Today I heard an audio by the respected monk Dandapani while I was on my morning walk. He was discussing how our ‘Monkey Mind’ does not allow us to concentrate. How we are no longer a mindful lot, who cherish every activity, every experience. How we are always wanting to know and go to the next hour, the next job. What amazed me was one fact that came up while he was speaking – that we are not learning to be in the present and that is known to all. But what we are not realizing is that we are actually practising the opposite day in and day out.
For instance every time you converse half- heartedly, every time you dislike a Monday morning, every time you flip your time between work and social media, every time you are not enjoying a social gathering you are in, every time you are having a meal simply to satisfy your hunger and not relishing it – you are practising Un-mindfulness. And you are practising it so hard that you are becoming an expert in it.
It is a known fact that if we follow a method for long, it becomes a ritual. Similarly the inattentive way of living has become our life style, our personality. Some call it multi- tasking and some call it pressure situation – but we are equipped to concentrate and come out of it. In reality even when we multitask we are doing one activity at one time because that is how we are designed to be.
It’s a myth that doing many things will take you places – the eternal truth is doing the right thing at the right time with adequate focus will help you transcend because you in your heart you would know that you have given the best of your finite energy to the job in hand.
Think about it!! And drop your thoughts in the comments section to make this discussion more valuable..