I'll play on the last one.retrofuturist wrote: When you think about something, do you go temporarily blind?
When you think about something, do you go temporarily deaf?
When you think about something, do you lose body consciousness?
When you think about something, do you lose your sense of taste?
When you think about something, do you lose your sense of smell?
How would you answer these questions in accordance with your understanding of the Abhidhamma?
How would you answer these questions in accordance with your own experience?
My experience is that as my mindfulness and concentration has improved I do find that I only discern the objects that I am focussed on. In fact, I find "multitasking" more difficult. If I'm reading the paper in the morning, I find I have missed whole sections of the news on the radio.
Of course since the mind is quite quick I don't exactly feel blind or deaf, but it's much like when the single processor in my computer is busy with something it's hard to do something else, not many CPU cycles to work with...
Mike