Attention is Life-Energy
Reflection #107: How focusing our attention gifts our life-force to others and leads to true creation
Attention is energy. It is our life-force, our most precious gift. It’s an interesting gift because the only way for it to have any value to us is for us to give it away. Each of us, in every moment, must give our attention to something.
Thus, the most important decision we make, in the free will of each instant, is where to bestow the energy our attention; for the moment we place it upon something, the force of its energy, our life force, flows from us to the object of attention. In a way, something doesn’t exist until it is infused with the life-energy of another’s attention. By gifting our attention we are creating something.
We can choose, for example, to place our attention upon the latest media stories about politics. And, in doing so, we energize and quicken those things with our life-force. Things like politics and social media; however, are like dementors, they feed upon the life-force of attention with an insatiable hunger. They leave us drained and empty. To gift our attention; to give our life-force to these things, is a poor choice that leads to the death of those moments.
Such cold, dead moments are the realm of Chronos, who eats all his children with gusto.
But, we can also choose to bestow the sacred, energetic gift of our attention upon uplifting, virtuous things. When we give our attention wisely, we bestow it upon beauty, goodness, truth, and love. In this case, something interesting happens.
Yes, our life-force flows away from us, just as it does with politics, but when the energy of our attention lands upon the aesthetic; the wondrous; the beautiful, it is amplified and the object of our attention suddenly comes alive and it opens its eyes and looks back at us.
In this divine inversion, we receive its attention; its energy, and we are struck with the divine wound of God’s attention. And thus, the energy of our attention is returned to us amplified with the full force of God’s power; the full force of God’s love. And our soul grows as a result of this new influx of energy. This inversion is what inspired the concept of medieval icons, in which all the perspective lines converge upon the viewer.
This second type of attention is sacred, and it is what infuses a moment with a spark of inspiration.
This process is accomplished through the quickening power of “Zeus’ lightning” which electrifies and transforms the instant – stealing it from the grinding jaws of Chronos – time – and gifting it to Kairos – the “right moment.” Kairos is the moment our heart opens and Eros finds his target, fires his arrow into our open heart, and moves the instant out of chronological time into the eternal sparkling now.
Consider what Eugene Terekhin wrote in his piece, From Poiesis to Pottery:
Zeus is salvaged time. His mother Rhea saved him from being swallowed by Cronus, his Father Time. By escaping chronological time, Zeus became timeless. Zeus represents those moments in time that we have saved from being swallowed by time. They become electrified with poetry.
That’s why Zeus’s signature weapon was a lightning bolt. If you transcend time, you can’t help being electrified. You have touched divine electricity, and you are moved by an invisible current. Poetry is when we transcend time and imbue our immediate task with divine electricity. It starts sparkling.
To bestow our attention in a wise manner is to live most of our moments under the soul-enriching God of Kairos rather than the soul-eating Titan of Cronos. And when most of our moments are soul-enriching, we’ve unlocked the secret to living a good life; an abundant life.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. — The Christ
Art, writing, music and dance are ways to store, and amplify, the life-energy of attention for the purpose of gifting it to others; for the purpose of bringing others to life and helping, them too, escape the jaws of Cronos.
Art is a kind of magical construct; an amulet of life-energy that continues to give for as long as the artwork itself survives and receives attention. True Art is a channel; an icon that directs God’s power into the hearts of other men.
Art is often the way Eros’ arrow gets aimed at a heart that is open and ready for the divine wound.
Mastery is the process by which we concentrate the life-force of attention because mastery allows us to slow down time, so to speak. A master creating Art, by definition, infuses far more attention per minute of work; more life-force per unit, than the novice is capable of. The process of mastery is, in part, learning to focus all of one’s attention upon one’s work. Mastery unifies the normally scattered and conflicted mind. And that is why mastery helps one to truly know themself.
Gifting the energy of Attention is how we spread The Kingdom. We each understand inherently that the value of something is proportional to the attention, the life-force, that the giver has put into it. That is why we don’t simply send wedding invitations via email, but, instead, we send hand-written calligraphic cards that communicate the value of the impending nuptials.
People generally feel the attention-energy that the artist puts into their Art, which makes Art an ideal path to spread The Kingdom.
And thus, Art is a primary vector for showing people the path to the good life, to an abundant life, to the truth of the God Spell.
“The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” – Henry Miller
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What does it look like day to day to train the mind or the heart to enter that space where creation begins?
Clint- this is an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT REFLECTION! I think most people think paying attention to anything is a boring obligation, when it is maybe the most important gift you can give or receive.
May I refer to your articles with permission in my book on the spiritual life? I am working on an autobiographical book about the life of a priest which will also be a spiritual workbook for anyone