The Art of Attention -Rev. Pannyavaro.

To be in absolute silent is the key towards arriving at Complete Consciousness, most of the great teachers and Gurus would expound on the subject of Meditation or Consciousness. It is the key towards attaining to higher levels of consciousness from our mundane day to day routine of thought filled states of mental business. Do we rally need this? Do we really need to make the effort to free our mind from being sucked into the busy highways of life with all its traffic jams and breakdowns. its road rages and concern for higher and higher toll rates imposed upon us for travelling. Perhaps not for most of us as it has become a part of so called living, this is who we have become, we are busy and in order to lead a busy life we have to abide by all that is that makes for life as it is. However if we are among those who have come to accept that enough is enough and agreed upon that we are really getting nowhere in our running back and forth being busy, we need to find an alternative state, an alternate state whereby we can step aside and let the busy world rush by us and we merely observe.
In the Hinayana tradition of Buddhism, developing what is known as 'Bare attention' is part of practice towards bringing to mind to a quiet state. Bare attention is like watching the frog jumping into the pond and creating the ripples in the water while not wondering what species of frog it is or why it jumped into the pond or where it is headed or if it is edible and the list can go on as far as the 'busy mind' is concern. Bare attention is seeing a beautiful young voluptuous lady strolling by and not getting attached to how well endowed she is, or if she is Chinese or Korean or Japanese as they all look alike; bare attention merely sees a being passing by. In the practice of bare attention the adept or disciple is training to curb the mind from getting attached to the phenomenal world and thus not adding more business to itself. It is also a form of withdrawing from the external and looking inwards a step in meditation. Bare attention allows for the mind to carry less baggage or excess food and fodder for the mind to digest while still is present in the here and now of its surrounding.
"A Monk once asked the teacher, " What is the fundamental teaching of Buddhism?" the master replied 'Attention.' The student dissatisfied with the answer said, " I was't asking about attention but was wanting to know about the essential teaching in Buddhism.' The master replied, 'Attention, Attention Attention.' So it can be appreciated that the essence of Buddhist practice is to be found in the word 'Attention'." - Ven Pannyavaro on The Art of Attention.
When we allow ourselves to be involved with other people's personalities, their idiosyncrasies, their soap operas and their dramas whether it is good or not so, we become a part of that scenario and will end up having to play out our rolls in these events one way or another and thus adding to our thinking mind more garbage to chew on and i find this happening to myself as i see myself getting sucked into more than just a passing comment or off the cuff remark simply to keep in touch in my external relationships. It is habitual to do this for me as i like to be in the circle so to speak. That believe that says 'no man is an island', is often taken too seriously and lost in interpretation or understanding.
"The art of this bare attention is to simply register the predominant object in one's experience as it rises without preference or interference, as a witness. That is just registering or noting the changing phenomenon without reaction - be it sensation, sound, thought or mind - state. However if there is a reaction during the observation as is natural for the untrained mind, then that too must be noted."
Ven. Pannyavaro - The Art of Attention