Concentration...

Eknath Easwaran's blog: - http://www.easwaran.org/thoughts/15/1

When one is rising, standing, walking, doing something, stopping, one should constantly concentrate one’s mind on the act and the doing of it, not on one’s relation to the act, or its character or value. . . . One should simply practice concentration of the mind on the act itself. – Ashvaghosha

There is a close connection between deep concentration and love, and with the practice of one-pointed attention we can greatly increase the precious capacity to remain loving and loyal no matter what the vicissitudes or circumstances we encounter.

We can practice this one-pointedness throughout the day by doing one thing at a time, and giving our full attention to whatever we are doing. While having breakfast, for example, we can give our complete attention to the food and not to the newspaper. If we are listening to a friend, even if a parrot flies down and perches on his head, we should not get excited, point to the parrot, and burst out, “Excuse me for interrupting, but there’s a bird on your head.” We should be able to concentrate so hard on what our friend is saying that we can tell this urge, “Don’t distract me. Afterwards, I’ll tell him about the parrot.”

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Makes me wonder. The world we live in today believes multi-tasking is an essential 'skill'. Information glut leaves us with very few options but to be distracted by information coming at us from every possible direction. Interruptions arise from almost everything around us - phone, email, messages, web alerts and what not. So, where are we headed?