Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.
So you choose a new path in life, a diet, a relationship, a book to read, a goal to get out of debt, or time to meditate, but despite your best intentions, distractions keep pulling your attention away toward something more stimulating, so the challenge isn't necessarily choosing which path to take, but staying on it without taking every exit that has flashing
lights to see what's there. Reminds me of a friend with the urge to look out the living room window every time he hears something outside. It doesn't matter if he's in the middle of a movie, dinner, or a conversation, he gets up to look through the curtains, which, from the outside, looks like a turtle peeking his head out, and it always makes me laugh. Even if we make a conscious decision to focus on something, it actually takes strength to say "No" to anything that isn't that.
But the same way we develop muscular strength at the gym through exercise, we can develop mental strength through practice.
What we currently practice, however, is the exact opposite of paying attention: we glance at our phone when a notification alerts us of a new text message, we try to read a book, but after one chapter, we crave something salty, so we put it down, grab a snack, and two pages after we get back to reading, we want something sweet, then we're thirsty, and we forget what this chapter in the book is all about, so we give up
on reading and check our social media feed instead, where one post leads to another, and we get lost in stimulation. I believe it's actually by design, the way our mind works to avoid the extreme discomfort of looking at itself, at our true feelings of loneliness or disappointment... anything but that, right?! But what about that goal we had, the intention we set, the vision we want to manifest? Distraction is destruction of all our dreams and aspirations.
So we decide to get serious: we turn off the radio, TV, and our phones, we find a quiet corner in the house, sit down, and just when we think we have safely escaped distractions, internal distractions rush in one by one. But it's no surprise; we have trained our minds to seek stimulation, so when there is no music playing over the loudspeakers, the songs just play in your head.
The mind is very considerate, when you think about it, always ready to entertain us like an out-of-town guest visiting for the first time and asking a million questions. There is, however, another part of our mind, similar to that quiet corner in the house. It's a sanctuary where we don't even try to get rid of distractions, necessarily, we simply don't react to them. Like the weeds in my backyard: I know they are there, but I'm not pulling them out today.
I know there is a new message in my inbox, but I'm not going to check it right now. Something my friend said earlier today bothered me, but I'm going to take a break from being bothered by it right now, and maybe get back to it later. We'll see... The key, for me, is not to try to stop unwanted thoughts, it's to redirect them.
Distraction literally means diversion, so much like a traffic cop, my job is to redirect traffic off the main street onto a side road, so I can do some construction on the main street, fix some potholes, run the street sweeper, and smooth things over. That's what the spiritual path is all about, but we can't do it with cars on the street. Every weekday in major cities, a series of streets forbid parking during certain hours so the street sweeper can come by to clean up.
Parked cars get ticketed and towed, and not getting out of the way is a very expensive lesson to learn, and similarly, we need to get out of our own way. The Buddha said the way to overcome our difficulty concentrating is by getting absorbed, practically obsessed, in something else. I think Tyler Durden was talking about enlightenment when he said, "It's not a weekend retreat. You decide your own level of involvement."
In a world that condones multitasking, practice NOT switching between tasks, but sticking with something until it's done, or at the very least, extending the duration of your concentration. Little by little, pay attention to what you pay attention to. You will create new patterns until you can read a book from beginning to end without even glancing at your phone, fully absorbed by the task at hand. When you practice that, it will benefit not just your meditation, but by meditating, you will
also get better at concentrating everywhere else in life. It's a gift that keeps on giving. Focusing on just one activity at a time enriches our experience, deepens our communication, and actually increases productivity and quality. The sooner we notice our mind drifting from the task at hand and bring it back, the less likely it is to try to escape again. Get to know how your mind works, and stay one step ahead of it, so you can stay on your chosen path without taking any exits.
That practice has enough power to reduce, if not completely remove, distractions from our minds, until we can close our eyes in the middle of Times Square during rush hour, and be transported to an empty field in the country without a care in the world. In the same way you clear off an area in your home for meditation and quiet reflection, imagine there is a room in your mind to which you can go and close the door, flip the "Do Not Disturb" sign, and stay there for a few minutes each day.
It'll be uncomfortable at first, but every practice initially is. After a while, however, it will become your favorite place to be. Inside of you, there is a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time. The more often you visit it, the easier it will be for you to find. Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp.
For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode, and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions. Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼