Train of Thought

Lessons From the Cell [Part 3]

Are you finally ready to transcend your suffering? To overcome your misery? Read along with Ethan as he integrates the lessons from his most-recent meditation retreat. https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-3 [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-3] This work is designed to be both listened to and read simultaneously. Click here [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-3] for the written version of this essay.

Lessons From the Cell [Part 2]

Are you finally ready to transcend your suffering? To overcome your misery? Read along with Ethan as he integrates the lessons from his most-recent meditation retreat. https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-2 [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-intro] This work is designed to be both listened to and read simultaneously. Click here [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-2] for the written version of this essay.

Lessons From the Cell [Part 1]

Are you finally ready to transcend your suffering? To overcome your misery? Read along with Ethan as he integrates the lessons from his most-recent meditation retreat. https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-1 [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-1] This work is designed to be both listened to and read simultaneously. Click here [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-1] for the written version of this essay.

Lessons From the Cell [Introduction]

Are you finally ready to transcend your suffering? To overcome your misery? Read along with Ethan as he uncovers the lessons from his most-recent meditation retreat. https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-intro [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-intro] This work is designed to be both listened to and read simultaneously. Click here [https://ethanhill.org/tot/cell-intro] for the written version of this essay.

Welcome!

They say the modern human’s attention span has been reduced to that of a goldfish: about 8 seconds or less before we get bored and inadvertently turn our focus towards something more immediately gratifying. Now, I don’t know who “they” are that discovered this, nor am I even sure if “their” 8-second number is scientifically accurate…but I can certainly confirm it anecdotally. That is, I’ve been noticing my mind flickering in and out of the present moment like static more often than I’d prefer.  Selfishly, our culture’s dwindling attention spans concern me, because most of the content I create and share requires serious focus to understand and implement. Half-assed concentration just doesn’t cut it when it comes to something like stress reduction, or self-improvement, or finding meaning in this unfathomably wide Universe, or learning to appreciate what you already have. Everything important in life requires attention. Without it, we’re sentenced to repeat our pasts over and over and over again — doomed, really, to live by everyone else’s rules and standards. Worse still, mindlessness — the opposite of attention — exposes our raw emotional state to the world, making us vulnerable to hijack, click-bait media tossing you and me around like rag dolls until we’ve completely lost our originality. Until we’re no longer quite sure exactly what we stand for. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot I can do about all of this, besides ask that you take this content seriously. Commit to it. Read and/or listen intently. Challenge your assumptions. Poke holes in my logic. Find what’s true! Expand your horizons. Ditch what no longer serves you. And…of course, have fun with it all.