These examples suggest what one needs to learn to control attention. In principle any skill or discipline one can master on one’s own will serve: meditation and prayer if one is so inclined; exercise, aerobics, martial arts for those who prefer concentrating on physical skills. Any specialization or expertise that one finds enjoyable and where one can improve one’s knowledge over time. The important thing, however, is the attitude toward these disciplines. If one prays in order to be holy, or exercises to develop strong pectoral muscles, or learns to be knowledgeable, then a great deal of the benefit is lost. The important thing is to enjoy the activity for its own sake, and to know that what matters is not the result, but the control one is acquiring over one’s attention.
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Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
– Chodź, Słoniczko, mam Ci coś ważnego do powiedzenia – powiedziała Mama-słoń pewnego razu, gdy pod wieczór pomarańczowe słońce wtapiało się w pomarańczową pustynię, a stado szarych słoni w szarym zmierzchu wyglądało jak stado cieni. – Jeżeli będziesz sama, moja Słoniczko, to w chwili uniesienia i serdecznej radości pamiętaj zawsze owinąć trąbę wokół czegoś, co jest bardzo ciężkie: wokół rosłej palmy albo ogromnego głazu, tak abyś nie odfrunęła do gwiazd. Kiedy natomiast, słuchaj, Kochanie, uważnie, poczujesz, że jest Ci bardzo ciężko i bardzo jesteś nieszczęśliwa, to rozłóż cztery łapki na boki – wtedy piaski pustyni nie pochłoną Cię tak łatwo – i staraj się sobie przypomnieć, jak to było kiedyś, gdy jak balonik unosiłaś się nad światem.
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Quote from Langston Hughes
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Quote from Kenneth Oppel, Half Brother
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