Q: I study with a prominent spiritual teacher, and have been practicing with him for a few years. His advice is to keep the attention as much as possible on consciousness by asking yourself every time you are distracted “what am I giving my attention to?”
A: This spiritual practice of asking “what am I giving my attention to?” ” will help you train you away from the habit of getting lost in the mind, but eventually you must realize that even the attention itself is a phenomenon that must be abandoned.
Even the attention, our greatest instrument of perception, is just another fiction. Yes, attention helps to bring other objects into your perception, but the act of giving attention is also perceived by the awareness presence that is you.
What is it that knows attention?
The presence of attention or the absence of attention is noticed by the awareness. Behind the attention is something more simple, without effort, subtle – something that was there before the attention. What is that?
This is where you must do away with answers – intellectual, mental or verbal. Here only direct experience will do. No words can describe it. Descriptions are only thoughts that move through it.
Everything is witnessed by you. Everything that we see: you, me, the world, the problems, the solutions, are all before you, before that consciousness, before that awareness. You are witnessing this screen of consciousness and that which flows through the screen of consciousness. But who is the witness of awareness itself? Do you understand what I am saying?
You need not answer, for the answer is not necessary. If you come up with an answer, it’s useless.
A: This spiritual practice of asking “what am I giving my attention to?” ” will help you train you away from the habit of getting lost in the mind, but eventually you must realize that even the attention itself is a phenomenon that must be abandoned.
Even the attention, our greatest instrument of perception, is just another fiction. Yes, attention helps to bring other objects into your perception, but the act of giving attention is also perceived by the awareness presence that is you.
What is it that knows attention?
The presence of attention or the absence of attention is noticed by the awareness. Behind the attention is something more simple, without effort, subtle – something that was there before the attention. What is that?
This is where you must do away with answers – intellectual, mental or verbal. Here only direct experience will do. No words can describe it. Descriptions are only thoughts that move through it.
Everything is witnessed by you. Everything that we see: you, me, the world, the problems, the solutions, are all before you, before that consciousness, before that awareness. You are witnessing this screen of consciousness and that which flows through the screen of consciousness. But who is the witness of awareness itself? Do you understand what I am saying?
You need not answer, for the answer is not necessary. If you come up with an answer, it’s useless.
