The Prayer of Attention : How to make every moment Holy

By being present, in our daily activities, we give thanks for the countless blessings and honor life's innumerable mysteries...

In connection with this reflection on the importance of attention, I think of the role of the artist in helping us to slow down and focus.

Trying to clarify to myself this idea of the artist as mystic, and the different ways of summoning the spirit, I return to the idea of attention.

Attention is how the artist prays. Picasso (whose birthday it is today, October 25th) speaks of taking off his shoes before entering his studio. Like Moslems do when they enter their mosques. That was his way of sanctifying his art.

Another artist, poet/philosopher Gibran put it this way:

'Your daily life is your temple and religion/ When you enter it, take with you your all.'

Of course, it is not only artists who pray through attention, but all people. By association, I think of those times when I fly in my dreams.

I think there must be some connection between how I fly in my dreams and this state I sometimes come to in writing when I feel that I am weightless, ecstatic.

In my dreams, it is blinking that brings me to the ground. When I blink, I begin to fall. When I have fallen, I don’t know how to get back into the air. But if there is a formula, I think it must have to do with attention.

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, someone has said. So long as one’s eyes are wide open, there is that chance, again, that we will fly. We aquire a third eye that way, too, by not blinking. Paying attention.

If you enjoyed this short meditation and reading from my new book, I hope you will also check out my previous & first @threespeak video:

https://ecency.com/hive-174578/@yahia-lababidi/mzmlebsy