{"id":8819,"date":"2014-03-19T08:50:34","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T15:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=8819"},"modified":"2014-03-18T13:14:22","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T20:14:22","slug":"student-zen-meditate-your-way-to-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/03\/19\/student-zen-meditate-your-way-to-as\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Zen<\/em>: Meditate your way to As"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students tend to divide our attentions widely. There are likely few students who haven\u2019t had difficulty balancing their attentiveness to school, work, and home life. We know the importance of giving our undivided attention to whatever we are doing, but what is <\/i>this \u201cundivided attention\u201d?<\/p>\n

In the technical terminology of Buddhist meditation, there is the Sanskrit word samadhi,<\/i> which is often translated as \u201cconcentration.\u201d The character of this samadhi<\/i> varies between the different schools of Buddhism; the Zen school in particular teaches a \u201creceptive samadhi.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

In Zen practice, meditation is centred on letting go of discursive thoughts. Because we prize our intellectual capacities so highly in the academic world, it might seem foolish to consider \u201cletting go\u201d of them. Rather than dismissal, we might consider letting them run.<\/p>\n

Consider the phrase \u201cundivided attention,\u201d and what it means to the student in pursuit of knowledge. As a Mental Health and Addictions student at Camosun, I\u2019ve learned that a crucial attention skill is the filtering of relevant cues. When we narrow our focus to study, does this mean that we attempt to exclude other stimuli?<\/p>\n

What if we were to include any sensations of annoyance, haste, or anxiety into our experience, rather than trying to suppress or avoid them? Which attention is \u201cundivided,\u201d that which attempts to eliminate distractions, or that which is radically inclusive?<\/p>\n

Cultivating this non-discriminating mind through meditation could be a useful parallel study for those of us who face the demands of an intellectually challenging academic career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students tend to divide our attentions widely. There are likely few students who haven\u2019t had difficulty balancing their attentiveness to school, work, and home life. We know the importance of giving our undivided attention to whatever we are doing, but what is this \u201cundivided attention\u201d? In the technical terminology of Buddhist meditation, there is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-march-19-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t