Insights and notes on attention

Or shall we say "attending to"?

2025-11-19

• We've been conditioned to pay attention only by focusing, but it can also be non-selective.
• When attention is non-selective, it is open and unfiltered.
• Limited tunnel attention is needed to be in control. While there is control outside (deterministic), there is repression inside.
• When we open up attention, we open up to uncertainty (non-deterministic).

2026-01-18

• In the Western world view, the word "attention" is often used synonymously with "focus" (convergent) attention, almost like the military instruction "attention!"

  • If we think of the word "attention" more as "attending to," it opens the meaning.
    • One could attend to diffuse sensations of the senses
    • Or one could attend to the inner world
    • Or the totality of one's perceptions

• the nature of attention seems to be self-replicaint

  • e.g.: If believe the world is out to get me, I see danger all around me. If I practice gratitude and pay attention to the kindness of people, I will see kindness and abundance and replicate that energy.

Attention and the 8 Limbs of Yoga

The sixth and seventh limb in yoga are focus meditation (Dharana) and non-selective meditation (Dhyana). When I learned about the 8 Limbs of Yoga, it was the first time that I heard about the differentiation of focus and non-selective meditation.

See the eight limbs of yoga.