Be Here Now

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:43 pm

I cannot discern any in principle conflict between "multi tasking" and being here now. Anyone who plays music may notice that they dance as they play and some people even READ the music as they play (God forbid!). And they still play beautifully and with passion. In fact simultaneity is an expression of the limitless potential of consciousness which parallels the infinite dimensionalities of the NOW.

Even the past is present in the now. Can anyone deny that?

The issue at pain is not the issue of "multi tasking" but the quality of consciousness that attends to it.

rebl_rn · Post by **rebl_rn** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:52 pm

talasiga wrote:I cannot discern any in principle conflict between "multi tasking" and being here now. Anyone who plays music may notice that they dance as they play and some people even READ the music as they play (God forbid!).

That's not really multitasking, though - you're doing several things at once but they are all related. Now, if you're playing music while reading a novel and paying your bills - that's multitasking.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 9:02 pm

rebl_rn wrote:......
That's not really multitasking, though - you're doing several things at once but they are all related. Now, if you're playing music while reading a novel and paying your bills - that's multitasking.

Child, relationality is a capacity of consciousness. The higher one's consciousness the broader the span of relationality. Even Ram Dass's guru knows this.

chas · Post by **chas** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 9:19 pm

The cable guy was multitasking last night. He was somewhere else while he was installing my new cable converter. Then, once he got here he was channel surfing while he was installing it, and at the same time, he borrowed my phone to make time with the dispatcher. And he ate some of my kids candy at the same time!

I would have said something, but at the same time (believe it or not, he was multi-tasking EVEN MORE), he was really creeping me out. It's evidently the one thing he's good at.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:07 pm

chas wrote:......
I would have said something, but at the same time (believe it or not, he was multi-tasking EVEN MORE), he was really creeping me out. It's evidently the one thing he's good at.

It is interesting that a lot of people feel "creeped out" when they meditate. Whether its focussing on a mundane multitasker or a divine multitasker, a candy thief or a butter thief, the good light or the blinding light, the Oh void or the devoid, there is always a certain group of people who meet this psycho-spiritual threshold of creeping out. It is a part of their own psyche.

My only advice to such people is to remain steadfast in the here and now ( a pop coinage but, nevertheless, helpful). Simply observe how the activities of the candy thieving cable man coincide with the feeling of creeping out in the here and now. Simply observe how the cashier ignoring you is coincident with a feeling of frustartion or anger. Simply observe in the here and now. Do not try to change your feeling or the external stimuli, do not try to increase it or to stop it. Simply observe these things as they arise in the mind in the here and now. Observe their arising and their passing away.

Thus continues the effortless effort of observing in the here and now.

Talasiga says, "for where else is there?"

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:13 pm

My job is multitasking. All day long. I'd never really thought about it as that until now.

I think the basic problem with rudeness by service personell is that they are usually having to do the job of several people instead of just one. Stores and most businesses no longer hire enough workers to give good service.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:23 pm

cowtime wrote:..
I think the basic problem with rudeness by service personell is that they are usually having to do the job of several people instead of just one.
......

A rude person will be rude whether they are doing much or nothing. Even on a beautiful summers day on the beach they will be rude. Even if you give way to them in traffic when you didn't need to, they will be rude.

Know this and enjoy being here now.

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:27 pm

What you describe is not real rudeness. These people are being thoughtless, not rude. They are not paying attention. True rudeness is studied and deliberate. It takes practise and great skill to be truly rude.

I'm still working on it.

djm

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:28 pm

Research shows that women are better multi-taskers than men. Thank God! When I was a bank teller, they asked me to wait on custoners at the teller window and answer the telephone at the same time. I had a hard time doing that. Then one day a young man came in with a large tax refund check. I had to buy money from the vault, because I didn't have that much money in my drawer. Then the phone rang, and I got distracted from the transaction that I was trying to process. It turns out that I gave the young man a thousand dollars more that what I should have given him. I saw the mistake immediately, buy the man, a non-customer, grabbed the money and headed for the door. I reported the mistake to my supervisor, but I don't think that the bank was ever able to retrieve the funds.

NancyF · Post by **NancyF** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:47 pm

In my reality, there really isn't such a thing as multi-tasking. We can only pay attention to one thing at a time. When we think we are multi-tasking we are only paying attention to one thing at a time - and that thing changes from moment to moment. When we shift our focus from one thing to the next we short-change focus on every task at hand. Focusing on one thing for longer before we shift is much better for creativity, emotional health and productivity. Multi-tasking and focus shifting, rapid, instant, interruptions, people and things demanding our attention - these things in moderation are stimulating; when they are your life they sap your energy and your patience, destroy your ability to think and see clearly. Don't fall into this trap. It is exciting at first, but like a heroin addict, it will be your downfall. For your New Year's resolution, get off the conveyor belt, if only for a little while, for a break, some rest. Chill a while. The shocking thing will be that the world goes on without you. As it will when your time is done.

nancyf

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:52 am

djm wrote:What you describe is not real rudeness. These people are being thoughtless, not rude. They are not paying attention. True rudeness is studied and deliberate. It takes practise and great skill to be truly rude.

I'm still working on it.

djm

This sort of rudeness needs a high degree of focus. Multitaskers cannot achieve it. This is why men are always ruder than women.

A person who can maintain their presence in the here and now in the face of such rudeness is truly a liberated soul.

CHCBrown · Post by **CHCBrown** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:58 am

I think it was in The Miracle of Mindfulness that I read two things which have stuck with me ever since (paraphrased), and which I have tried to love by.

When eating a tangerine, eat a tangerine. (be here now)

Every once in a while, reflect on how nice it is not to have a toothache.

CHCBrown · Post by **CHCBrown** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:00 am

Oops, fruedian slip? LIVE by

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:52 am

talasiga wrote:Even the past is present in the now. Can anyone deny that?

I deny that.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 4:01 pm

talasiga wrote:
rebl_rn wrote:......
That's not really multitasking, though - you're doing several things at once but they are all related. Now, if you're playing music while reading a novel and paying your bills - that's multitasking.
Child, relationality is a capacity of consciousness. The higher one's consciousness the broader the span of relationality. Even Ram Dass's guru knows this.

I met Ram Dass's guru several months before he died.
I went to his ashram in Kenchi, in the foothills of the
Himmalayas--the old man in the blanket from the
'Be Here Now' book. I ate food from his plate.
I will not tell you more of what I saw there.
It helped cement my distrust of gurus.
Anyhow my experience helped not a bit at multi-tasking.
In fact I have trouble doing even one thing at
a time.