Living 100% Concentrated
In all my years of classroom teaching and philosophy circling, no prospect has delighted my companions in thought more than what I call "single-tasking." Focusing on one thing at a time, doing it well, and moving on - how appealing! Our talk, however, soon turns to how very hard it is to put this smart approach into practice and how frustrating it is to know better and to do worse. Likewise, in all my years of living, no component of good living seems more intuitively spot on than being present to the moment at hand; but for me as well making this wisdom a reality remains a challenge. It's hard for my computer, too, apparently, as "multitasking" passes the fortress of spell check while "single-tasking" has yet to make the cut without the hyphen! But we can get better and better at concentration and thereby increase our efficiency, relaxation, and pleasure. Focus can be sharpened, little by little; life can become easier, slowly but surely.
A fourth grader recently told me that she wanted more than anything to become a writer but didn't know how to get started. My advice to her, learned the hard and best way from experience, was to think of one very small thing to write about and then to focus on that one small thing only: everything about her birthday cake, or a tree on the playground, or her best friend's face. You can write only one word at a time, one sentence then followed by another, and with uninterrupted concentration, look: A Page! For me the exhilarating days spent writing are the ones in which I forget everything except exactly where I am; the exhausting days (and therefore nights) are ones when thoughts of the book-to-be in its entirety lurch into consciousness. Unpleasant, unproductive, and unnecessary, I shoo those days away...for a good while...until...yikes...! Sticking with the search for that elusive phrase, staying right there with the probing...and then at last...its appearance brings immense satisfaction. And I think that writing a book serves as a metaphor for living a life - - one word, one step, one kiss, one chop, one splash, one key, one look in the eye at a time.
In The Spirit of Zen, Alan Watts expresses from the Buddhist perspective the calm that comes to those with "a one-pointed attitude of mind; they take each thing as it comes, finish with it and pass on to the next, so avoiding all the useless running backwards and forwards, worrying about past and future, by which activity simply defeats itself." Hands shoot up in philosophy groups to offer examples of times well spent using this "one-pointed attitude" and its predictable success when: practicing a musical instrument, working on that bedeviling backhand, trying a new recipe, solving a dispute, training a puppy, finishing a house project, learning a new language. In lamentable contrast, we all acknowledge ongoing tales of chaotic times trapped spinning like a dervish, expending too much time on too many things, and never doing anything completely, fully. The hugest of ironies is this one: Single-Tasking saves time; it is more efficient than its better-known antithesis. With our undivided attention, a job of any kind gets done more quickly and with higher quality. Multitasking wears us out; it isn't the way to do or to be.
Do you want to set out in the single-path direction? How about.... Muster some discipline and commit to small amounts of daily training. Concentrate on this piece of music right here and now, nothing else; peel and feel and taste this orange, and only this orange; stay with our conversation at this very time, no matter what. Notice the onset of wandering away from the musical notes, the texture of the orange, or your partner's words...and come back to attention. Try again; it's the job of a lifetime. Recently I practiced fully-concentrated living with a turnip as my partner. Hold it. Look at the colors. Peel slivers of skin. Slice. Chop. Turn to the next turnip. Repeat. Repeat. Boil. Mash as one. Add butter. Sprinkle salt and pepper. There. Taste. Perfect.
Can you make if not every moment, at least a lot of them, just like this kiss in a field? Do you want to kiss your life?