Attention Is Inseparable From Interrogation
by Michel de Salzmann
[Listen to Audio!]
 Our attention is much more than we generally think. It is much more than a simple mental or cerebral mechanism. It concerns our whole being. If its potentialities are far from being fully actualized in our usual life, maybe it is precisely because it is not recognized as a multidimensional keyboard and as the unifying principle of our being.
Paradoxically this basic act of knowing, which is attention, is only actualized when we don’t know — that is, when there is a question. Its level and, so to say, its degree of “totalization” are proportional to our questioning. You have surely noticed that when a question is vital — when it takes us in the guts, as you say — it suspends all unnecessary movements, emotional and physical as well as mental. It clears the way for real awareness and sensitivity, which are components of my total power of attention. It is only between my not knowing and my urge to know that I find myself present, mobilized, open, new — that is to say, attentive.
Attention in its active form is therefore inseparable from interrogation; it is essentially, in its purity, an act of questioning. This act is the privilege of our human existence. An animal contents itself with being. The responsibility of man is to question himself on the meaning of his being.
In our society, mainly concerned with production and efficiency, the drama is that our capacity for questioning, still so vivid in early childhood, is very quickly eradicated or pushed aside for the benefit of our capacity for answering. When a child has a real question, most of the time he is immediately given a stupid answer. In the best cases the educator goes to the dictionary to he sure his answer is accurate, but anyhow unconsciously, if not proudly; he closes the question. From school to the end of our life it is always necessary to answer. We are compelled to learn how to answer, If we don’t know how to answer, we are just no good. So little by little we become some kind of model machine able to all answer to all situations with the necessary blindness as regards its own contradictions. […]
Is it possible to keep alive in ourselves our most authentic and precious capacity, which is questioning? This is the whole problem confronting us, actually. But are we strong enough, free enough, concerned enough to really question ourselves while answering? […] Can we at the same time neither affirm nor deny, neither resist nor follow, assume that we neither know nor don’t know, that we are able or unable? Can we be acutely present to what is, without judgment or indifference, without any solution or escape? It would mean being aware on all fronts, renouncing the known for the unknown, withstanding the inevitable principle of repetition, staying still within our movement.
About the Author: From, "Two Essays," by Michel de Salzmann, a psychiatrist and a spiritual teacher revered within the Gurdjieff tradition.
Latest Community Insights  |
Attention Is Inseparable From Interrogation
How do you relate to the notion that our responsibility is to inquire into the meaning of our being? Can you share a personal story of a time when you felt free enough to question yourself while answering? How has questioning helped you in your life? |
| david doane wrote: We have the ability, not obligation, to respond to our being by inquiring into its meaning. Though I don’t agree with Socrates that the unexamined life is not worth living, I definitely think it’s wo… |
| Jagdish P Dave wrote: What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of my being here in this world? What hppens to me after I die? These questions often have come to me at different stages of my relatively long l… |
| Share/Read Your Reflections |
|
Awakin Circles:
Many years ago, a couple friends got together to sit in silence for an hour, and share personal aha-moments. That birthed this newsletter, and rippled out as Awakin Circles in 80+ living rooms around the globe. To join in Santa Clara this week, RSVP online.
Some Good News
Video of the Week
Kindness Stories
Global call with Janessa Gans Wilder!
 Join us for a conference call this Saturday, with a global group of ServiceSpace friends and our insightful guest speaker. Join the Forest Call >>
About
Back in 1997, one person started sending this simple “meditation reminder” to a few friends. Soon after, “Wednesdays” started, ServiceSpace blossomed, and the humble experiments of service took a life of its own. If you’d like to start an Awakin gathering in your area, we’d be happy to help you get started.
|
Richard Whittaker
Zach was an academic physician working at UCSF. He liked his work, but something was missing. There wasn’t enough focus on patients as human beings. He left his profession and turned to art – working with groups of people in nature with found materials…
Meet Loren Cole -one of the visionaries behind Earth Day, founder of one of the first recycling centers in the US, the man behind the College of Natural Resources at UCB – and never celebrated for these achievements in his lifetime.
