Virtual Mindfulness II

I've been reading Thomas Friedman's THE WORLD IS FLAT. In the chapter on everyone in the world being potential paparazzi now ("What Happens When We All Have Dog's Hearing?"), Friedman passes on the phrase "continuous partial attention". This describes what it is like for those of us who are always plugged into the Internet, talking on a cellphone, listening to an Ipod, etc. In this chapter, he lists some of the difficulties and problems involved with interactive virtual technology.

I am personally fascinated with the possibilities. With longterm meditation, it is often an explicit goal to develop continuous attention. I am curious about how being often connected to media affects the ways in which experience streams. It seems to me that sleep is a reasonable check on the continuity of partial attention. By that I mean that if we don't get any deep sleep, we noticeably suffer for it, we'll avoid continuous partial attention if we can be aware that lack of sleep is a significant cause of stress. But a significant amount of time spent with near-continuous partial attention could end up with helping mindfulness IF a sufficient amount of mindfulness training is included in one's life.

In dreaming, as I noted before, attention seems to be more fluid, more amorphous, more flexible. The same occurs when we are continuously paying partial attention. It can be harder or less likely to be mindful during dreaming, but if one practices, mindfulness eventually leaks over into (or shows up during) dreaming. In other words, mindfulness can be experienced in relatively discrete or "solid" moments, but it can also stream or flow. I don't think that near-continuous partial attention necessarily has a negative effect on one's likelihood of being mindful or on one's development of consistent mindfulness. But to be mindful in multi-tasking, we do have to be mindful of this fluidity. This is a different definition or expression of mindfulness than what is often given I suppose.

With dream yoga, the purpose is to take intention and mindfulness into the dreaming state. Once we are practiced or familiar with being mindful when we are dreaming, we are also more likely to be able to be aware during deep sleep. I'd say that being mindful in the normal waking state is similar to being mindful in chunks, like mindfulness as a solid. Mindful dreaming is like mindfulness as a liquid. The experiences that I'd say are like mindfulness in deep sleep are like mindful awareness as limitless or formless space. I'm not sure it is even possible to have partial attention in this sort of state. It does seem that familiarity with a fluidity of awareness prepares one for being able to notice this more subtle spacious awareness.

While the mindfulness itself is not different in various states, the overall experience changes. One of the things I notice as I spend time at my keyboard looking at a monitor is that it is often quite easy to slip out of awareness of my body. While this is not mindfulness, when I am intentionally aware of this slippage or flow, neither is it necessarily unmindful. While the body is an important object for mindfulness practice, feeling not limited to one's physical body is an important part of various states of oneness. It seems to me that we might give up something in oneness or stabilization of attention but gain something in flow. Just as normal waking consciousness needs a little tweaking to include mindfulness, near-continuous partial attention may not need much more than a little tweaking to include different types of personal actualization.

While this virtual universe is definitely a threat to tradition--if people want to perceive it as a threat--I don't think that virtual reality is a threat to mindfulness training.