Steve Jobs: 6 exercises for brain training Bashny.Net

The founder of Apple was a pioneer not only in the field of computer technology. Great attention he paid to the management of their brain and consciousness.



Steve Jobs was not only a pioneer in the field of computer technology, but also one of the greatest thinkers of our time.

Not for nothing during his lifetime he was considered one of the two or three people, radically (and irreversibly) changed the course of history - at least in regard to computer technology. Compare this with him can only Bill Gates, and, perhaps, Mark Zuckerberg. More often than not about Jobs remembered in connection with his legendary ability to create innovative products, products, new breakthrough in its field.

However, few people know that Steve Jobs has also been a true pioneer in the field of techniques "ordering of reason", until recently regarded as esoteric and almost mystical using practiced Zen Buddhist meditation to reduce stress, enhance clarity of mind and enhance creativity .


And as recently reminded us Newspaper «Financial Times» in one of his articles, meditation Jobs were not something vague and unformed. No, his "doctrine", as he called it himself, Jobs suited oyaen responsibly and consistently. Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson quotes the following passage of his:

"Once you get comfortable, and move from the contemplation of things, you immediately realize how restless your mind. If you try to calm him down by force, you will only aggravate the situation, but if you leave him alone, then eventually he calmed down himself, and when he does, you will be able to listen to its depth. That's when your intuition flourishes as never before, and you start to see much more clearly around the world, and where better to be in the present. Your mind slows down and because of this you get to pay attention when something fleeting moment. And you see a lot more than they used to see ».

What Jobs describes in this passage, in fact, it is a specific type of meditation commonly called meditation to raise awareness. Typically, these techniques of meditation can be found in the practices of Zen Buddhism, and Chinese "ancestor" - Taoism. By the time the conversation Isaacson shortly before his death Jobs has practiced this meditation for many years.

I know this for sure, since the early 1990s, I happened by chance to talk with Jobs eye to eye about what the attitude of Zen is to programming. However, this is a topic for another article.

But be that as it may, now, looking back, we realize that Jobs was far ahead of all of us, not only in the field of computer technology, in which he is most famous, but also in the technology of the mind. And it's not just my opinion - and this confirms this authoritative scientific journal as «Scientific American«. For example, recent research in the field of neuroscience and theories of consciousness suggest that many of the meditation techniques, known to mankind for hundreds and even thousands of years, have a beneficial effect on our mind and body.

However, nowadays most of those meditation techniques that were once considered secret knowledge, and passed only from teacher to student, has long gone to the masses. And, as is written in a recent article in «The Atlantic«, world famous companies such as Target, Google, General Mills and Ford have already begun to train their employees techniques that increase awareness meditation - thereby techniques that Jobs has mastered a few decades before .

And although the idea of ​​large corporations sponsored mass meditation sessions, to be honest, it seems to me a little eerie, to benefit from meditation, you do not need someone else's sponsorship. Personally, I studied mindfulness meditation in the world-renowned martial artist Yang Jing Min. And judging by what Jobs said about his meditation technique, method or Ian identical or very similar to that used by Jobs himself.

That is the technique, which at one time taught me (as I remember it):

Sit cross-legged in a comfortable quiet place - preferably on the floor, tucked under her pillow to reduce the strain on your back. Start making slow deep breaths.
Close your eyes and listen to your inner monologue, those thoughts swirling in your head all the time - at work, at home, while watching movies ... well, ever. These thoughts - babble what the Chinese call "monkey mind." However, do not try to stifle this monologue. While it is too early to do. Instead, just listen to him and watch as he jumps from one thought to another, and the current topics in the new one. Do this for five minutes every day for a week.
After you have listened to during the week your "monkey mind", try to start during meditation, not drowning out his voice, switching attention to the "mind of the bull." Your mind is the bull - is that part of your mind that thinks quietly, slowly and surely. He feels the world around you. He is not trying to see something in a distorted light. He simply sees, hears and feels. Most people hear the voice of your mind bull only when they have so-called "inspiration" - that elusive moment when something makes the monkey mind briefly silent. But be aware - even when your mind is a monkey brings you to madness his incoherent babble and twitching in all directions, your mind bull is still there, inside you. And he continues to think its slow but full of meaning thoughts.
Once you begin to feel your mind bull fully, ask him to start to drown out your mind monkey. At least not for long. Personally, I helped to see how the monkey mind slowly falls asleep under the measured tread of the mind bull walking distance of the road of life. And do not be annoyed that sleeper monkey mind would repeatedly wake up again. Think about the title, and understand - he just can not help it. But over time you will find that no matter how mind monkey protested, he began more and more to leave you alone, stopping to issue a senseless and annoying noise.
When your mind is a monkey finally calm down, continue to switch all your attention on the mind of the bull. At the same time you enter a very interesting state of mind. You will feel that your every breath takes you forever. You will feel a touch of air to your skin. Perhaps even you feel like in your veins flows the blood. And when you open your eyes, the world around you will seem very new, and perhaps quite strange. For example, the window will turn to your mind just in the square thing, full of light. The thing that does not need to open, close, wash, repair, or make it something else. It simply exists. You simply exist.
And while to get to this stage, you need to meditate long enough, you will realize that reached the goal when you begin to feel that between the beginning of meditation and its end point will not pass a single second. Once you succeed in this, you can gradually increase the time allocated each day for meditation. And no matter how much time you have not performed for meditation, you will still feel that it flew less than a second.
My meditation experience proved to me that the daily activity they brought me three extremely valuable results:

First, they are completely relieve me of stress. Yes, no one can stop him from returning, but after my regular meditation he would have to start from scratch, which means that he will have much less time to develop into something dangerous.

Second, they contribute to sound sleep. When I was practicing daily meditation, I sometimes had enough to go to bed and close my eyes to sleep in two or three seconds. As for me, so this alone is worth all the effort.

Well, and thirdly (and I think this is the most important result of) - Meditation helps you to think more clearly and be more creative to everything going on in your life. In my case newfound sense of calm helped me stop unhealthy personal relationships, and finally quit the job that made me unhappy.

And so, even though I can not promise you that regular meditation will make you just as talented as Steve Jobs (he still was a genius), but I can firmly promise you that they will certainly make your life better.

GEOFFREY JAMES