If I could have any superpower it would be perfect control of attention.
It takes a lot of effort to consistently focus the laser beam, and doubly so when there’s too much context switching!
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That is the sole goal of meditation/yoga: holding your mind in attention on a single atom of thought for 30 minutes.
It takes lifelong practice but can be done.
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Yeah, but they focus on too simple of thoughts.
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Yes, but it's not "simple thought", it's an atom of thought, one sound, one image, one syllable even. And that's a positive thing, not a negative thing.
Also I think the “simpler” the thing—fewer parts, components, interconnections, fluctuations, etc.—the easier to harness that initial focus onto it (and only it) in first place, and then bootstrap your way up (or down). Well, in theory at least! (Not that I’m much capable of it:)
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You are very right. Also focusing on a "simple thought" is so much harder than a more complex, fleshed out thought. It's 1000x easier to think of a pen, when I first bought it, where I bought it, how I lost it once and so on... than just the pen with no other thought attached.
So you've spent a half hour contemplating your navel. No real progress has been made except for the continued advancement of time. is talking about focusing the mind on very complex mental tasks, yet being able to exit only when truly needed.
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Come back when you have been able to spend 30 minutes contemplating your navel. And only your navel. Nothing else. Not even a single other word or image.
We'll discuss further at that point at what advancement you've made or failed to make. :)
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