The Reality of Attention

(Introduction)

Axial attention is the simple, direct attention in which we become our immediate core, the axis of our attention, the central pole through which everything comes to light, comes to be seen, and through which we do what we do. This is the essence of presence.

There is a marked distinction between our ordinary attention and axial attention. Ordinary attention has shallow, thin roots, while the roots of axial attention reach into the fathomless depths of our being. Ordinary attention is weak and fickle, drawn here and there by whatever catches its momentary interest. Axial attention is much more stable, centered, and can grow very strong. Ordinary attention is a surface phenomenon that does not feel like anything. Axial attention feels like the Self that I am, viscerally and definitively. Ordinary attention leaves ample room for narrow egoism, for rambling inchoate thoughts and reactive emotions. Axial attention occupies, unifies, silences, and purifies our inner space.

Yet despite these divergences, there is an essential connection, an essential sameness between ordinary attention and axial attention: their difference is in degree, not in kind. This sameness matters because it means that we need not look far, we need not look beyond our immediate experience to engage the reality of attention. It is already here. Surface attention can guide us toward axial attention and thereby toward our sacred Source.

Axial attention arises spontaneously, when we make room for it. Letting go of our subjection to thoughts and emotions, emerging from identification, from being inwardly collapsed into a small piece of ourselves or of the world, and stepping back into our broad inner base with a welcoming attitude, enables axial attention to enter us, to enter our core. As long as that core is occupied with something on the surface of our being, axial attention is locked out. But by coming inside and turning toward the within, we can unlock that realm of peace and pure attention.

To make something real of the elusive notion of I, we look at attention. Our I is said to be our will, while attention is said to be a power of the will. Attention is will using energy. This reveals an intimate relationship between I and attention. To understand I, to come into our I, we can work at coming into our attention.

Will does not exist in time and space like objects do, or even like energies. Will comes from a higher dimension and thus is hidden from our usual mental and perceptual processes. Nevertheless, will in the form of attention is familiar and accessible. We have some grasp of what attention is, though a complete understanding of attention takes much more work than we may have yet managed.

To be "our" attention it needs to be intentional attention, whether focused or wide, whether receptive or active, but not passive attention. The latter is not really our attention, not really our will: it is abdicating our will. When we are intentionally being attentive, we can enter that attention to enter our own I, our real Self.

This is where axial attention comes into play. This deeper attention that we open to rather than do, puts us in contact with that deeper aspect of our will, the axial attention that is a direct manifestation of our I. We broaden ourselves inwardly, beyond our narrow focus, relaxing into a greater sense of ourselves, and become this central attention, this axial attention. In so doing we become our Self, our I. We reconnect with our sacred Source, from which our I emanates.

For this week, please practice opening to your core attention, this axial attention.

See Also: Fran Shaw, Ph.D., The Next Attention; 2010. In this book, Dr. Shaw reports on the teaching of Dr. Michel de Salzmann on attention: central attention, the axis of attention, the sacred Source of attention, and attention as what we are.

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