The Gift Of Attention.
{Photo via Tumblr}
Do you own your attention? Do I have it? Are you giving it to this text? Am I luring it?
Attention is our most intimate tool of perception. Think about it. A nagging pain in your knee disappears if you have a good meal. Worldly troubles fade when we fall in love. An ugly face turns beautiful once we get to know the person behind it.
Our attention, more than anything else, determines who we are.
And yet we are so unaware of it. So limited in our capacity to use it.
Knowledge. Beliefs. Habits. Patterns the attention follows over and over again. Until bolts of insight pierce them. Seduce the attention to flow over their borders, see them from a new angle. Some patterns of belief do never crack. Dissolve, at most, when their container treads the grave.
Can you watch your attention? See where it goes? Can you direct it? Redirect it to a place it never went before?
If I’m frustrated in life, it is because I see how many people are not free. And don’t want to be, either. Most believe they already are. There are so few who dedicate themselves to their attention. So many just wave it around, letting its precious juice spill in places where others did before.
Allow it to be sucked from them, into blind desires and drunk wanderings. People in the modern world waste so much of their limited spirit on worthless things. But, even if we don’t always know how, even if it’s not easy, we need to break that chain.
Whether something is painful or beautiful, attention will see it. Atheist, Muslim, Jew? Attention will be with you. We blame ourselves for looking at dwarfs on the street. Our attention did not judge. It just traveled, as it would, if we didn’t pull that leash. Stay away from that dwarf. Run from the weak, or they’ll crawl up to you. If we let it be, our attention goes where there is lack of it.
How much charge can you contain before the charge contains you? How much pain do you need, before you take up the task?
By giving attention to the world around, senses sharpen. They become receptive. If you give attention to your garden, it will flourish. If you look a problem in the eyes, it loses its grip and dissolves. If you listen to another with care, two souls will shine brighter.
Attention is our gift to bring the world to life.
Do you sometimes hold your attention in your mind’s hands? Pet it gently? Does it stay with you?
By giving my heart to these words, I imbue them with a desire that does not sleep. From a far away conceptual world, I bring down images, experiences and values which keep living as a part of me. I try, I have to try, to testify of this potential.
It’s an urge conceived in the interaction with these lively dreams. Attention trying to unleash.
Have you cleaned your attention today? Thanked it? Let it wander for a bit? Did you follow? Did it come back to you? Did it bring you a gift?
Of course, attention is meaningless. It’s a concept, like all others. Elusive, uncontrollable. Tell another he is not free, and he’ll present to you his freedom to hit you in the face. You’re a prisoner of your own mind! Hit me. And break the walls between our souls. I want to feel them crumble.
Do you charge your attention with love?
*****
Gilles Havik is a writer, thinker and freedom activist. After obtaining his Baccalaureate in Luxembourg, Gilles obtained degrees in Biology and in Forest and Nature Conservation, addressing spiritual aspects of nature in two theses, one in Peru and one in the Netherlands. Next, he moved to Amsterdam and has kept himself occupied with diverse tasks, including children’s education, blogging, organizing events, citizen engagement and development of pro-environmental projects. Gilles firmly believes in man’s potential to transform into an intelligent, earth-worshiping race. You can read more of his work here.
{Pay Attention}
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