Attention to Attention (Part 1)

Zen Mind

Attention is our most precious resource. Where our attention goes, our life goes. The cultivation of attention is at the center of Zen practice. This talk points out that this cultivation is extra challenging under the conditions of what social scientists and critics have come to call the ‘attention economy’ and ‘surveillance capitalism.’ We’re not just dealing with the typical entanglement of attention with discursive thinking, we are now also facing algorithms that lead to ‘attention fragmentation’ because they have been carefully designed to maximize our screen time by getting us hooked to keep clicking. While one dimension of practice is to be able to sustain focus (a skill that's relevant for our everyday life and work), in Zen it is essential to discover and stabilize a nonfocused awareness. It is through this 'field of mind' that we can notice and appreciate the 'rich webs of connectedness' (Bernard Stiegler's term) from which both we and the objects of our attention arise.

Bernard Stiegler, Taking Care of Youth and the Generations

https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17590

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Zenki Christian Dillo Roshi is the the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center in Colorado, USA. This podcast shares the regular dharma talks given at the center. Zenki Roshi approaches Zen practice as a craft of transformation, liberation, wisdom and compassionate action. His interest is to bring Buddhism alive within the Western cultural context, while staying committed to the traditional emphasis on embodiment.