Work And Consciousness

[Mariem]

hello everyone !

can we be conscious when we are working ? is that even possible giving our whole attention to a subject, a complicated task or a problem that we should resolve and to ourselves in the same time ?

thank you!

 

[Extreme Z7]

All states of awareness are already part of awareness itself. I am not saying that you are already conscious all the time. I'm saying that your true self encompasses all states of awareness. Whenever you think you're 'aware' of yourself, the nature of that awareness is no different from when you are experiencing anything else even if you are at a low consciousness state.

Be very careful from what I just said because it's just another concept about enlightenment. I suggest you watch Leo's latest video.

 

[Azrael]

37 minutes ago, Mariem said:

is that even possible giving our whole attention to a subject, a complicated task or a problem that we should resolve and to ourselves in the same time ?

That's a very interesting question. I actually merge with certain tasks. I completely get lost and have no sense of self sometimes four hours. I am the task in this moment and I love it. For me that's an experience of flow and an expression of my ambition, focus and curiosity. 

Awareness has a lot of faces. I think merging is one of it and there is a place for this in life.

[Mariem]

 thank you MaxWare1997, I definitely will watch it !

thank you Arik, i see what you mean

other visions ?

[Gerhard]

Great question - I think states of flow pose a huge problem to what we think of as ourselves. Personally I suspect that in a work state, we are basically a function executing itself, with no real consciousness in the picture at all. Of course that point could be made for any state of consciousness at all.

This all points to the fact that we are not consciousness itself - although to me this is where I get completely lost. The paradox is one I cannot see through

[Henri]

@Mariem Definitely Yes.

In a course I have followed they had those funny exercises. One for example was going to meditate in another room and afterwards they asked me to describe what was in the room. The great thing about it was that I was concentrated and focused on my meditation but afterwards could easily describe all the attributes in the room. So in a way you can say I was aware of all that without really paying notice.

Once someone asked my guru how it was possible he was so immersed in doing the good for the benefit of mankind and still know so much about the welfare of all his devotees. He replied that even when you are busy you will be total aware if someone pulls out one hair of your head. Despite you have millions of hair.

  

[Mariem]

3 hours ago, Gerhard said:

 Personally I suspect that in a work state, we are basically a function executing itself, with no real consciousness in the picture at all.

@Gerhard  first i want to thank you for ur answer.

actually that's exactly how i feel when i'm working, and i wanna know if this is the right thing.

@Henri thank you for sharing , your examples are so helpful !

 

[99th_monkey]

Work is no different then anything you "do". You can lose yourself by just standing in a room.

[adrian284]

From what I understand, being in a high state of awareness/consciousness when you work can be achieved by practicing to be just in the "doing" or "problem solving" mode, without jumping from the "doing" mode to the "wondering what the reactions to my work would be" mode, etc. In other words, your attention when working needs  be effortless and unquestionable. For me this needs a lot of practice to maintain long term, because under deadlines and stress my mind starts to wander and I catch myself forcing my attention to my work every so often even. 

Edited February 22, 2016 by adrian2

[Aldo Marchand]

Yes, even in simple activities you can develop a great sense of awareness doing your best and having alot of new plans for the future with the acquired experience.

[adrian284]

 

17 hours ago, Mariem said:

can we be conscious when we are working ? is that even possible giving our whole attention to a subject, a complicated task or a problem that we should resolve and to ourselves in the same time ?

 

I don't think the idea of higher consciousness is to be self-aware (or aware of all your senses) at all times. That is really a kind of 'multitasking' that is not possible. It's more about being able to be here and now whenever you choose. So, when you are working, you should not be aware of your senses. Your attention should be here, which in that case means that you would be effortlessly engulfed in your work, and only that.

Edited February 22, 2016 by adrian2

[Mariem]

thank you all !!

@99th_monkey , i see

@Pinocchio, How is that ?

@adrian2, yes you are absolutely right, it's like using parallelism.

i think that this option is available only for "real machines". 

@Aldo Marchand , yes but how about complicated tasks? 

[Mariem]

@Pinocchio  how can i experiment something that i don't understand?

bugs are everywhere i can't run the experiment x)

[Mariem]

@Pinocchio

i am conscious => I am here and now, i am completely aware of myself 

i am working => all i think of, all i see, all i do is work 

the best that i can do so far is getting sometimes notifications from my mind when i'm "working" : "mariem, are u conscious?" and then i change my mode for seconds or minutes and so on..

like @adrian2 said :

On 22/2/2016 at 4:34 AM, adrian2 said:

That is really a kind of 'multitasking' that is not possible.

an other question!

if it is not possible, how is the working process for "conscious" people ?

[Mariem]

@Pinocchio thank you so much, i should read this carefully !!

[adrian284]

On 2/22/2016 at 8:05 PM, Pinocchio said:

Only one way to find out.

 

11 hours ago, Mariem said:

@Pinocchio  how can i experiment something that i don't understand?

bugs are everywhere i can't run the experiment x)

 

A little off topic, but while we are discussing self-observation as the best way of finding out the truth about your experience... 

@Pinocchio  I agree that observing oneself is something people have hugely overlooked. The text you cited is inspiring and illuminating in that regard.

But I don't think, by observing themselves, anyone can find the answers they need in a reasonable amount of time (their life time even), because you can easily overlook things in your experience over and over again , or misinterpret what is happening (especially after accepting life's illusions as reality for many years). Also, it is tough to observe yourself; sometimes it is very demanding on your mental energy, so you don't reach far, get frustrated while trying, or go down the wrong path. I'm saying all this from personal experience (years of self-inquiry along with frustration and some advancement).

So I think It is better to try to get the experience of  people who have got far if you have that opportunity, rather than restlessly trying to observe what may hide for many years from you. 

Edited February 24, 2016 by adrian2
avoid repetition

[adrian284]

@Pinocchio I'm "on" pretty much 24/7 too, have been for many years, I think since childhood. I never said it's an unpleasant struggle (it's been a hell of a trip really) or that looking for shortcuts or silver bullets are a good idea. I also do not advise forcing your way into realizing things. Just based on experience, it doesn't work. 

Tl;dr of what I said was that you need to be smart about your approaches to increasing your understanding. For example, people seem to have been getting much benefit from watching great videos that Leo puts out. 

[Mariem]

@Pinocchio can u please give us the chapter where u found the content that u published ?

 

Edited February 27, 2016 by Mariem

[Mariem]

@Pinocchio thank you very much

[Donald]

@Mariem Imo it's like gym for the mind , you can sit still in a empty room and meditate for 30 min or so but when it comes to real life activities Mr. Mind takes over . With a little practice we can make our mondane activities the best way to exercise our consciousness , 

Ps.  I work in a hotel