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Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

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Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#41

Post by swayvil »

cantor_S_drug wrote: post #30
swayvil wrote: post #19

Sounds like concentration meditation. (The Buddhists call it "samatha") Concentration causes your perception to penetrate things. What you observe dissolves, its former appearance a mere veil, parted, to reveal another appearance. And then that veil is parted. And so on. The process could be described as a penetrating, blooming or revealing.

There is limit to the "power" of concentration and what things it can help achieve. If meditation could help unravel the secrets of the universe, it would have helped the meditator reveal that the hardware responsible for consciousness is actually composed of neurons. All meditation might help is to remove the fog from the hall of mirror that is consciousness. To know more about the universe, one has to experiment on…

I dunno man, name a scientist who doesn't concentrate.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#42

Post by cosmic_cheese »

Insanity wrote: post #4
mooreds wrote: post #2

... "and bloom" is a key missing part of the title. I find that 90% of the time the more you pay attention to something, the more interesting it gets.

Reminds me of the Feynman quote “everything is interesting when you go into it deep enough” (or similar to that). Which I think is related to what you’re saying. Looking more closely at something and paying more attention can both unveil what’s “beneath the surface”.

This is something I strongly identify with. The world is so full of interesting things that being bored for too long feels like a virtual impossibility. There’s always something new to dig into.

It’s kind of uplifting in a way. The only depressing part is that one life isn’t nearly enough time to go through it all.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#46

Post by bobson381 »

maroonblazer wrote: post #16
jpopesculian wrote: post #12

Reminds me of The Disappearance of Rituals by Byung-Chul Han. It's difficult to succinctly state the premise of the book, but in a way, I think its about structuring time and attention vertically on top of itself instead of horizontally across moments and subjects

What serendipity! The latest episode of "Philosophize This!" is titled "The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism - Byung Chul Han".[0] I'd never heard of him before. Apparently his book "The Burnout Society" is recommended reading. [0] https://open.spotify.com/episode/3jdvGsEdrpEEjMBJG5oRaH?si=g...

Philosophize this has been on such a cool track out of western canon and through more mystic/nondual flavored stuff, in a way that builds off of itself. I got Deleuze-pilled a few years ago, and have had fun listening to the whole progression lately. Interesting dovetails with the Alan Watts marathon I did for like a year or two haha

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#47

Post by lisper »

WA wrote: post #44
lisper wrote: post #33

> In Spanish, you “lend” attention. In Swedish, you “are” attention. In Hebrew you "place [your] heart" (lasim lev).

In German, you "direct" attention at something or "gift" attention to someone.

What German phrase did you have in mind? Because the idiomatic translation of "to pay attention" is "aufpassen", which literally translates to something like "pass on" or "fit on".

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#48

Post by thewebguyd »

causal wrote: post #27

This did not go where I thought it was going, and I'm glad. I enjoyed the read. I'm not versed enough in psychiatry to validate the brain-chemistry stuff but my practical experience lines up. Reminds me of the trick of telling yourself "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I pretty much always end up wanting to keep doing that thing.

> "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on".

I have to use this trick to help manage my ADHD. Of course, just actually starting for 5 minutes is a challenge in itself but while medicated at least I can. Giving myself a time limit as an easy out works wonders, and after 5 minutes I'm probably going to keep going.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#50

Post by jandrese »

Insanity wrote: post #4
mooreds wrote: post #2

... "and bloom" is a key missing part of the title. I find that 90% of the time the more you pay attention to something, the more interesting it gets.

Reminds me of the Feynman quote “everything is interesting when you go into it deep enough” (or similar to that). Which I think is related to what you’re saying. Looking more closely at something and paying more attention can both unveil what’s “beneath the surface”.

The thrill of discovery lies in the details of the mundane.

It's like being a kid again and finding fascinating new facts around every corner.

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