Attention Promotes Satisfaction

"Gaining control of our attention -- the ability to put it where we want it, and keep it there for a sustained period of time -- is a prerequisite to a satisfying life."

-- Tony Schwartz

We all seem to have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) to some degree. And for many of us, thanks to the increased information overload provided by the new technologies, our condition continues to worsen.

No matter what the current jargon says, you cannot really "multi-task." What you do is switch quickly between activities, thus never giving any activity your complete attention for long. Studies show that it in so doing you are in fact taking more time to do these activities than if you did each one of them separately!

But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that your attention muscle is becoming both skittish and flabby. You are teaching yourself how not to concentrate. And without concentration the sustained effort required to produce significant results of any kind becomes damn near impossible!

The spiritual practices of concentration, meditation, and contemplation, no matter from what tradition they are derived, are attention-training devices. They helps us focus upon what is most important in life. And only by developing this focus can we have a satisfying, meaningful, authentic life.

Texting while driving is not going to make you happy. Returning emails while talking on the phone is not going to make you fulfilled. And talking while your mouth is full is just plain bad manners!

Slow down to get ahead. Do one thing, completely and well. It may have been awhile since you've done that, but give it a try and see what happens. It may surprise you that life in the slow lane is deeper, calmer, and more satisfying than the chaotic and hyperactive dance that so often passes for productivity.

Teachers, Teachers Everywhere

"When you really pay attention, everything is your teacher."

-- Ezra Bayda

Having a guru is so 20th century! To undertake a student-teacher relationship with just one human being is so limiting that it's nearly a type of psychological/spiritual slavery. Spirit exists everywhere, in everyone and everything, and Spirit is the ultimate teacher.

That doesn't mean that you can't learn specific skills (like woodworking), specific practices (like sitting meditation) or certain knowledge (like the history of the Catholic Church) from specific teachers. You can, obviously. And even though the Internet can provide you, with just a click of a mouse, the most human knowledge ever-assembled, there are still very good reasons to take face-to-face classes, engage in discussion, labs, apprenticeships, etc. But never, ever turn your spiritual life or human development over to any one teacher or system.

The downsides of guru-teacher relationships are well documented, especially here in post-modern Western culture. And the bottom line is that these traditional teaching relationships are no longer necessary in this, the third age of spirituality, the Age of the Holy Spirit. And this is simply because Spirit, as mentioned above, is available always and everywhere, even in its ultimate secret hiding place -- deep inside you.

So, learn from every teacher you can. Respect them, honor both their knowledge and their good character, but don't become their spiritual lackey. Surrender your attachment to your ego, surrender it on a daily basis. Just make sure you surrender it to Spirit, Itself, and not to some middleman, even if that middleman is seemingly well meaning.

No more second hand God! That's the ticket. God within, God without -- everywhere you look, you are surrounded by Spirit manifesting as teachers. Welcome to the School of Life...

Quality Attention

"It's the quality of your attention in the moment that will determine your outcome."

-- Deepak Chopra

"Keep your eyes on the prize," they tell you. Nothing could be further from the truth! Your focus should never be on some external goal, much less on any reward you will receive when that goal is reched. Your focus, your attention should be placed squarely upon the task at hand, upon what you are doing right here and right now, in this very moment. 

If you attend to your current activity with clarity, concentration and power, you have a much better chance of producing positive outcomes than if you trip of into the future or sink back into the past. 

The quality of your attention is also determined by the paradoxical characteristics of passion and detachment. Wimpy, mamby-pamby attention produces mediocre results, at best. Teeth-gritting, and sphincter-clenching doesn't do any better. High quality attention is fueled by passion and kept clean and clear by detachment. An imbalance in either direction will negatively impact your outcomes.

So, focus clearly and powerfully on what is before you. Don't worry about results; let the results take care of themselves. You job is to continually upgrade the quality of your attention, and to expand your capacity to attend to whatever the Universe brings into your life.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Suffering Is Optional

"You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer."

-- Byron Katie

Pain is a part of life. Your back goes out, you stub your toe, bump your head or sit on a wasp's nest. Ouch! Suffering, however, is purely optional, an add on that is not part of life's original equipment. Suffering is the psychological resistance that we have to what is, especially when what is either causes physical pain or fails to live up to our personal expectations and desires. In other words, you cause your own suffering by resisting reality. That's all there is to it.

That may be all there is to it, but oh what a deeply ingrained habit it is! In a strange perverse way, we love to suffer, and we love to hear about the sufferings of others. Suffering gives life its dramatic quality, and, of course, it supposedly builds character. Personally I doubt the character building part. All generating suffering, talking suffering, and sharing suffering builds is more suffering. By indulging in it, we give up our power and legitimize the suffering-making process.

"Misery loves company," we're told. And like most old chestnuts, it seems to be true. But instead of wallowing in our misery, why don't we disconnect the whole misery-making, suffering-inducing process altogether? If suffering begins in the mind, it is in the mind that it must be dismantled.

Dismantling only takes one tool -- attention. When we pay attention to how, when and where we resist reality, we begin to see how me make ourselves suffer. We don't have to fight the suffering anymore than we have to fight any illusion. When we see that suffering doesn't exist, except between our ears, it begins to fade like a summer morning's fog. 

So, when faced with suffering, don't just do something, sit there! Sit and watch. Watch as you weave your own web of suffering, and watch it unravel. Suffering disintegrates under the watchful eye of awareness. And when it does, reality, in all its beauty, shines through!

The Golden Radiance of Close Attention

"Stein writes about ordinary objects in unremarkable lives -- lawn mowers and Dodge pickups, TV sets and baseball caps -- but upon that humble stuff, he sheds the golden radiance of close attention."

-- Julia Keller. Writing about Illinois State Poet, Kevin Stein, in the Chicago Tribune 1/24/09.

I love that phrase "the golden radiance of close attention." I've read it now at least a dozen times, and it still gives me goose bumps on each re-reading.

Our lives are filled with humble objects and ordinary stuff, and yet each and every item is redeemed by "the golden radiance of close attention." (I can't stop saying it! I think I'll ask Julia Keller if she minds if I use it for the title of a book I've yet to write. It may be a book on how to fix your Honda Accord; it may be a book of poetry. Who cares? Either way the title would apply).

Let's face it: Most of us live pretty ordinary, unremarkable lives. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that at times we get a bad case of the discontents and dream and long for glamor and beauty and money and power. We think that if we just had ____ (fill in the blank), life would be perfect and oh so grand.

It ain't going to happen. Not likely, at least. What is going to happen is that we're going to shovel snow and watch the Super Bowl and make dinner and try and balance our checkbooks, and a million and one other little things, that strung together make up our lives. But each of these trite, little, mundane acts is a semi-precious jewel waiting to be discovered. Waiting to be unearthed by the redeeming light of attention. Waiting to be seen for what it is -- a shining holographic slice of life that both contains, and is a doorway to, the All and Everything.

Who knew, that the slice of bacon before you is a portal to the Divine? Who'd have guessed that the old Rolling Stones T-shirt that you refuse to throw out is as sacred as the Shroud of Turin?

You see, the Spirit abides in the details of even the most ordinary life. No icey trek in the Himalayas required. No zapping on the road to Damascus. No years beneath a bodhi tree. Right here, right now, the most mundane objects and actions come alive and shine through "the golden radiance of close attention."

And so, if you bestow attention on the little things on even a semi-regular basis, you soon realize that what you have here is a golden, radiant life. Golden attention, golden moments, golden life -- who could ask for anything more?