The most powerful thing you can do is give something your attention. If you can give it your pure and undivided attention miracles happen.
Attention is divided by objects that divide our focus and by our own thoughts and mind. You may be staring at something but daydreaming about something else. Catch yourself, call back wandering thoughts and focus fully on what is in front of you, a person, a painting, or a flower.
Are you thinking about what you are looking at? Is there a commentary running in your mind? Perhaps it is only the thought that the flower is blue. Try letting go of this thought, which is just a label. When you allow yourself to see into it without the label, what do you notice that you were glossing over before? Is the blueness more varied, are their richer textures? Does the experience feel different?
When our attention is the carrier wave for analysis and judgement, it is not yet pure. The mind is trained to label what we see, and usually to judge as well. Then we are projecting as much as seeing, and our attention is still divided.
In spiritual work, in meditation this can also happen. I regularly check in with my chakras. I’ve been doing this for many years. Often its just a check list, like looking at my toes; one, two, three, four, five, ok ready to go. But I haven’t really seen them. I’m saying hello briefly, and if nothing is obviously wrong I am out the door and on with my day. When I do have time to sit, to really pay attention, I give them more space to be. By asking, what is present in my chakras? I create space for raw awareness, a bit of emotion, an old memory, a sense of contraction or of joy. They expand, clear, come alive, do whatever they need to do.
It is like letting go of the idea of blue, so that I can experience the richness of blueness.
Spiritual work, meditation or ceremony, is about the live presence of Spirit. Spirit is always present, but only when we give something our undivided attention do we experience it. The joy of the lover, who looks besotted at her beloved, creates the space to see Spirit, to feel Soul, to call Love into the world. If our meditation or ceremony is automatic, or full of labels, there is less room for Spirit. The quality of our attention creates space for Spirit to come alive and be present to us.
What is necessary in our spiritual work, is also possible in everyday life. The same attention that generates love in the space between you and your beloved, can feel Spirit in the spaciousness of your body. It can see the world in a grain of sand, or the beauty of soap bubbles on the plate you are washing.
Pick up your hand. See it with your eyes, softly and without words, whispering, what are you? Feel it with your heart. Notice the life force in it, reaching out to have a conversation with you. Notice the lines, the variation in color, perhaps even the cells and bones under the skin. Give your hand the full attention of your whole being. Feel the energy of Spirit dropping into the space between you and your hand, joining the conversation, opening your heart.
Imagine doing this with your foot, or your friend, or your partner. Imagine doing this with the whole world. Have a wonderful day!
(© 11/12)
