attention

But how do we achieve such a state? What does attention consist of? For Weil, paying attention required concentrating on an object (in this case, God) without distraction, without expecting anything from it, and without preparing to respond to or interact with it in any way. To pay attention, “our thought must be empty, waiting, not seeking... See more

“It is in the capacity to love, that is to see , that the liberation of the soul from fantasy consists. The freedom which is a proper human goal is the freedom from fantasy, that is the realism of compassion. What I have called fantasy, the proliferation of blinding self-centered aims and images, is itself a powerful system of energy, and most of... See more

I can only choose within the world I can see , in the moral sense of ‘see’ which implies that clear vision is a result of moral imagination and moral effort ... One is often compelled almost automatically by what one can see. If we ignore the prior work of attention and notice only the emptiness of the moment of choice we are likely to identify... See more

In contrast, our current digital interface—defined as it is by the extraction, circulation, and consumption of virtual experiences—is at once information-rich and experience-poor. The compulsion to participate in it comes about not through external coercion but through the open-ended gratification of small choices that come to feel authentically... See more

Questions of attention do not concern something numinous and ineffable; they are about the texture and quality of our material experience—and whether we can work to free ourselves from the quagmire of consumption, performance, and sensational reaction that forms our digital environment.

The implied contrast between the sixteenth-century media technology of paint and panel — a technology of “stillness” — and our own twenty-first century media technology of computer and screen — a technology of busyness — is sharp. The much-applauded interactivity of today’s media is an illusion, a trick and a trap. In pushing us to assume a... See more