Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt, which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, titled ‘Learning How to Learn’ by Idries Shah.
Deterioration of Studies
How do studies deteriorate?
People look for new teachings, or the revelation of concealed ancient ones, when their problem rightly may be that they cannot see the presence of the teaching in the materials abundantly available to them, ancient and otherwise.
They cannot see these teachings because they have chosen to blind themselves to the intention of a teaching-technique. They have ‘superficialised’ their own heritage of materials. Here is an example:
Many people are impressed by the example that if they look at something for half a minute, they will find their attention wandering. Instead of looking at this as an indication of fact, complete in Itself, they do two unnecessarily shallow things; they
1. Try to look at things for long periods in the hope that they will be able to develop attention capacity. They never achieve it, however, when they try in this manner, because the description of the deficiency does not of course, contain the technique;
2. Immediately assume that the person who drew their attention to their lack of attention is able to supply them with the method or system whereby they can remedy the situation. They seldom seem to imagine that, if a man says, This door is splintered’ he does not necessarily know how to mend it.
These people have lost the versatility of thinking which was the hallmark of ancient teaching. They have ‘idolatrised’ ideas, by making omniscience resident in illustration. This is exactly what a totemist does. The modern man does not, however, recognise himself as a totemist, perhaps because he does not live in a tropical jungle.
Learning How to Learn by Idries Shah
Idries Shah through this compilation tries to strip words like humility, pride, greed, love, idolatry, charity among others of their sentiment and vague emotion and re-introduces them – as tools.
I hope you enjoy reading this compilation and find it thought provoking too. You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
Concluding today’s post and podcast episode, I thank all who take time out and read (the blog post) and listen to the episodes each week. For those who listen and have not subscribed to the podcast I suggest you do and click on the bell icon so that you can be notified for all the new episodes that get uploaded every week.
Namaste.
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