The Discipline of Focused Attention

 

Tonight we begin the month of March with a new practice, the practice of Focused Attention. This is a practice that His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls an essential discipline for developing compassion and for giving us the mental discipline we need to be effective, peaceful citizens in an increasingly interdependent world.

We live in an ADD world, and we all know that Attention Deficit is not only a disease that young school children and adolescents suffer from, but a metaphor for American society in the new millennium. And when we are honest with ourselves, we know how difficult it is to quiet our minds, to push aside the clutter. I think it was Eckart Tolle whose book The Power of Now first helped me realize that my mind controls me far more often than I control my mind.

So the discipline of focused attention is a form of training, a form of practice to enable us to regain the ability – the God-given ability – to control our minds so that our minds no longer control us. And, like all the other spiritual disciplines we practice, this one IS a battle, a battle waged in our minds as we seek to choose what the object and focus of our attention will be.

Dalai Lama describes this practice as follows: “this practice is a cultivation of sustained attention through single pointed concentration. We choose an object as the focus of our attention. It may be a flower, a painting, or simply an orb of life. For a religious practitioner, it could be a sacred object like a crucifix or an image of Buddha…”

“Having relaxed and settled your mind, try to maintain your focus on the object…Keep your eyes only slightly open and looking downward…don’t worry if your eyes close” for it is not the actual seeing of the object that matters but the ability to keep the object at the center of your mind’s eye, as the sole object of your focused attention.

So what do we do when our mind wanders…? We simply open our eyes and fix them on our object again, getting that image front and center of our focused attention again.

In terms of the big picture of what we have been attempting in all our Living Vision gatherings and spiritual practices, it’s vital to remember our goals. First, we are seeking, above all, humility. We’re here to humble ourselves by reminding ourselves just how UNspiritual we really are, how UNfocused we really are, how UNChrist-like we really are. So as we struggle with each discipline and practice we attempt, remember that if you AREN’T good at, if you AREN’T focused or centered, let it humble you, for the more humble we are about our spiritual lives, the more compassionate toward others we will be and the less likely we will be to judge others.

Second, we’re here seeking God. We’re here to break all the habits we have accrued in the rest of our lives and to try and create room and space for God to speak to us. We know from our human relationships that we can’t listen and talk at the same time. So we’re here to listen for God, to seek HIS still small voice.

So our object for tonight’s first segment of practice will be a lighted candle. Just the dancing light itself, an open image that can take your mind in many directions, but the task is to stay with the light.

Our second segment will focus on a painting, Van Gogh’s rendering of the Good Samaritan.