Now Pay Attention, Dear Reader. No, Not to That Article, to This One.

Though technology may have exacerbated the problem, the dilemma of how to use our attention has been addressed for thousands of years. In ancient India, it was understood that the underlying dissatisfaction (not "suffering" as the Buddhist term "trishna" is often mistranslated) of human life is not due primarily to the constant need to establish physical security or to deal with one's ultimate demise. Rather, it's due to the fact that our attention is so absorbed in the contents of our awareness - the "inner" contents of thoughts and moods as well as the "outer" contents of the sense perceptions we label as the "objective world" - that we ignore the calm, still background of boundless, open awareness which is always present. Rooted in that awareness, no screen can unsettle us and even the greatest external tragedy (soldiers with the most severe PTSD have testified to this) cannot blot it out altogether.

Just today, in the wake of the partial release of the Mueller report, no less a person than Representative Elijah Cummings is “begging Americans to pay attention to what is happening”.

It is so funny to read all the tips on how to reclaim attention when I find that all I need to do is to keep on living the way I've lived my whole life. I hate having my thoughts interrupted, whether I'm working or relaxing! Whether I am trying to follow someone else's thoughts or follow my own thoughts. I hate it when my phone rings and when I get messages. It interrupts my thoughts! I like my thoughts -- they are my friend. After just a few times of going down the internet rabbit hole, I realized I didn't like it. I get a mental stomache ache. Thank God I came of age just in time to avoid all these distractions. When I was in college and folks wanted to find out what their friends were up to, we went out into the hall and onto the campus and talked to people. That was long, long ago in the early Eighties.

There’s (at least) 2 issues here. One revolves around what it takes to “succeed” in the modern, digital infused world. Another, separate issue, is about the notion of socializing digitally. Certainly, there is likely some overlap of the two, but they should be considered apart from each other. It is said that humans can know 100 to 200 people at most, and I think that number is on the high end for most of us. We evolved in settings in the wild where we intimately knew the handful of people with whom we interacted every day on matters of sustenance. Urban environments are not that. Digital social media puts the potential alienation of urban life into hyper-drive, causing some (if not most) to feel more disconnected rather than connected. This is because of the perception that, as many people as we are superficially “connected” to, we lack the sorts of deep social interactions to which our evolution has pre-conditioned us. The drive to succeed has become even more urgent with the advent of social media, because the digital evidence of what seems like success can be overwhelming at the same time it becomes discouraging. With both of these issues, it is important that we reassert our humanity, by diligently raising the importance of the local rather than the general. Pay attention to the real people around, even if you spend some time online. Like most issues in life it isn’t either/or, but both/and. That said, take time to reach out to real persons, not just their avatars.

You lost me at "radiating cerebral intensity".

There is a vast psychological research literature on attention

If the contest is between self-control and addiction, my money is on the addiction peddlers. Below is A tale of FOMO. Read on. I recntly offered a wager to neighbors who are going on holiday to Italy: One bottle of decent wine upon their return if they don't post even one holiday photo on Instagram. They laughed. Ha, ha! I raised the bet: fifty bucks if they don't post. They didn't laugh, but they didn't take the bet. I said, How much will it take to keep you from posting a photo? They hemmed and hawed, and changed the subject. FOMO has no purchase on me. I'd have taken the wine and posted the photos upon my return. But for those who are

Meditation is good. Sitting and noticing your surroundings is good. Unplugging from social media is a must, if you want to keep your sanity. However, speaking as someone who has spent years among earnest spiritual searchers, I have to laugh at the wealthy and privileged working so darned hard to “do nothing.” While they pay thousands of dollars for a weekend retreat on learning how to meditate and find meaning in their lives, their homes are cleaned by maids (often undocumented workers who are paid a pittance), their yards are maintained by a team of gardeners (often in documented workers managed by a business owner who takes most of the fee), their dogs are walked by hired workers, and so on. Even the kids are managed. Sometimes the path to meaning is not to “do nothing,” but to do something that is meaningful because it is productive, especially if it benefits others. Go outside and work in your garden (don’t sit and contemplate the work of others, but get on your knees and put your hands in the soil and enjoy sweaty, dirty, physical work). Walk your dog. Clean your own house. Do the laundry. Make dinner for friends and family, or for a lonely neighbor. Volunteer in a community garden, hospital, school, animal shelter, or church. Plant a tree. Be a mentor for teens. Look outward.

This is not a new concept; it is a Buddhist and mindfulness ideal--being in the moment, paying attention. letting things wash over you without being reactive to everything. We need to stop calling things novel that we are unfamiliar with because of our increasing inability to appreciate other cultures and history.

I'd make a comment, but I wasn't paying attention.

According to the depth psychologists, the basic countermeasure to distraction is isolation and silence. This brings out the products of the unconscious: fantasy, visions, intuition and active imagination. It's a common technique used by monks, yogis and other religious people. According to London and Cowan (April 3, 2019): “Why is isolation required?” (1:22:16) “Isolation is required in the sense that it’s a carving tool. You have a block of wood or block of ice or something and you want to carve a shape. Sculpt it into something. And you can’t do that with people interfering all the time. When they’re distracting you. […] And sometimes it takes a long period of isolation.” (1:22:20) Cite: London, Laura and Lyn Cowan, Ph.D. Speaking of Jung (podcast), Episode 43: Lyn Cowan, dated April 3, 2019. From: www.speakingofjung.com

It's hard to take the advice of 'do nothing' from someone who is only 32 years old and already an established visual artist, teaches at Stanford, and who has also just published a book. She sounds like a very successful person who more often than not must be doing far from nothing but a very definite something or probably, somethings. I'm a generation older than Ms. Odell and know a self-help book when I see one, regardless of what she claims. And what's wrong with self-help? I'm the kind of person who reads "Bartleby the Scrivener" for self-help. I'm more intrigued with more Mr. Cohen's insistence that attention, or "attention" is a fabricated category designed to make us all feel bad about ourselves. I think he's on to the something there . . . while I was writing this comment my oatmeal burned because I wasn't paying attention to it. So yes, attention does exist! But "attention" probably doesn't.

A welcome and nice overview of several books, but absent any real insight into the quality of these books from Schwartz, I doubt I will give them any more of my attention. More review and a bit less preview would be welcomed at least by this regular reader.

I find the inherent creativity in these books exciting. In my experience, though, shaping what you pay attention to is like losing weight: you can read all of the tips you want but at the end of the day you have to decide to eat less, and that will only happen when you personally are ready to commit to it and answer for it to others all the time.