I was recently reading a wonderful little book called On Attention by Christopher Fremantle. His explanation of Gurjdieff's concept of self-remembering reminded me of Michelangelo's David. He writes, "...the field of attention includes both the 'outer' sense perceptions and the 'inner' awareness of movements of thought, feeling and bodily energies..." David is inwardly silent and self-aware while actively attentive - his whole body, feeling and thought concentrated. He is awake.
Fremantle describes how we give our attention away, "My attention, this power tool for communication, in not mine. It remains almost entirely at the disposal of life's imperative needs or whaterver event comes along and forces an impression on my senses and my mind. Yet it is mine; it springs from me, from my life; it is a part of my life force which ceases to be mine in so far as it does not obey my conscious being but is constantly enslaved by the outside world."
From my Alexander Technique lessons I have become aware of how my head is constantly jutting forward. I don't look at the world with my eyes, I use my whole head. This habit of posture reflects the habit of allowing all of my attention to be grabbed by objects - none of it left for me, the subject.
Fremantle explains how inattention occurs, "When music is heard, a book read, or a conversation is in progress, the stream of impressions provokes continual associations; these tend to absorb the attention, creating gaps in the stream of conscious reception...active attention is not continuous, it consists of moments of voluntary renewal. One may say, 'now I will have an active attention resting on such and such a thing,' but at every moment it has to be renewed; and it is renewed by one's wish, or by one's will." I imagine David being in a state of will; totally committed to being in the present moment.
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