Attention

is a spiritual discipline

Our attention has been stolen and our screens are largely to blame. Social media companies and technology giants conspire together against us. Our time is their money - so they break our attention down into smaller and smaller pieces in order to monetise each piece separately, and keep us on their platforms for longer.

In the Tantric philosophical theology of Kashmir Shaivism, the capacity to pay attention is central to spiritual development. It strikes me that attention could turn out to be more significant than we realise.¹ Maybe if we allow this capacity of ours to be damaged, we lose something important about our humanity. If this is true, it might explain why so many people feel disoriented: in politics, ethics, and ways of living.

Also, if this is true, we need to find out how to repair ourselves.

Contraction and Expansion

To really understand just how fundamental attention is, we’re going to go right into the heart of Tantric philosophical theology.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been…