Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.
Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.
Pico Iyer • A Beginner's Guide to Japan
Attention is all we have. According to philosopher Simone Weil, it is sacred — the rarest form of generosity:
“Attention alone, that attention which is so full that the ‘I’ disappears, is required of me. I have to deprive all that I call ‘I’ of the light of my attention and turn it onto that which cannot be conceived.”
Alex Dobrenko` • switching to a "dumb" phone made me feel pretty dang smart
Our attention is sacred. It’s an act of worship in itself. An act of spiritual, mental, and emotional formation. When you give something your attention – a movie, a conversation, a project at work – you’re declaring it the most important thing in your life. It may sound dramatic, but at its core, it’s true. When you pay attention to something, you’... See more
Grace Capobianco • What We Talk About When We Talk About God
“Prayer consists of attention,” and “the quality of the attention counts for much in the quality of the prayer.”
Martin Laird • A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation
Normally, when we pay attention to someone or something, we undertake what Weil calls a “muscular effort”: our eyes lock on another’s eyes, our expressions reflect the proper response, and our bodies shift in relation to the object to which we are paying attention. This kind of attention flourishes in therapists’ offices, business schools, and fune... See more