The power of attention

image by axinia

Attention is being officially defined as the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. When we say: “Be attentive!”, it means one should fully concentrate on the subject or action one is busy with. This is the worldly meaning of attention.

Attention has also a spiritual meaning and function. It has a spiritual nature, quality which differs from its worldly character in the art how it works and the results it gives.

Attention, when enlightened, becomes much more than just a concentration.

First of all, it is not only the mind which is attentive, not only all 5 senses but also the spiritual perception (call it the 6th sense, the vibrations, the energy one feels), which is more subtle and often more informative.

Secondly, spiritual attention is not a mere concentration on one thing – just the opposite, it encompasses the totality, the whole, taking into consideration many things related to the subject. One can describe it as a mega-pump which sucks everything related…

Thirdly, the enlightened spiritual attention works on the “surrender” principle. It is not that you desire something a lot and then concentrate the power of desire on a subject. No! You put your attention on something you wish could happen, but then immediately you loosen it, detach yourself from it. Just keep your attention of the spiritual power and let it do the job.

Last but not least – such attention is extremely powerful, and it works in two ways: either you put your attention on the subject/object and it startes working with amazing and almost immediate results, or it makes an impact because if you have a good attention you are in the flow and automatically your attention goes to the right thing which brings amazing results.

The other day I had 2 amusing examples of how it works, little worldly things but still… I asked one friend what if he would become a member of one club which may bring him benefits professionally. This as the first time ever we spoke about it and I also never thought of it before. In 2 days he has got an official invitation (via post) to join this club! – no idea how they came to know his name and address but that was really amusing.

Another story is about jobs. Because of my profession (Human Resources Manager) my attention, when communication with others is often on jobs (because I love to help people in that) and so in a talk with someone I asked a person why don’t you apply to such and such company? The funny thing about it that this is not really the sphere of her interest, although might suit because of some qualifications. The next day a job offer reached the person – exactly from that company which was totally unexpected.

Of course I have hundreds of such stories to tell, I guess as may of us here. Such things happen almost daily, small or big. And this is not what you call coincidence, because in the case of coincidence it is totally unexpected and kind of managed “from above”. This is another, divine play.

An enlightened spiritual attention if great thing to have and to enjoy. And besides, imagine how can it work on the world level if each of us would have and use it properly applying to all sorts of problems our society and the Earth are facing?

In my case getting self-realisation and practicing sahaja meditation has helped me to train this kind of attention. And what about you? If you yours work the same /similar way that what has helped you?

Thanks in advance and leads of love,

axinia