[Buddha-l] mind wandering

[Jim Peavler]

On Nov 14, 2010, at 11:02 AM, Franz Metcalf wrote:

About 30 years ago, I trained my mind to focus by doing chores I had normally hated to do. I started with something easy: doing dishes and sweeping floors or patios. Both chores were extraordinarily tedious. So I just did the chores, trying to concentrate on the process without thinking about what I would rather be doing or would do just as soon as I finished. I actually learned to do this fairly well. At the time I was driving from the San Diego area to LA for my job. About 80 miles if bumper-to-bumper traffic. After I got pretty good at dishes and sweeping I decided to try to make my morning and evening commute without losing focus on what I was doing (driving) without thinking about what work I had to do as soon as I got to the office or what all had gone wrong that day. I visualized the bumper-to-bumper traffic as one gigantic animal that was trying to get home. What I focused on was watching the traffic carefully, and "helping" the whole animal move by letting people cross into my lane too close in front me, not objecting to people running up to fill the left lane in front of me after they passed the "Left Lane Closed Line" (this is a hard one), etc. The result was that I arrived at work and at home feeling fresh and relaxed rather than tired and angry. I still drive this way, but recently have had some problem with falling asleep when I am driving on a long tedious section, such as the Texas panhandle. So now i have the "wakefulness" issue from a slightly different perspective.
 
Jim Peavler
jmp at peavler.org

"When the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain; "
  
	-- Bertrand Russell.