Pay Attention!

Sadhguru: The only reason why someone is a mystic and someone is not, is lack of attention. Someone is an artist, someone is not. Why? Lack of attention. Someone can shoot straight and someone cannot. Why? Lack of attention. From the simplest to the highest things, it is just lack of attention.

Whatever attention level you have right now is not all that is possible. There is more but that is still redundant, it is still in an un-manifest state where you do not have access to it. So, at least you must pay all of what you have. But even with your mental attention, you are at different levels of attention at different times of your life and at different times of the day. If you are doing your work, you are in one level of attention. If you are in meditation you are in a different level of attention. If you are eating something that you like very much, you are in a different level of attention. Your levels of attention are different at different times, and whatever the peak attention that you have had in your life at any time, that is still not all of it. You are capable of much more attention.

A few years ago, I took a small group of people on a trek on a railway track between Subramanya and Mangalore. This stretch has over 300 bridges and 100 tunnels. You are practically either on a bridge or in a tunnel most of the time, and it is an absolutely wonderful mountain. Some of the tunnels are over a kilometer long. Even in the day it is pitch dark. You cannot see your own hand in front of you. Probably most people have never been in a place like that because wherever you are there is some light. Even the starlight gives you some sense of vision. But in those tunnels, after some time you do not know whether your eyes are open or closed, it is that dark.

I made them walk in those tunnels without any torches. Initially, people were so terrified but after some time, slowly they started walking and enjoying the whole experience. If you are in a place like that, your attention becomes really heightened. If you can keep your attention like this every moment of your life then you will glow. You will really glow.

At the ashram, I am constantly pushing people to notice even little things. This is not just about the cleanliness or aesthetics of the place but just to be absolutely attentive to every little thing. If a pebble has turned over, you must notice it. It is not a question of the pebble, it is just that you are attentive. If you bring this attention to a peak, if you learn to have a heightened sense of attention, then we can teach you methods as to what you must and what you should not attend to within yourself.

Right now, we are still working on people to get them to a certain level of attention. If you become very attentive, we can look at how to make use of that attentiveness. Spirituality happens only because you paid attention to your life and you saw that you don’t know where it begins and where it ends. You are going about as if whatever you are doing is the be all and end all of life. The moment you pay a little attention, you understand “This is not it.”

So, the very first step of even thinking spiritual came to you only because of a certain level of attention. If you pay much more attention to everything, if you heighten your ability to be attentive, that could be used in miraculous ways.

Editor's Note: Find more of Sadhguru's insights on the potential of the human mind, in “Mind is Your Business”.