A Mind at Ease, Away From the Distractions

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Credit…Illustration by Mathieu Larone.

To the Editor:

Re “What’s That You Find in the Boring Silence? It’s Your Attention,” by Chris Hayes (Opinion guest essay, Jan. 5):

I admire Mr. Hayes’s candor and insights as he struggles with attempts at calming his mind.

His antidote for the distractions he experiences from the daily bombardment of electronic stimuli, however, appears to be other forms of distraction.

He daydreams, is lost in thought while on his daily walk, finds intellectual projects to work on or allows his mind to wander while chopping wood.These activities no doubt provide him with joy and fulfillment. They rescue him from boredom and idle distraction, but do they truly quiet the mind?

Although Mr. Hayes mentions prayer, meditation, and other spiritual and psychological practices as inner disciplines to quiet distraction, he acknowledges that his mind is too restless and unsettled to find these practices of help.

But such spiritual practices are just what are needed.

The challenge is that such practices require an inner discipline, patience and perseverance that are lacking in our world of instant gratification. They offer a path to step out of our tangled web of thoughts and emotions and into a space of tranquillity and inner peace.

Paul Goldberg
Arlington, Mass.

To the Editor:

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As a person, parent and grandparent, I have always disallowed the word “boredom”—it is a curse word. Kids feeling lost can draw, write, read, look at, play something. If you’re an adult, daydream about something, think something.

Entertain yourself; enjoy yourself with that magnificent organ you have called your brain.

Margot Head
Lew Beach, N.Y.