Each day, we wake up with a reservoir of attention to use for our end. Like a battery, this energy of sorts is what we use How we choose to spend it determines our agency; our ability to consciously bend the world to our will. If we do not spend our attention wisely, we are throwing away our potential. Once it has been squandered, it is difficult to replace without thoroughly resting oneself. But, by mindfully steering our bodily vessel, we can avoid wasting our attention and maintain full awareness of our position and mission in this life.
Attention is the oil of the lamp of attention. When there is oil in the lamp, the flame persists. Once the lamp eventually runs out of its fuel, the flame goes out. Thus, the practice of awareness is wholly dependent on one's control of their attention. A person's level of freedom is measured by their ability to deliberately expend their attention on the subjects of their choice.
There are times when we feel like we just can't put a book down, or the spectacle on the television grabs us so totally, or we might say to ourselves “I was completely immersed in what I was doing.” Our inner space becomes completely consumed and preoccupied with the subject matter at hand. These are times we must be mindful to recognized, because there is nothing voluntary about directing our attention in these moments. We are like flies in a spider's web, our mental world's manipulated by forces outside our control.
Vampires exist, but instead of stealing your blood, they steal your attention, which is just as vital of a resource. Commercials, entertainment, news broadcasts, political propaganda, etc are all tools used by modern day vampires to manipulate our attention, to fill our inner worlds with their message. Those who are unaware of this, or otherwise lack the desire to take control of their destinies, are slaves to the external influences that we are bombarded with by the technological supersaturation of modern living.
Likewise, with the majority of people being raised in this stupor of information, our attention and awareness are critically underdeveloped as a society. This is one of the likely culprits for the explosion in ADD/ADHD diagnosis'. Growing up in this supersaturated haze of influences can leave people living their lives like masterless puppets; guided not by a particular agent, but rather carried like a leaf in the wind. This trance-like state has been called a “waking sleep,” a “hypnotized sleep,” and a “walking sleep.” Without an inner-derived motive to navigate the waters of life, a person paddles aimlessly towards whatever islands pop up on the horizon.
To counter all this, those with the desire to be awake in a mad world must learn to direct their attention. Directing the attention is one of the functions that people have complete control over in that mindfulness can override any outside influence, begetting us a certain degree of free will in the process. Full awareness comes from full presence. Directed attention is honed through focused work. To be surrounded by temptation yet retaining the ability to fill our inner world with what will lead us to a better future is the crux on which the mind can be trained.
But work itself is not the answer. It is only a facilitator in a process of coming to perpetual self-actualized awareness. If work alone was enough to bestow a liberated will onto a person, history would be filled with more Christs and Buddhas. Enlightenment is a process, a state of mind which generates constant growth. In this state, we areas a tree is. This total awareness. To be able to consciously direct and withdraw our attention to anything within our field of consciousness is the mark of a master. A master is aware of the room in which they occupy, while simultaneously perceiving themselves as an object in that room.
This is a state where the self is in complete harmony, where all pieces of the body and spirit are weighed as equals in the mind. This cotension of inner elements grants a person with a sense of buoyancy in their position, where the self is not tangibly identifiable in one's attuned awareness. The attention, though directed to the task at hand, is at the same time flexible and open, not rigid and narrow.
This living in harmony, this inner freedom, is not achieved without long and careful training. It is learned in the same way that a tightrope walker has learned to be watchful of their movement while retaining the grace of fluid mobility. There is no tension in this awareness. It is pervasive of the conscious and unconscious mind, an invisible shield that acts as a tool which catches the stimuli of the external world, holding it in stasis to be observed, not influencing the mechanisms of action in the observer.
This midpoint between carelessly letting our attention be carried by the whims of the world and forcefully shoving it from place to place is where we maximize the usage of the our limited attention resource. It is not easy to find, but a person serious about bettering themselves can find the path and walk the distance without significant sacrifice. The biggest hurdle a person must face is finding the willingness to change themselves; to willfully erase that which is and replace it with something completely anew. A journey of a million steps, it is accomplished by taking one at a time, as they come to us each day.
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