pay attention

Posts Tagged ‘pay attention’

09
Apr
2016

The 5 Principles of Authentic Living

categories: Authentic Living, Lifestyles

I would like to share with you The 5 Principles of Authentic Living, which represent nearly 50 years of self-study and self-expression.

The first led to self-realization based on direct experience; the second led to unfettered forms of actualizing that realization in the world.

These five principles comprise 10 simple words: two words per principle. They are my scripture, the profoundly holy and profusely practical book I use to guide me along the pathless path of an authentic life. The value of this book isn’t so much in the reading of it (10 words, after all, doesn’t take long), but in the doing of it.

Embodiment. The value of these 10 words is in direct proportion to the degree we embody them. (more…)

03
Dec
2015

categories: Art, Music & Literature, Authentic Living

This is chapter two of The 5 Principles of Authentic Living.

Pay Attention

Now that we’re Being Present and living from awareness, now that we are not determined or defined by our thoughtstream, we have to incorporate into our repertoire of living authentically the second principle: Pay Attention.

The definition of Pay Attention is simple, and the application is likewise simple, as in straightforward. It does, however, take practice. The rewards, the return on our investment, are staggering.

Paying Attention means to notice what we’re doing in real time. It means to notice the effects we produce. It means to notice everything that’s happening, while it’s happening — in real time. There is an important synergy between Be Present and Pay Attention. The first principle reminds us that our thoughtstream distorts and disguises reality. By slowing down the projection speed of our mind, we can experience the way we superimpose the thoughtstream onto the screen of reality. But to Be Present isn’t the entire game: it just gets us into the game. Once we’re in the game, we have to Pay Attention, we have to notice from awareness what we are doing, and what is happening inside and outside. (more…)

09
Jun
2015

PAY ATTENTION: My Early Teachers

categories: Authentic Living, Education, Spirituality & Religion

I recently posted a meme-art about the second principle of authentic living, Pay Attention, on my Facebook page. Someone left a comment saying it was the hardest of the five principles. I said I’d post an article about my early training in “paying attention” — and here it is. It is excerpted from The 5 Principles of Authentic Living.

My first training in Paying Attention came during high school. My best friend at the time was Mike Buchanan. We were on the wrestling team together, and we’d sometimes double date. His father, Ken, owned a butcher shop, and Mike and I worked there for a couple of years after school, and on some weekends. We’d serve people at the counter, we’d cut chickens and roasts, we’d sometimes bone out a hind quarter. It was a dangerous place, with knives and saws and hooks everywhere. Mike’s dad had been in the business for 30 years, and he had the confident manner of someone is who damned good at what they do. Still, he was missing two fingers on one hand, and one on the other.

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