Attention

July 8

True attention is rare and total sacrificial. It demands that we throw away everything we have been or hope to be, to face each moment naked of identity, open to whatever comes and bereft of human guidance....Another name for such full attention is love.

FLORA COURTOIS


When I was young I was an avid reader, as I am now. I would become totally absorbed in a book and not hear the noise around me. In those moments I gave away my personal identity, and I became larger than myself. A child's play is practice for becoming an adult. We try on different identities. As we grow older our identity becomes more firmly established. If we identify with our wants, our needs, our likes and dislikes, the identity remains the small. We'll become easily distracted or conflicted when meeting with difference. If we are willing to approach each situation in an open way, without clinging to our personal opinions, thoughts and beliefs, we become as large as life. We become love.
In Women's Sacred Mystery School and on retreats, one of the ways we practice full attention is in the council circle. In council, a stone is passed around the circle and the woman holding the stone has the opportunity to speak. The only verbal response she is give is the Native American prayer phrase "Aho" after she speaks. It affirms it is so. In the beginning it is challenging to be the silent witness. Gradually it becomes a meditative act and the whole circle experiences the silent attention as love.