Why Is It So Hard to Pay Attention, or Is It? Mindfulness, the Factors of Awakening and Reward-Based Learning

Excerpt

Core to many clinical and spiritual practices ranging from stress reduction to self-actualization to self-transcendence is the ability to pay attention in a nondistracted manner. Yet, many, perhaps even a preponderance of people who wade into these waters quickly return to shore as soon as they become even a little muddied, saying to themselves and others, “this is too hard,” or “I can’t concentrate,” or “how can this possibly lead to happiness, it feels quite the opposite.” On my (JAB) first weeklong meditation retreat, 2–3 days in, I found myself literally crying on the shoulder of the retreat manager, choking out these exacts words between sobs. The teacher, Bhante Gunaratana, well-respected and seasoned in such matters, had even met individually with me and given suggestions such as “start with counting the breaths up to seven” when I could not keep my mind still. The problem was that my mind would have none of it. No matter how much I tried, my mind could not be convinced that paying attention to my breath, of all things, was worth its time. And in retrospect, I cannot blame it. Who wants to pay attention to a seemingly uninteresting and certainly not exciting object such as the breath, when happiness is just a few moments away—pleasant memories, fantasies about what I was going to do as soon as I left retreat etc. It was a no brainer. …