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ATTENTION IS FOOD

Idries Shah comments: ’If you don’t know the source of attention, it’s like not knowing where your next meal will come from.’

Look around and see how it fits. How much attention a young child needs! We’ve got three young boys up the street that can be used as an example: Take a look at them as they prance around. They’re dying for attention, and are ready to ’kill’ if necessary to get it. The infant here in this house is getting a great deal of attention. If she didn’t she would scream, make a mess, be a pain in the ass. Any child will get attention, even if it has to pee in the flowerpot. More often than not, that continues throughout peoples’ lives. If they can’t get attention with a kiss, they’ll accept a hit. If they can’t get a compliment, they’ll be satisfied with a criticism. Attention, is the issue.

You could call this the ’big secret’ of the Work! An understanding of that would be the beginning of freedom. The first ’baby’ step.

Work is essentially self-study, leading to self-knowledge - through self-observation.

Self-observation requires attention - your own attention! To start using that inner faculty is like the beginning of a pregnancy, the beginning of re-birth. The ’essential you’ comes alive again, slowly but surely.

Surely? Yes, surely - you begin to utilize the ’light of attention’. You had always demanded that attention come to you -now you realize that it must come from you!