievement of shamatha is the experience of a sense of heaviness and numbness on the top of the head. This allegedly happens to anyone who experiences this transition, regardless of the specific method followed. It is said to feel as if a palm were being placed on the top of your shaved head. It’s not unpleasant or harmful, just unusual.
>
Something remarkable must be taking place in the cortical region of your brain at this point, but so far, no one has monitored the brain correlates of this shift using magnetic resonance imaging or an electroencephalograph. This physical sensation on the top of the head is symptomatic of a shift in your nervous system (or network of vital energies) that is correlated with gaining freedom from mental dysfunction (daushtulya), a general state of mental imbalance characterized by stiffness, rigidity, and unwieldiness. Consequently, you achieve a state of mental pliancy (prashrabdhi), in which your mind is fit and supple like never before.
>From a contemplative perspective, when the mind is dysfunctional, or prone to laxity and excitation, it is hard to generate enthusiasm for healing the afflictions of your mind or for devoting yourself to virtuous mental activity. Once you are free of such mental dysfunction, you can focus your mind without resistance on any meaningful object or task, and such a mind is now said to be fit, or serviceable. This is the key to achieving optimal mental performance.
>Following this sense of pressure on the top of your head, you experience the movement of vital energies moving in your body, and when they have coursed everywhere throughout your body, you feel as if you were filled with the power of this dynamic energy. You are now freed of physical dys- function, so your body feels buoyant and light like never before. Both your body and mind are now imbued with an exceptional degree of pliancy, which makes them remarkably fit for engaging in all kinds of mental training and other meaningful activities.
>When physical pliancy initially arises, the vital energies catalyze an extraordinary sense of physical bliss, which then triggers an equally excep- tional experience of mental bliss. This rush of physical and mental rapture is transient, which is a good thing, for it so captivates the attention that you can do little else except enjoy it. Gradually it subsides and you are freed from the turbulence caused by this intense joy. Your attention settles down in perfect stability and vividness. You have now achieved shamatha.
>Padmasambhava described this state as follows:
>"Flawless shamatha is like an oil-lamp that is unmoved by the air. Wherever the awareness is placed, it is unwaveringly present; awareness is vividly clear, without being sullied by laxity, lethargy, or dimness; wherever the awareness is directed, it is steady and sharply pointed; and unmoved by adventitious thoughts, it is straight. Thus, a flawless meditative state arises in your mindstream; and until this happens, it is important that you settle the mind in its natural state. Without genuine shamatha arising in your mindstream, even if awareness is pointed out, it becomes nothing more than an object of intellectual under- standing. So you are left simply giving lip-service to the view, and there is the danger that you may succumb to dogmatism.
>Thus, the root of all meditative states depends upon this, so do not be introduced to pristine awareness too soon, but practice until you have a fine experience of stability."
>The initial achievement of shamatha is described as preliminary or as access to the full realization of the first meditative stabilization (dhyana). The Buddha declared that with the achievement of the first meditative stabilization, one is for the first time temporarily freed from five types of obstructions (avarana), or hindrances (nivarana), that disrupt the balance of the mind.96 These are (1) sensual craving, (2) malice, (3) lethargy and drowsiness, (4) excitation and anxiety, and (5) uncertainty. Buddhaghosa commented that as soon as the counterpart sign arises, the hindrances are quite suppressed, the defilements subside, and the mind becomes concentrated in access concentration.
>When you first gain the mental and physical pliancy associated with the freedom from these hindrances, you experience a rush of bliss that appears to be a symptom of achieving an unprecedented level of mental health. The Buddha was presumably referring to this bliss as a sufficing condition, or immediate catalyst, for the achievement of samadhi. Here is one of his more detailed accounts of this experience:
>Separated from pleasures of sense, separated from unwholesome states of mind, one attains to and abides in the first stabilization, which is accompanied by coarse examination and precise inves- tigation, born of seclusion, and is joyful and blissful. And one drenches, fills, completely fills and pervades one’s body with joy and bliss, born of seclusion so that there is nowhere in one’s body that is not pervaded by it.
>With the realization of access to the first stabilization, five mental fac- tors associated with that level of samadhi arise, which directly counteract the five hindrances.
>~~~
>A significant difference between access to the first stabilization and the actual state of that stabilization is that in the former, you gain only a tenuous freedom from the five hindrances, whereas in the latter, your immunity to them is stronger. There is a similar difference in the stability of the five fac- tors of stabilization. There is a corresponding difference in the length of time you can remain immersed in such sublime states of focused attention.
>With access to the first stabilization, you can effortlessly remain in samadhi for at least four hours at a stretch, without the slightest perturbation from either subtle laxity or excitation. But once you have achieved the actual state of the first stabilization, samadhi can be sustained, according to Buddhaghosa, “for a whole night and a whole day, just as a healthy man, after rising from his seat, could stand a whole day.”
I've just finished a five week meditation course and it did for me for what I couldn't have done alone: Make me sit and focus (intentionally) for minutes (even more than an hour) in a room full of people who were trying the same thing that I was.
I've also been reading a great book called The Attention Revolution (A bad title for technically-angled book)
For the first time in my life, I can actually harness my own mind and bring my focus to a point.
The idea that meditation solves the ADHD problem is really a no-brainer: By using the practice of focusing one's attention upon an object of desire, you can collect your projected, scanning, sweeping attention and put it to good use.
Any of you who are attention deficient should really consider the meditation route. It's been one of the biggest, most beneficial changes in my life.
I'm off the sit and do nothing. Cheers, Reddit.
http://www.amazon.com/Attention-Revolution-Unlocking-Power-Focused/dp/0861712765/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265875762&sr=8-1
A couple links for getting The Attention Revolution:
The first few chapters of this book helped me.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Attention-Revolution-Unlocking-Focused/dp/0861712765