The term attention is often used in everyday speech: parents warn children to be attentive at school; teachers tell students: “Pay attention to …”; if we collide with a passerby on the street, we will hear: “Watch where you’re going!” What is attention and how important is it for our lives? Does the meaning and importance of this seemingly well-known and clear ability of our psyche in everyday activities exhaust itself, or does it have a much deeper and greater meaning for humans that we do not know?
The ancient sages tell us: know yourself and you will know the gods! If we do not know our abilities, we cannot use them to the extent that nature has offered us. Everyone would be amazed if someone consistently ignored their right hand and only used their left. However, we all do this with the “hands” of our psyche. We do not know all our potential, and even less do we know what they could be like if we developed them and naturally used them, just as we naturally use the two hands of our body. Attention and Awareness
The fact that no conscious activity could be performed without attention directed towards it speaks to the importance of attention in a person’s life. No book would be read, no skill mastered, no knowledge learned. What we do not pay attention to remains outside the field of our consciousness and simply does not exist for us.
Attention is inseparable from awareness. It is the extended arm of awareness through which we bring in the contents of the external world, as well as our inner world, making them a part of our experience. We could say that attention is the communication channel through which our awareness comes into contact with the world. If we define awareness as the set of knowledge that a person has acquired throughout their life – or humanity throughout evolution – the knowledge that enables us to grow and fulfill ourselves as human beings, we can conclude that attention “expands” awareness. Throughout the hundreds of thousands of years of human existence, every new step in its development has been spurred by attention. the hand hurts, our attention will automatically focus on the pain. This type of attention is involuntary and is driven by external stimuli.
The second type of attention is selective attention. In this case, we consciously choose what to focus on, filtering out irrelevant information. For example, when we are reading a book, we ignore background noise and focus only on the text.
The third type of attention is sustained attention. This is the ability to maintain focus on a task or stimulus for an extended period of time. It requires effort and concentration. For example, when studying for an exam, we need to sustain our attention on the material.
So, attention plays a crucial role in our awareness of ourselves and the world around us. It is up to us to decide how we direct our attention, whether it is driven by external factors or controlled by our own choices. attention will be focused on the painful finger. In such situations, we act reflexively, like robots who always react the same way in similar situations. Our consciousness does not receive any valuable content that would enrich our experience.
Attention is inseparable from consciousness. It is an extended arm of consciousness through which we bring in the content of the external and our inner world, making them part of our experience.
We could call the second type of attention spontaneous attention, and it is a result of surrendering to our own inclinations, interests, what we like, or simply the situation we find ourselves in. When standing in front of a bookstore window, the titles that interest us will attract our attention, and if we like a certain song, we will notice its melody even if it is barely audible. Even in these situations, we are not masters of our attention, and the content we bring into consciousness does not fundamentally change us. It is enough to simply surrender to old emotions, habits, interests, and usual behavior. The main motive driving this Attention satisfaction is the fulfillment of personal desires and needs.
The third type of attention is volitional attention. It requires a willpower effort to overcome our own inertia, old, established patterns of behavior, experiences, and thinking. A student who concentrates on studying even though there is a good movie on TV does so through the power of will. At work, we voluntarily direct our attention to the task at hand, overcoming tiredness, saturation, or boredom. In these situations, we consciously decide to focus our attention on specific content because we consider it necessary and our duty, regardless of how much we like it, find it interesting, or pleasant. Only through volitional attention do we expand our consciousness, enriching it with the experience of overcoming our own limitations.
Traditions state that humans are unfinished beings, only halfway through their evolution. There is still much to learn, discover, and become aware of. This does not refer to the quantity of information, as quantity alone is not a guarantee of quality. We will achieve quality by embracing those aspects. We are enabled by deliberate attention to embrace content that changes us and encourages us to turn flaws into strengths, weaknesses into power, ignorance into knowledge, and animal-like humans into humane beings.
A prerequisite for this is possessing clear criteria of values, so that we can select, among the abundance of content offered by today’s civilization, those that will aid our development. Just as we carefully choose the food we ingest in a store, we should equally carefully choose the books we read, the music we listen to, the company we keep, without succumbing to laziness, passivity, pleasure, and temporary inclinations and habits. By our own volition, our attention should be directed towards that which enriches us and makes us better and higher-quality individuals.
However, it’s not only external content that enters our consciousness that matters. Equally important, if not more so, is directing our attention towards our inner world, being aware of our behavior, thought patterns, motives for action, and recognizing mistakes and omissions. Attention is something we unconsciously do. And that’s where voluntary attention comes in, as it can reveal all our self-deceptions, illusions, false attitudes, and insincerity towards ourselves.
The attention of today’s individual is characterized by two main features: it is mostly unintentional and spontaneous, and rarely voluntary. The first feature is the selectivity of attention. Throughout life, everyone develops a specific sensitivity to certain stimuli that easily grab their attention. A mother will be drawn to books about child upbringing in front of a bookstore window, while someone concerned about achieving a slim figure will notice titles that mention diets. During an outing, a nature lover will admire the natural beauty, while someone who enjoys eating will notice a restaurant. This way, the same information constantly enters our consciousness, while much else, often more valuable and useful, remains beyond the reach of our awareness. It is necessary to become aware of such behaviors and actively develop attention sensitivity where it does not exist. is preparing for a test, for example, prevents him from being distracted by other things, so attention requires effort of will with which we overcome our own inertia, old, established forms of behavior, experience, and thinking.
The second characteristic is the time limitation of attention. No matter how well we focus on a certain content, after some time our attention starts to tire and we become distracted. Just as physical muscles need rest after work, so does attention. But just as endurance of physical muscles is achieved through exercise, so can attention endurance be practiced through the strength of will. Traditional teachings say that the development of attention reflects the level of human consciousness. Wakefulness, continuous and complete attention in every moment, is a reflection of continuous and complete consciousness. Buddha, which means “awakened” in translation, attains this state of consciousness. In Egypt, the symbol of wakefulness was the cobra, which we can often see in depictions of the pharaoh’s crown. The pharaoh, the divine Son of the Sun, had to possess wakeful attention and complete consciousness.
Just as the attention of a person who is preparing for a test prevents him from being distracted by other things, so the attention of a person who is performing a task requires effort of will with which they overcome their own inertia, old, established forms of behavior, experience, and thinking.
The second characteristic is the limited duration of attention. No matter how well we focus on a certain content, after some time our attention starts to tire and we become distracted. Just as physical muscles need rest after work, so does attention. But just as endurance of physical muscles is achieved through exercise, so can attention endurance be practiced through the strength of will. Traditional teachings suggest that the level of attention development reflects the level of human consciousness. Wakefulness, continuous and complete attention in every moment, is a reflection of continuous and complete consciousness. Buddha, which means “awakened” in translation, attains this state of consciousness. In Egypt, the cobra was a symbol of wakefulness, often seen in depictions of the pharaoh’s crown. The pharaoh, the divine Son of the Sun, had to possess wakeful attention and complete consciousness.
Just as the attention of a person who is preparing for a test prevents him from being distracted by other things, attention requires an exertion of willpower to overcome our own inertia, old, established patterns of behavior, experience, and thinking.
The second characteristic is the temporal limitation of attention. No matter how well we focus on a certain content, after a while our attention starts to fatigue and we become unfocused. Just as physical muscles need rest after work, attention also needs rest. But just as endurance of physical muscles is achieved through exercise, so can attention endurance be developed through willpower. Traditional teachings state that the development of attention reflects the level of human consciousness. Wakefulness, continuous and complete attention in every moment, is a reflection of continuous and complete consciousness. Buddha, which translates to “awakened,” achieves this state of consciousness. In Egypt, the cobra was a symbol of wakefulness often seen in depictions of the pharaoh’s crown. The pharaoh, the divine Son of the Sun, had to possess vigilant attention and complete consciousness.
Just as a monkey differs from an awakened human, so does the attention of modern humans differ from wakefulness. This is a distant goal that human evolution has yet to achieve. The first step towards this goal is the development of voluntary attention.
The development of voluntary attention
Like any human ability, voluntary attention can be developed. We all already possess such experience. As children, we naturally developed it by mastering school subjects that were not always interesting or easy to learn. We knew it was necessary and that it was our duty.
An adult forgets a simple but wise saying: life is a school. It’s as if we have already learned everything necessary, and we surrender to our old habits and ways of behaving. If we have truly learned everything, shouldn’t we then live more meaningfully, happily, fulfilled, without crises and dissatisfaction, without stress? But it’s not like that. Every day we are faced with new problems that we don’t know how to solve, moods that we don’t know how to overcome, dissatisfaction that we often feel.
However, as adults, we do have the advantage of awareness and control over our reactions. We can choose how to respond to a particular situation and change our usual behavior patterns. This requires concentration and mindful presence in the moment. When we are mindful, we can observe our thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without judgment or attachment.
Developing willful attention requires practice and patience. We can use techniques such as meditation, mindfulness, yoga, or affirmations to better connect with our inner world. It’s important to be gentle with ourselves and accept that the process of change is gradual. Let’s not burden ourselves with self-criticism if we’re not immediately perfect in this skill.
When we develop willful attention, we’ll be better equipped to handle life situations and reduce stress. We’ll learn to be present in the moment and make conscious decisions. Instead of surrendering decisions to others or circumstances, we take responsibility for our lives and our reactions. This gives us a sense of control and freedom.
With willing attention, we become aware of our own actions, familiarize ourselves with ourselves and the world we live in, giving us the opportunity to learn from experience and change. In this way, we transform our lower, instinctual, irrational nature into a higher, more intelligent and humane one. We cannot change the world, but we can change ourselves; by changing ourselves, we also change the world.
A few practical tips can help us develop willing attention. Simple concentration exercises on a circle with a dot (or any other object) strengthen the endurance of attention. Planning activities for the next day and being aware of what has hindered us in achieving our plans is a good exercise in self-discipline and willpower. It is useful to spend a few moments in the evening before going to sleep having a conversation with ourselves, reflecting on what we have done, how we have felt, what we have thought, what we have done well, and what we have done wrong. We need to control our emotional states that interfere with willing attention and prioritize willpower over fleeting emotions. Abyss. Through careful selection of what we read, music we listen to, television shows we watch, and conversations we engage in, we should cultivate our interests by directing them towards what enriches us.
Let us remember the wise words of the great philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius: “Every morning when you wake up, remind yourself: I am waking up to fulfill the purpose of being a human being”.
Human life can be compared to a boat on the open sea. We have two options: to surrender to the drift and unpredictability of the waves or to grab the oars and set out towards our goal with our own strength. The choice is ours.