dfr1973 | Attention, part one (Reply)

More than just an army drill and ceremony command, this is one of the cornerstones of the mental sciences, according to William Walker Atkinson. Syfen mentioned back on the Sub-consciousing post he wasn't sure he understood all that is implied in the word attention, so I have been meaning to get around to doing up a post on it. I have found an excellent description not in Atkinson's work, but in the first sutra of book 3 in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, which I am reading as background for both Swami Vivekananda and Arkinson's Yogi Ramacharaka books. Since Patanjali was there a good 22 centuries prior to the other two, I figure to start out here. I am using the 1912 translation by Charles Johnston, which came out a few years after Vivekananda's and Atkinson's books, but seems to be an easier read as an introduction. It consists of the actual sutras, and commentary that has been attached to them since about the tenth century CE. Here is the sutras (in italics), followed by comments (both traditional plus the translator's):

- I. The binding of the perceiving consciousness to a certain region is attention (dharana). Emerson quotes Sir Isaac Newton as saying that he made his great discoveries by intending his mind on them. That is what is meant here. I read the page of a book while thinking of something else. At the end of the page, I have no idea of what it is about, and read it again, still thinking of something else, with the same result. Then I wake up, so to speak, make an effort of attention, fix my thought on what I am reading, and easily take in its meaning. The act of will, the effort of attention, the intending of the mind on each word and line of the page, just as the eyes are focused on each word and line, is the power here contemplated. It is the power to focus the consciousness on a given spot, and hold it there. Attention is the first and indispensable step in all knowledge. Attention to spiritual things is the first step to spiritual knowledge.
- 2. A prolonged holding of the perceiving consciousness in that region is meditation (dhyana). This will apply equally to outer and inner things. I may for a moment fix my attention on some visible object, in a single penetrating glance, or I may hold the attention fixedly on it until it reveals far more of its nature than a single glance could perceive. The first is the focusing of the searchlight of consciousness upon the object. The other is the holding of the white beam of light steadily and persistently on the object, until it yields up the secret of its details. So for things within; one may fix the inner glance for a moment on spiritual things, or one may hold the consciousness steadily upon them, until what was in the dark slowly comes forth into the light, and yields up its immortal secret. But this is possible only for the spiritual man, after the Commandments and the Rules have been kept; for until this is done, the thronging storms of psychical thoughts dissipate and distract the attention, so that it will not remain fixed on spiritual things. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word of the spiritual message.
- 3. When the perceiving consciousness in this meditation is wholly given to illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated, and is freed from the sense of separateness and personality, this is contemplation (samadhi) . Let us review the steps so far taken. First, the beam of perceiving consciousness is focussed on a certain region or subject, through the effort of attention. Then this attending consciousness is held on its object. Third, there is the ardent will to know its meaning, to illumine it with comprehending thought. Fourth, all personal bias, all desire merely to indorse a previous opinion and so prove oneself right, and all desire for personal profit or gratification must be quite put away. There must be a purely disinterested love of truth for its own sake. Thus is the perceiving consciousness made void, as it were, of all personality or sense of separateness. The personal limitation stands aside and lets the All-consciousness come to bear upon the problem. The Oversoul bends its ray upon the object, and illumines it with pure light.

From there, Patanjali smoothly segues into the idea of perfect meditation and perception. I thought this would help as a starting point on the topic, sort of an introduction before I get to the chapter on attention in A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga, and whatever nuggets may lie in Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga.