Insight from meditation - Attention is the root cause of attachment.

[Rishabh R]

My meditation duration is typically 12 to 20 minutes. But today I meditated  more than 20 minutes which is basically 22 minutes and 35 seconds. 

At the last phase of meditation I noticed something about mental activity. 

While I was meditating a Hindu worship song was being played nearby in the colony beside my flat . My mind was focussed or say attentive on that song and when that song stopped my mind focussed on something else.

I came to realise that attention is the root cause of attachment. Our minds pay attention to something and gets attached to it.

By the way I was trying to meditate for 30 minutes but I failed.😂

 

Edited July 21 by Rishabh R

[Salvijus]

What causes attention to move to a particular place would be a good next question to ask. 

[Rishabh R]

@Salvijus Yeah but that was something which I observed and I will leave your question to contemplation.

[Sugarcoat]

1 hour ago, Salvijus said:

What causes attention to move to a particular place would be a good next question to ask. 

That’s such a broad question. For example big difference between attention moving towards pain in the body and attention moving towards someone with a strange outfit walking past you

[Salvijus]

1 hour ago, Sugarcoat said:

That’s such a broad question. For example big difference between attention moving towards pain in the body and attention moving towards someone with a strange outfit walking past you

You could still boil it down to a single answer <interest>

And then you can ask, what is causing the interest to arise. 

<Interest is a form of desire. >

Then you can ask, where does all desire come from. 

 

[Sugarcoat]

26 minutes ago, Salvijus said:

You could still boil it down to a single answer <interest>

And then you can ask, what is causing the interest to arise. 

<Interest is a form of desire. >

Then you can ask, where does all desire come from. 

 

It could also be the opposite. You pay attention to something scary because it aids your survival. You want to get rid of that scary thing. You could flip it upside down and say that means we have desire to survive. Then we could ask the question you said 

[Schizophonia]

3 hours ago, Salvijus said:

What causes attention to move to a particular place would be a good next question to ask. 

karma

[Salvijus]

38 minutes ago, Sugarcoat said:

It could also be the opposite. You pay attention to something scary because it aids your survival. You want to get rid of that scary thing. You could flip it upside down and say that means we have desire to survive. Then we could ask the question you said 

So it boils down to desire yes. And then what causes desire becomes the question. 

[Rishabh R]

7 minutes ago, Salvijus said:

So it boils down to desire yes. And then what causes desire becomes the question. 

That is more of a biological and survival question than a philosophical or psychological one.

[Salvijus]

1 hour ago, Rishabh R said:

That is more of a biological and survival question than a philosophical or psychological one.

It's much more profound then that.

Desire is the kundalini energy that runs the entire existence. First it finds expression in the root Chakra, desire for survival. After that desire evolves into a desire for sexuality, then it evolves into a desire for a healthy asserted sovergn identity. Then it evolves into a desire for communion, unity, love. Then the energy evolves into the desire for self expression. Then it evolves into a desire for knowledge, understanding and insight. And then it evolves into a desire for infinity. The energy of desire (Kundalini) is the will of god itself trying to find it's full potential within you. It's an infinite fuel that makes up every molecule in existence and it has infinite devine intelligence. 

Desire is everything. 

Edited Monday at 03:13 PM by Salvijus

[Breakingthewall]

1 hour ago, Salvijus said:

So it boils down to desire yes. And then what causes desire becomes the question. 

It is caused by the fact that if there were no desire you would not exist, then the possibility that is possible has desire

Edited Monday at 03:15 PM by Breakingthewall

[Joshe]

Just because something becomes the focal point of attention does not mean you're attached to it. Anything can become the focal point and many things influence what the focal point becomes. Desire is a big influence, but not the only influence. 

In stillness, with eyes closed, it's easy for sounds to become the focal point. When the sounds cease, it's the nature of mind for the focal point to change. What it shifts to could depend on what you had for breakfast, who or what is in your current environment, stress levels, etc.

Attention is opportunistic, hence the "attention economy". I'd say attention is more often hijacked by the external than it is internally directed towards one's desires/interest. (ads, horn beeps, crowd noise, communicating with people, sensory data like smells, loud noises, movement detection, etc.)

It's the interpretation of the focal point that is more shaped by your "interests", while the focal point itself is more shaped by environment, recent circumstances, habits of mind, etc. 

Edited Monday at 04:54 PM by Joshe