Your attention is your most valuable resource

submitted by magnora7 from self.magnora7

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[–]beermeem 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Attention is almost literally everything. This is an insightful point many people gloss over far too often and far too quickly. Most people also don’t do enough work to expand the capacity of their attention. Everyone can foster their ability to “pay” attention but few actively work toward this.

One quibble. Ignoring something is not the same as not giving it attention. If you have developed a deep sense of your attention you will be able to feel when you are being actively “ignored” versus when someone is simply not paying you any attention. “Ignoring” is actually an active subset of paying attention. While in the public sphere it is certainly preferable to giving full attention, on the energetic level, ignoring is still feeding the beast and one must advance fully beyond giving any level attention, which includes actively ignoring.

Complex, I know. The Buddhists explain it more deeply, especially in Vajrayana.

[–]magnora7[S] 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I agree, that's a subtle but useful point. But you also have to "fake it till you make it". First we have to stop spending time hating stuff that should be ignored. This is an active process at first. But later we eventually begin ignoring it automatically, without it having to be a forceful thing. But we have to practice first, and practice is often a forceful thing at first and then becomes more and more natural, be it with ignoring stuff or playing baseball. So I think what you talk about is a great end-goal, but there is the intermediary stage of actively practicing ignoring things you'd otherwise engage in, and I think you have to practice the middle stage to get to the end goal.

[–]beermeem 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Never fake it.

[–]FormosaOolong 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Yes, I'd say what u/magnora7 meant by "ignoring" here was in fact relaxing as the inherent nature of the [description.]

[–]beermeem 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's a good point.

From my understanding, "ignoring" is active. "Relaxing" is opposite of that.

This is why all people should understand more Wittgenstein. We often fail at language games.

[–]Node 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That is a great point.