Attention | Spirituality & Health Magazine

Neuroscience

Attention
by Peggy La Cerra, Ph.D

Our intelligence system is designed by nature to pay attention to things that have been associated in the past with some kind of reward like food or sex, as well as things that are novel and, therefore, might potentially be either harmful or helpful to us. In spiritual practices, we learn to focus our attention on something other than these personal pre-occupations. As our attention shifts from ‘self’ to ‘other-than-self’, the self-representation that was operating in our ‘mind-brain’ becomes de-activated, and we get ‘popped out’ out of our individual self and into the world around us.

Rabbi Rami's Reflections

Attention
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

It seems to me that spiritual people are obsessed with the idea of attention. What is the big deal?

Attention is key to your survival—physical, emotional, and spiritual. When we fail to attend to the needs of our bodies, we often find ourselves needlessly ill. When we fail to attend to needs of the heart—especially the need for connection and intimacy—we often find ourselves embittered and alone. And when we fail to attend to of the soul, the need to let go, to self-empty, to surrender, we often find ourselves drowning in faux-spirituality that mistakes emotionalism for soulfulness, and pity for compassion.

OK, so I need to stay in touch with what is happening in me, to me, and with me. This sounds very narcissistic. Is life really all about me?

Yes it is, but just not the “me” you think you are. When you attend to the reality of the moment you cannot help but include the egoic “me,” the “me” that insists it is separate from and other than everything else, but as your attention deepens, your field of awareness broadens. You realize that there is no “me” without everything else. There is only the field of divine unfolding, or what we might more plainly call reality, of which this “me” is a part. With this realization comes a greater insight: you are the field no less than the field is you. Not the egoic you, of course, but the greater you, the Self or soul or Atman that, as the Upanishads of the Hindus reminds us, is Brahman, ultimate reality.

Let me be a bit more practical. We are sitting here sipping tea. Now what do I get out of paying attention to this act?

Look and see. Notice the teacup in your hand—the heft of it, the texture of it. Attend to your body’s response to the cup, how it supports it. See how your eye appreciates the color of the glaze, and how the seeming imperfections give rise in you to a sense of wonder and awe. Now attend to the magic of this: how a seemingly inanimate object is eliciting all this from you. You aren’t doing it. It is just happening. Now ask yourself, could this cup exist without the clay that forms it and the glaze that covers it? Could these exist without water, air, earth and fire? And could these exist without the planet as a whole and the solar system in which it operates? Keep expanding your awareness without losing your awareness of the teacup and soon you will, to paraphrase William Blake, see the entire universe in a single clump of clay.

Best Practices

Centering Prayer
Guidelines from Thomas Keating

Choose a sacred word as a symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. Choose your word during a brief period of prayer asking the Holy Spirit to inspire you with one especially suitable for you. (Examples: Lord, Abba, Father, Mother, Amen, Love, Peace, Shalom.)

Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within.
When you become aware of thoughts, return, ever so gently, to the sacred word.
At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes. Two periods of 20 minutes each are recommended each day -- one first thing in the morning and one in the afternoon or early evening.

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We in the modern West assume that the normal mind is a healthy one. But a "healthy mind" is still subject to many types of distress, including depression, anxiety, frustration, restlessness, boredom, and resentment. Only when such imbalances are excessive are we advised to seek counseling and drug therapy. The implication is that unhappiness is part of life, and we're to make the best of it and learn from it, while happiness comes from outside: from sensual enjoyments, possessions, other people, or God. Continue with the article

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Science has taken up the mystery of consciousness lately with the same verve it applied to other big questions such as the nature of life and the origin of our universe. Some scientists equate consciousness to a complex computer program, others to an irreducible force that pervades the universe like electromagnetic energy. Some, like neurologist Antonio R. Damasio, continue to look into the most obvious source of consciousness: the brain. As head of the department of neurology at the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City, Damasio has spearheaded research on the neuroscience of the mind. His books, Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain (Avon Hearst, 1995) and The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness (Harcourt, 2000), have become influential best-sellers in popular neuroscience. I spoke with him recently about the biological nature of consciousness and the attempt to enhance it through meditation.
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