Seeking focus
16/05/16 04:38
It is interesting to me to watch and listen to people whose ages and life experiences are different from my own. I am especially inspired by young adults. I can remember the passion and energy of earlier years in my career. I made a lot of mistakes, but I also accomplished a lot of good work. I can see an incredible wealth of leadership emerging among today’s young adults and it is energizing to spend time with them. A few years ago, there was a lot of talk about multitasking. The amazing devices that were becoming a part of our digital lifestyles allowed us to do a number of tasks in close proximity to each other. Our address books, cameras, libraries, devices to access movies and music were all a single handheld unit that we kept with us most of the time. We could switch from one task to another in rapid succession. There arose a myth that a truly competent person could do multiple tasks at the same time: talk on the phone and drive the car; work at the office and keep up with the news; check the stock market and take care of children.
What we have learned from brain science is that our brains don’t work exactly that way. We don’t actually focus our attention on multiple things at the same time, but rather become accomplished at rapid switching from one thing to another. Our attention has the ability to focus quickly during switches and, depending on a lot of complex factors, we can become fairly competent at accomplishing multiple tasks in coordination with each other.
Interesting to me is that spiritual practices of presentness, focus, and single mindedness have become very popular among young adults. After a decade or so of pursuing the rather hectic and difficult life of constant multitasking, they are discovering the value of learning to slow down, focus, and clear their minds of extraneous distractions. There are even phone applications that contain guided meditations of various lengths to hep with the process of presentness and focus.
When I was in my twenties, I was wrestling with the writings of the Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. Søren Kierkegaard was a lay person who wrote on religious themes and who explored a variety of challenges of the religious life. One small treatise, less than 100 pages, that was published around 40 years after his death is a meditation on the Book of James called “Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.” In it he explores the human tendency for our desires to come into conflict with each other. The pursuit of riches is often limited by a corresponding inability to manage financial resources. Much is gained and much is lost by the same person. The joy that one expects upon the accomplishment of accumulating wealth is not present because the individual discovers that it is the pursuit, not the accomplishment that has given the pleasure. We worry and complain about trials and temptations that we encounter in our lives, but those same things build character and give humans endurance and abilities to deal with the realities of life. Basically what Kierkegaard says in the book is that we are complex beings.
Kierkegaard’s essay is intended to be a sort of curricula for those wanting to learn faith practices. This particular essay as a preparation for the rite of confession and reconciliation. Kierkegaard is concerned that the penitent person focus not on the external process, but rather on the internal motivations for working to restore one’s relationship with God. The question for Kierkegaard is not what we do, but rather why we do it.
His conclusion is that there is only one thing worthy of our ultimate focus: our relationship with God.
In our highly secularized society, there are plenty of young adults who are not yet ready to come to single-mindedness about their relationship with God and those who are might not use the overtly religious language of my vocation. They are, however, discovering in their own way that making connections with something beyond the present moment and present circumstances is worthy of time and attention. They have “discovered” truths that previous generations have glimpsed.
I am fascinated to encounter people who aren’t engaged in traditional religious institutions yet who invest considerable time and energy in meditation and structured focusing activities. They aren’t yet ready to call it prayer and spiritual practice, but if Kierkegaard is right, their focus will lead them directly to reconciliation with God. God isn’t concerned with the language used or the institutions encountered. God is all about relationships.
I wonder if the young adults who are encountering and exploring practices of meditation and focus haven’t found some of their inspiration in the process of becoming parents. In the incredibly hectic and complex multitasking lifestyles of the contemporary era the birth of a child can invite one to stop and take a fresh look. I’ve witnessed plenty of occasions when a child’s ability to focus on a single item overwhelms a parent who is trying to manage multiple concerns and activities at the same time. A two year olds’ temper tantrum can change the timing of an entire family’s activities. The ability to focus on one thing at a time is powerful and young parents learn that power naturally. They don’t need philosophers or theologians to offer theories to them. Their own experiences are competent teachers.
As I approach the time in my life when I will one day draw back from the everyday management of a religious institution, in a time when there is plenty of evidence of decline in the institutions, I am encouraged by the knowledge that the relationship with God is not dependent on the institutions. God beaks into the lives of all humans regardless of the language they use to describe the process. Each generation is called to participate in the eternal task. And, as was the case thousands of years before our time on this planet, it is true today: “A little child shall lead them.”
What we have learned from brain science is that our brains don’t work exactly that way. We don’t actually focus our attention on multiple things at the same time, but rather become accomplished at rapid switching from one thing to another. Our attention has the ability to focus quickly during switches and, depending on a lot of complex factors, we can become fairly competent at accomplishing multiple tasks in coordination with each other.
Interesting to me is that spiritual practices of presentness, focus, and single mindedness have become very popular among young adults. After a decade or so of pursuing the rather hectic and difficult life of constant multitasking, they are discovering the value of learning to slow down, focus, and clear their minds of extraneous distractions. There are even phone applications that contain guided meditations of various lengths to hep with the process of presentness and focus.
When I was in my twenties, I was wrestling with the writings of the Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. Søren Kierkegaard was a lay person who wrote on religious themes and who explored a variety of challenges of the religious life. One small treatise, less than 100 pages, that was published around 40 years after his death is a meditation on the Book of James called “Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.” In it he explores the human tendency for our desires to come into conflict with each other. The pursuit of riches is often limited by a corresponding inability to manage financial resources. Much is gained and much is lost by the same person. The joy that one expects upon the accomplishment of accumulating wealth is not present because the individual discovers that it is the pursuit, not the accomplishment that has given the pleasure. We worry and complain about trials and temptations that we encounter in our lives, but those same things build character and give humans endurance and abilities to deal with the realities of life. Basically what Kierkegaard says in the book is that we are complex beings.
Kierkegaard’s essay is intended to be a sort of curricula for those wanting to learn faith practices. This particular essay as a preparation for the rite of confession and reconciliation. Kierkegaard is concerned that the penitent person focus not on the external process, but rather on the internal motivations for working to restore one’s relationship with God. The question for Kierkegaard is not what we do, but rather why we do it.
His conclusion is that there is only one thing worthy of our ultimate focus: our relationship with God.
In our highly secularized society, there are plenty of young adults who are not yet ready to come to single-mindedness about their relationship with God and those who are might not use the overtly religious language of my vocation. They are, however, discovering in their own way that making connections with something beyond the present moment and present circumstances is worthy of time and attention. They have “discovered” truths that previous generations have glimpsed.
I am fascinated to encounter people who aren’t engaged in traditional religious institutions yet who invest considerable time and energy in meditation and structured focusing activities. They aren’t yet ready to call it prayer and spiritual practice, but if Kierkegaard is right, their focus will lead them directly to reconciliation with God. God isn’t concerned with the language used or the institutions encountered. God is all about relationships.
I wonder if the young adults who are encountering and exploring practices of meditation and focus haven’t found some of their inspiration in the process of becoming parents. In the incredibly hectic and complex multitasking lifestyles of the contemporary era the birth of a child can invite one to stop and take a fresh look. I’ve witnessed plenty of occasions when a child’s ability to focus on a single item overwhelms a parent who is trying to manage multiple concerns and activities at the same time. A two year olds’ temper tantrum can change the timing of an entire family’s activities. The ability to focus on one thing at a time is powerful and young parents learn that power naturally. They don’t need philosophers or theologians to offer theories to them. Their own experiences are competent teachers.
As I approach the time in my life when I will one day draw back from the everyday management of a religious institution, in a time when there is plenty of evidence of decline in the institutions, I am encouraged by the knowledge that the relationship with God is not dependent on the institutions. God beaks into the lives of all humans regardless of the language they use to describe the process. Each generation is called to participate in the eternal task. And, as was the case thousands of years before our time on this planet, it is true today: “A little child shall lead them.”