Focused Attention

Your focused attention determines how your existence plays out. If it’s constantly focused towards self you will be self-ish. If you possess the whole world, but aren’t liberated from self, you remain in captivity…

For me the key to being liberated from the captivity of self, is turning my energy away from greed and lustful thoughts. When the mind gets stuck in these thoughts to be liberated it needs to become unstuck. What makes it get stuck is your attention is mostly focused on satisfying self in some way. Pay attention to the sensations of the body, mind, and mental formations. This is a direct path to how one becomes liberated from suffering.

Liberation from suffering is not pain free, it’s learning to be with the pain that arises. You cannot hide from what’s happening, you can only divert your attention away from it. To no longer have your attention engaged in satisfying the self is where the path of liberation leads to. How this is done is by stopping the focused attention of self and focusing towards what will liberate you from it. The self is there and it has been given a name (for me Michael) but it has many different labels attached to it; this creates bondage because of the mere fact of the attachment it has to itself. Liberation is in understanding the lies of self, it isn’t in creating a concept or belief in something.

You can only be free by paying attention to what allows freedom, but it’s tricky because of the conditioning of the self. Constant vigilance is needed for the liberation from self. You’re alive so you exist, but it will be your focus attention that determines the extent of the liberation one’s has from self and that will be the determining factor in how your existence plays out.