Distraction, No Traction

About the Book

If we all were not so distracted these days by one thing and another, we would notice more the fallout from our lack of focus. Sophistication in the form of multitasking is just one example; it’s become a synonym for “cultivated distraction.” Distraction comes in many forms. There is a time management demonstration in which a large jar is first filled with big stones, then pea gravel, then fine sand and finally water. At each stage the jar appears full until a finer ingredient is added to the mix. The point of the demo is to emphasize the importance of getting your priorities right. If the big stones don’t go in first, then you will never get them in. This book invites the reader to focus first on the “big stone” of one’s ultimate purpose. Remembering to remember to remember one’s ultimate purpose is the first step in eliminating other finer forms of distraction. The erosion of meaning through the slippage caused by distraction is the overall theme of this book.

About the Author

With this book Robert Colacurcio has brought the series of his previous nine books full circle. The concept of the “virtual self” from his first book, The Virtual Self: Beyond the Gap in Buddhist Philosophy is now used to give the reader a way to ponder the question, “What is it that takes rebirth?” This question takes its place in a long line of questions that have guided the author’s approach to spirituality from an early age. He trained as a Jesuit for eleven years, earned a doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University and explored every aspect of The Human Potential Movement available in NYC in the ‘70’s. After practicing Zen and the methods of G.I. Gurdjieff in a Sufi commune, he discovered the spiritual technology of the Buddha. For the past thirty years, the Buddha’s methodology has provided his path to deeper study and contemplation of life’s most important questions. He currently lives with his wife, Carol Jo, on a mountain top in Virginia. Together they share a partnership in the spirit which they believe was begun many lifetimes ago.