In that first technique you hold your attention on a thing as perfectly as you can for a time.
That thing can be a visualization or it can be any of a hundred other things.
My favorite is the feeling of breath in the tip of my nose. It’s a popular one. No visualization required there.
We have 2 techniques. The Buddhists call them samatha and vipassana. They go by other names, in other traditions, too.
We start with samatha, because it’s easy. Just takes diligent effort.
In samatha you hold your attention upon a thing (called your “object”) as perfectly as you can for a time.
You can use pretty much anything as your object. But some work better than others and some work differently for different people.
So experimentation is called for there.
Popular objects are mantras (a repeated word), visualizations, sights (like a candle flame), sounds (the wind in the trees), the feeling of breath in the tip of your nose. Lots of room for experimentation there. I like that last one especially.
Here’s a nice overview : http://fleen.org/fluffy_cloud (he calls the techniques “shrink” and “grow”).
A couple nice books on the subject are “Journey of Awakening” by Ram Dass and “Meditation, the First and Last Freedom”, by Osho.
Ultimately you will need to do your own research, perform your own experiments and become your own expert.
Experiment with different techniques. There’s a method there that you can get a handle on.
Control of your attention. Because it is the axis of reality.
I relate. I edit, then edit again. How anybody can come up with the right words the first time is beyond me. And ya, brevity is power.
You want real-ass harry potter magic? ADHD/Sperg/Autist is the gateway. I think that this is missing from the alternative. Like you have an itty bitty piece of 3d matter embedded in your 2d, flatland-living, flatland-society self.
Like you’re in a slasher but pretend you’re in a hallmark.
I relate. I sound like a genius in writing, relatively speaking. I guess it’s not uncommon.
Who doesn’t like Lucy?
Vanilla Sky
That is an opinion that I used to share. No more.
I have offered a dozen strange ideas here. Not difficult or complex, just strange. They are not received well.
Constraining your topic
A kind of politics-flavored smalltalk. Yes, that is the local dialect.
Believe it or not, I have discussed subjects that matter deeply to me in online forums. But lately it’s just fruitless fishing.
I think we have a thousand mob-squawks posing as niche communities. Different flavors, same conversations.
Completely open and popular forums are not entirely a good thing.
I just said that I don’t mean plainer language.
“Should” is arguable. (For example you might be fishing for the few in the crowd) .
But yes, your choice of topic. That’s what I’m talking about. Sometimes it looks pretty narrow.
And if you do. Well, that carries with it it’s own bucket of implications.
Not talking about simplified writing.
I am not talking about better communication. If I was then I would have said “use a clearer style of speaking” or something like that.
I am talking about limiting what you discuss to the popular and easily-digested.
No, it’s “please give me your candy” (with the implied threat). Vs “give me your candy or I’ll smash”.
(Also, I reworded the post because you people are so literal and easily distracted.)
Replace death with any heavy executive-issued penalty. The point here is the polite-implicit vs the impolite-explicit. (Ok i reworded it)
Engineers are, as a rule… well, you’ve seen what they’re like. You gotta loosen them up with drugs first if you want a decent conversation.