Attention is the beginning of devotion, Mary Oliver, the poet writes in her essay Upstream. It is the most beautiful quote ever, and in this age of distraction, it is a prescient message. Additionally, real attention, says Oliver, needs empathy; attention without feeling is just a report.
Indeed, when we are compassionately attentive, we truly live, taking in all that life has to offer, its ups and downs. The ups are cherished, the downs are embraced with love, humour and grace.
This practice is about bringing the attention back to the breath each time it wanders off to some path. We are strengthening the capacity to pay attention, one breath at a time, kindly, patiently and devotionally. The practice is also designed to respond to struggles in paying attention or attention deficit, and/or feeling hyperactive, easily stimulated (ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
Upstream, Mary Oliver (extract)
One tree is like another tree, but not too much. One tulip is like the next tulip, but not altogether. More or less like people—a general outline, then the stunning individual strokes. Hello Tom, hello Andy. Hello Archibald Violet, and Clarissa Bluebell. Hello Lilian Willow, and Noah, the oak tree I have hugged and kissed every first day of spring for the last thirty years. And in reply its thousands of leaves tremble!
In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.
Attention is the beginning of devotion.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Freddie Marriage, Unsplash
Kindermind Center 