Training Your Attention
We invite you to take this Quiz, a Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, that scores your level of focused attention or distraction. Based on your personal score, you will receive tips and a meditation geared just for you from Alan Wallace, Founder and President of The Center for Contemplative Research and Director Of Contemplative Training at Miyo Samten Ling. Dr. Wallace is one of the world’s leading scholars, writers, and teachers of Tibetan Buddhism and its relation to science.
After taking the Quiz, reflect on the score, and try the suggested meditations. After a few weeks, take the quiz again, and see if you’ve improved in any of the areas, and keep moving on, trying new meditations as your score increases. Notice how this training positively affects your personal and professional life.
We wish you the best on your journey.
What is Attention Training?
From The Attention Revolution by Alan Wallace, Ph. D.
„Few things affect our lives more than our faculty of attention. If we can’t focus our attention due to either agitation or dullness–we can’t do anything well. We can’t study, listen, converse with others, work, play, or even sleep well when our attention is impaired. And for may of us, our attention is impaired most of the time.
Our faculty of attention affects us in countless ways. Our very perception of reality is tied closely to where we focus our attention. Only what we pay attention to seems real to us, whereas whatever we ignore–no matter how important it may be–seems to fade into insignificance.
Attention also has a profound impact on character and ethical behavior. Christian contemplatives have known for centuries that a wandering mind easily falls into temptation, leading to sin. And Buddhists have recognized that a mind prone to distraction easily succumbs to myriad mental afflictions, leading to all kinds of harmful behaviors. If we can direct our attention away from negative temptations, we stand a good chance of overcoming them.
In the modern world we enjoy unprecedented access to many rich traditions of meditative inquiry. The Hindu and Buddhist traditions stemming from classical India have made uniquely refined advances in the field of attentional development.“
Under the direction of Alan Wallace, Director Of Contemplative Training and one of the world’s leading scholars, writers, and teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, long-term retreatants at our Miyo Samten Ling hermitage are engaged in sustained training in methods of shamatha (contemplative technology) and vipashyana (contemplative science) drawn from the Theravada, Mahayana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen traditions of Buddhism.
