Q8-19840429-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-learning_how_to_live_part_ii-1512 Leandra Tejedor (1)

Talk: 19840429-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-learning_how_to_live_part_ii-1512 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 00:51:13 Display_question: Is there a natural waxing and waning of attention over time? Keyword_search: waxing, waning, attention, practice, attentive, discouragement, dinosaurs, Christopher Columbus, mind, now, memory Question_content: Questioner: Yes. I was…. interested in your thoughts about the waxing and waning of attention over years of practice. It seems to me… I haven't been practicing that long. But over the several years that I have… there are periods when it's easier to pay attention for months and then all of a sudden it's gone. Gradually, it's gone, for months. And is that a natural happening? Larry: It's okay. Questioner: It’s natural for me but it's very discouraging. The second month you know. Larry: Okay then…okay. Questioner: First months are great. Larry: I understand…once you catch on to what it is you've been doing, being not attentive it's discouraging? Questioner: Yes. Larry: Then you have to look at discouraging, discouragement. Because, strictly speaking, all that's necessary, is to just start again, at that moment. In other words, everything else is, ancient history. It's all over. File it away with dinosaurs and Christopher Columbus. You know even though it happened five minutes, it's over. Start being aware now. Do you see what I'm getting at? But the mind will get lost in memory, and then it will punish itself for what it remembers having not done. Questioner: Exactly. Larry: Now…that's all we have… End_time: 00:52:33