What Is the Owner of Our Attention?

Our attention can be surprisingly unpredictable and sometimes trick us into believing it's beyond our ability to manage. It can be a buzzing fly or mosquito, or as focused as a laser beam. The laser-like mind can hyper-focus... obsess... and zero in on something, even if it makes us feel uncomfortable because there are aspects of the mind that crave control over everything. The other aspect darts around, not staying fixed... distractible... irritable... anxious... depressed... that tends to worry... can be a reflection of the mind's own insecurity with itself, looking for a place to think and feel anchored, and at rest, so that its own sense of comfort isn't taken away.

That's where meditation practice comes in. Meditation teaches us how to handle the relationship with our attention and by extension, our awareness better and stay calm even when our thoughts and feelings are changing. By helping us to stay in the present moment, meditation makes it easier to focus and turns our scattered attention into a gentle, steady stream.

In my experience, whether our attention bounces around, or is obsessing and in "I gotta figure this out mode," we're much more than that. We are a constant indestructible and unbreakable consciousness. It isn't born. It doesn't die. Instead, we could understand it perhaps through the Japanese expression, "Shogyo Mujo" (諸行無常) ...endless transformation. This is similar to one vast ocean, capable of an endless number of waves emerging on Its surface and able to handle every single one without trouble or difficulty because the rising and falling are from a single Oceanic Being.

As a result of having a consistent meditation practice, we can learn how to intuitively feel and understand our Universal Loving Presence nature through our awareness, and that's something that Is us all the time. It doesn't come. It doesn't go. It simply is the "Ising of Being" without a need to become something more than we already are. Meditation helps us feel this connection more, making it a normal part of our everyday lives. This consciousness, often called our "Self," is our authentic identity in the midst of all our thoughts and feelings.

The invitation is to practice and notice Reality, before the thinking mind can grab it, turning our present moment into what it isn't. Notice we are Awareness, simply being aware, without moving, just Being.

一We Are All Emerging of One Source