"I don't have the attention span to meditate"

Wisdom Quarterly (INTERVIEW with Fat Joe) no relation to Fat Mike

• Joe, do you or could you meditate?

"What? I have ADHD. At least I think I do. My mom's doctor gave me speed [the chemical pharmaceutical Ritalin], so I do now anyway."

[Still drinking soda, eating fast food (excitotoxins and cancer-forming carbs, adulterated fats, sugars), watching TV (commercials)...]

"There's no way I can meditate. I can't pay attention. I've been sitting here playing Call of Duty: Black Ops for like 12 hours.

"If I try to meditate, I'll fall asleep. So, like, forget it. My phone keeps going off, texts, uh... What was I saying?

"I'm so fat and losing my hair. I look like Da' Buddha, or who's that guy at the Chinese take-out, Hotei Budai? You know, you rub his belly. Anyway. What, like, you sit down, like, on the floor on a cushion? Dude. No way! Maybe after some primo bud..."

• But, Joe, how are you able to pay attention to those videogames for 12 hours?

"What d'ya mean?"

• If you have Attention DEFICIT and Hyperactive Disorder, where are you getting all this attention?

"Oh-oh, I see! Hmm, huh, yeah. Medication? This game's exciting! Isn't meditation, like, BORING? Just sitting there staring at your belly button. What is meditation? I can't do it! I don't have the attention span to meditate."

Fact Find Tour Inside Joe's Head


Short Attention Span Theatre "Leaving Jesusland" (NOFX)

• Beer and the Science of Partying
• Adventures in Hyperactive Meditation (borntoexplore.org)
• Zen Buddhism and ADHD: Meditation not medication
• VIDEO: Excitotoxins The Taste That Kills
• PDF: Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
  
• TaoJoe.com: Path of Least Resistance

Meditation as treatment for ADHD (ABC News)

Mind Like Sky: Wise Attention Open Awareness

Text by Jack Kornfield (Shambhala Sun)

Buddha at Isdaan Restaurant, Tarlac, North Luzon, Philippines (lucas78/flickr)

Meditation comes alive through a growing capacity to release our habitual entanglement in the stories and plans, conflicts and worries that make up the small sense of self, and to rest in awareness.

In meditation we do this simply by acknowledging the moment-to-moment changing conditions -- the pleasure and pain, the praise and blame, the litany of ideas and expectations that arise. Without identifying with them, we can rest in the awareness itself, beyond conditions, and experience what my teacher Ajahn Chah called jai pongsai, our natural lightness of heart.

Developing this capacity to rest in awareness nourishes concentration (samadhi), which stabilizes and clarifies the mind, and wisdom (prajna), which sees things as they are.

We can employ this awareness or wise attention from the very start. When we first sit down to meditate, the best strategy is to simply notice whatever state of our body and mind is present. To establish the foundation of mindfulness, the Buddha instructs his followers "to observe whether the body and mind are distracted or steady, angry or peaceful, excited or worried, contracted or released, bound or free."



Observing what is so, we can take a few deep breaths and relax, making space for whatever situation we find. From this ground of acceptance we can learn to use the transformative power of attention in a flexible and malleable way. Wise attention -- mindfulness -- can function like a zoom lens. Often it is most helpful to steady our practice with close-up attention. More

• Showing Up for Your Life (Pema Chodron)
  
  
• The Dharma of Dirt (Geertje Couwenbergh)
• Interview: Tina Turner (Andrea Miller)
• A mindful movie (Underneath the Surface)

Feng Shui for a "romantic" bedroom

There are basic ways to create a romantic bedroom with feng shui.

First of all, clean the bedroom. We need to clear clutter and junk so that positive energy can flow through the room easily. Clutter is known to block the flow of positive energy (called “chi” in feng shui). Things like books, dirty clothes, and other miscellaneous junk should all be removed. The area under the bed should also be cleaned and kept clutter-free. In addition, remove things that are reminders of the past or past relationships.

Moreover, remove the television and the computer from the bedroom. Whether we believe it or not, computers and televisions literally suck energy. They are known to affect the relationship and snatch away a partner’s attention.

Make room for love. If we wish to reignite our love lives, we need to get rid of all objects related to loneliness and make room for objects that represent love. More

• Feng Shui explained