Re: first mental exercises

["David Yeh" <ldreamr@...>]

Rawn wrote:
> I suggest that you re-read exactly what Bardon wrote regarding the
> first part of the second mental exercise, especially the sentence
> that reads: "Having obtained a certain skill in this exercise, you
> may turn to the following one." In other words, it is not
> required that you be able to focus exclusively upon what you're
> doing *all* the time, before moving on to the second part of the
> exercise. As soon as you have attained a "certain skill" with the
> practice and feel that you understand it sufficiently that you can
> do it whenever it seems appropriate, you may then move on to the
> second part. It does not require months and months of practice to
> attain that degree of skill.

That's a little confusing to me, Rawn. I think it's not 
inconceivable that someone who has a deeply ingrained habit of 
trying to do many things at once might take a while to work through 
the issues that prevent him/her from focusing on the present. It 
seems like a simple exercise, but must be difficult enough that many 
books have been written on achieving this:

"Above all, one ought to accustom oneself to achieve whatever one 
does with full consciousness, whether in professional work or in 
private, regardless whether the point is a big one or a trifle."

"A certain skill" is ambiguous. The way I read it was that, at the 
minimum, the *habit* of paying attention all of the time must be 
established even if the attention is not always perfectly focused. 
That's at odds with your statement that it's not required to do it 
all the time. I thought that was the point of the exercise, though, 
to make a habit of paying attention all of the time. Could you 
clarify?


Thanks,
David