Re: Attention vs. Distraction

We may all be energy, which is the common thread that unites us, but consciousness is the thing that separates us. Realizing that in order to approach the things we want to achieve we have to get the follower under control in our sub-consciousness is of paramount importance to our success. Creotology defines a follower to be comments created mentally by your subconscious mind in the form of self-defeating thoughts.
We have to minimize, or better yet, get rid of all distractions and all things that are not absolutely necessary in our world so that we can focus on things that are important. Our attention begins to wander when we have distractions, which gives us more reasons to be more distracted and to not do what we want to do. Because of all the distractions, we are tricked into doing all the things—or at least some of the things—we really don’t want to do.
Any way we look at it, disciplining our attention is, in every way, essential if we are going to sustain the creation of our reality and control where our attention goes.

Discipline comes naturally with right understanding. In fact, discipline is not the right word to use. Rather, one will consciouly make appropriate adjustments in one’s behavior through proper understanding.

All emotions, desires, thought, naturally seek expression as an endpoint.

Anger, for example, if allowed its spontaneous expression, is a beautiful and powerful force. If properly understood, this energy can be used in creative ways. But because it is not acceptable form of expression in most social settings within the family, community & society, it is considered to be negative. In early childhood, one is taught to suppress such ‘negative’ emotions, to prevent it from being naturally and openly expressed.

Now, anger is pure energy. And energy needs to move. It cannot remain static for very long. If anger is prevented from being expressed naturally, it will find other ways to express itself. And these other ways will be in perverted forms, unnatural forms. What most people see in others when anger is expressed is repressed form of anger. And anger that has taken on a perverted form will take on a certain ugliness when it is not allowed to be expressed naturally.

This energy becomes self-defeating because one does not feel free to be himself. He has been conditioned by the society to keep himself in an emotional cage. After years of suppressing the natural expression of anger, subtle condemnation of oneself, this self-defeating behavior has become a deeply-seated habit. It can be called masochism. Humanity in this era that we are living is basically masochistic.

The best way out of this labyrinth is to simply understand what one has been doing to himself. And this is done by a simple introspection process, by examining one’s own emotional behavior and thought processes. If one comes to understand that any repression of emotions is a self-defeating and unloving attitude they have toward themselves, then such repressive behavior will simply stop. They will be creative in finding ways to express such emotions that will not take on a self-defeating venue.

Therefore, I submit that the subconscous does not create the negative thought, but acts as the storage facility in which certain thoughts, emotions, desires, etc., are placed in order to be prevented from their being naturally expressed. This repression, suppression, of such emotions is what causes its self-defeating externalization.

Hence, all so-called ‘negative thought’ is imposed on the individual from without and is not generated from within the source. Societies determine what are unacceptable emotions and modes of behavior. These are deemed on the conscious level to be unacceptable. Then one is conditioned to suppress these forms of expression and are held at the subconscious through control.

Controlling the expression of so-called ‘negative’ thought, emotions and modes of behavior, is why it is in the subconscious in the first place. Further attempts at controlling the situation, by diverting one’s attention away from such emotions, will further compound the problem. It is better to accept their presence and understand why they are there. Then they dissolve away on their own.

Man's evolution is the evolution of consciousness. It is a growth process. As long as being consciousness remains other oriented, conscious of some object or some thing, it remains only partial. Partial in that consciousness is divided into conscious and unconscious. The unconscious part will always move toward consciousness. The growth in consciousness is always moving toward becoming ‘pure’ consciousness. Like a single pointed arrow, being conscious of the other objects, other persons, will create separation.

But this is consciousness at the lowest level because in being conscious of objects, at the same time, one becomes unconscious of one’s own subjectivity. The subjective, the source of consciousness, is lost in the object. When you are conscious of some object, you are not conscious of being conscious. Your consciousness has become focused on some other thing; your attention is not at the source of consciousness itself.

Yoga can be of help with this growth. It can help make the arrow of consciousness double pointed, in being consious of the object, and at the same time, conscious of the subject as well. The subject must not be lost. It must not be forgotten when you are focusing on the object. With further growth of consciousness, both the object and the subject are dropped, and one is just 'pure' conscious, or better to say, awareness.

So, an initial problem comes with this: either you are conscious of some object or you become unconscious because there is no object to be conscious of. If there are no objects, one will fall asleep. Objects are needed in order to remain conscious. With too many objects, one becomes distracted in many different directions, one has difficulty sleeping. That is why one who has too many thoughts cannot fall asleep. One becomes more conscious with new objects. That is why there are goals and desires. Goals keep on changing. Desires for different things arise. It helps in the growth of consciousness.

And on the other hand, the old object becomes boring. When you have attained something, after a while you become unconscious of it. You have it. You become bored with it. Your attention is no longer needed. That is why you need something new to replace it. Our whole consciousness depends on new objects - a new house, a new car, a new wife, a new husband. With something new, one feels a fresh consciousness rising up.

So there are two opposing things going on. One is to always strive for new things, one becomes more conscious. This is what has happened in the West and because of it insomnia is widespead. In the East, particularly in third world countries like India, societies have settled with tradition, and people have become more asleep.

What is needed is a consciousness that is not bound with objects at all. Then there is freedom. It is freedom from the objective world. Freedom from the objective world also means there is freedom from the subjective world, as they both are joined at the hip. If one can be conscious without an object, then one’s own subjectivity dissolves because it cannot remain. The subjective needs an object in order to exist.

When both the object and subject are not, then one is freedom, one is unbounded pure consciousness, which is awareness.

What you say is only partly true. Because it is only concerned with consciouness on the lower end of the ladder. As for the subconscious creating self-defeating thoughts, I would have to totally disagree. 

When you are divided within, your energy is just fighting with itself. It cannot be used for any transformation. 

*Edit Note* to the poster Innercalm: Yoga is not a part of traditional religious dogma. It goes beyond such things. Yoga is the science of freeing yourself from subject and object boundaries, and unless you are free from these boundaries, you will fall into either the unbalance of the East or the unbalance of the West. reallysignificant. Andyougainnothing; yougainonlyextremes.

Mind of man tends to move toward extremes. Every extreme becomes a disease,
every extreme becomes an illness inside, then you go on and on in a turmoil. And an inner anarchy is created. Yoga is the science of transcending this anarchy, it is the science of making your consciousness whole – and you become whole only when you transcend parts. So yoga is neither religion nor science. It is both. Or, it transcends both. You can say it is a scientific religion or a religious science. That is why yoga can be used by anyone belonging to any religion; it can be used by anyone with any type of mind.

You don't have to believe or disbelieve what is written here. All one has to do is take a sincere look at your own life situation. To jump on what is being written here without looking within, to see it for yourself, is just simply a tactic of denial - and this can only come out of fear, fear that what is being said just may be true.  

Best regards -*- turiya