Your Attention Please

The authors of Living Deeply identify four essential elements of transformative practices: intention, discipline, guidance, and attention. Of the four, I think that ‘attention’ is the most interesting. The other essential elements are like the precursors to practice; you mast have the intention to practice in the first place, you must apply the discipline of regularity in your practice and you must practice under the guidance of some teaching or mentor, however attention is like the result of actual practice. When you practice, you can enter a state of attention to yourself and your interaction with others and the world that is vital to being able to establish an alternative worldview. You may not be able to establish attention without the practice that requires the other three elements, but your ability to achieve transformative experiences depends upon attention. Instantaneous transformation may happen without the benefit of a practice, but I would say not without the benefit of attention, regardless of how or how swiftly it is achieved.

References 

Schlitz, M., Vieten, C., & Amorak, T. (2007). Living deeply: The art and science of transformation in everyday life. Oakland: Noetic Books/New Harbinger Publications Inc.