Paying Attention

What does it mean to be awake? What does it mean to pay attention, and how much of the time are we consciously doing so? We might assume that the answers are obvious, but these are questions with infinitely more depth than most of us would normally dare to consider.

In reality we are always paying attention to something, consciously or unconsciously. But how alert are we to the moment-by-moment presence and movement of our attention, and the consequences of not being consciously awake to our experience?

In meditation, our attention falls on nothing in particular. We let go of everything arising in consciousness, while paying attention only to consciousness itself. We learn to be still, let go, and pay attention to no-thing. In this context, paying attention means focusing awareness on the ground of our own being.

In our daily lives we are besieged by a torrent of confusing information and choices that we are compelled to make sense of one way or another. So it is only when we are deeply paying attention – when we are sensitive and awake enough to our experience – that we are consciously able to consider the life choices we are making, and the far-reaching consequences of our actions.

We also need to contemplate, on an ongoing basis, how clearly or consciously our attention is aligned with what is most important to us. How big or small is the context in which our attention is showing up? What are we fundamentally preoccupied with? And most importantly, how closely does this correlate with our desire for spiritual freedom?

In this free bi-weekly session, Andrew Cohen explores the whole question of attention in different settings and states of awareness. If we want to be happy, free and sane human beings – making choices that don’t create karma and are aligned with spiritual freedom – we surely need to be awake and attentive with a depth that is far beyond the ordinary.

So how does the apparatus of human attention actually work, and how do we make it more conscious? Join Andrew on 7th May to explore this topic in depth.