The following is based on a short audio course by Martin Aylward that I followed during my last silent retreat. You can find the session in the Waking Up app: link.
Immediate attention
There are three ‘ends’ to which our attention is drawn. The first is immediate attention. This is where you suddenly look in the direction where you just heard a glass shatter or saw something move in the corner of your eye. The force of immediate attention keeps us on the look-out for the unfamiliar, and things that we may need to attend to immediately to survive.
We cannot control immediate attention. It is a reflex of sorts. We can get familiar with certain sounds or images over time, but we cannot overcome the force of immediate attention in the moment. It is our strongest force of attention, over which we also happen to have the least control.
This force of attention only pulls on our attention when there is some anomaly in our environment. As such, it does not work on us most of the time.
Evolutionary attention
The force of evolutionary attention draws on our attention almost all the time. It can pull our attention in three directions, and how much it pulls toward either can vary from one person to the next. These directions are:
- The past. Our attention is pulled toward memories so that we will learn from them. Painful memories can make us fearful or angry, which will push us away from anything we associate with it. Pleasant memories draw us in, we long to recreate a similar memory and are drawn to everything we associate with it.
- The future. We plan—envision—and run through future scenarios in our mind. Depending on the type of future, we experience the same sensations as if we are actually there. When they are pleasant, we will positively associate with this vision. When they are not, feelings of aversion are embedded. These will become self-fulfilling prophecies as we sabotage or work towards these futures, respectively.
- The present. We make sense of what we are experiencing in the moment. We judge, label, analyse, fill in, make sense off… We have many different thoughts about the present experience.
I call this force directing our attention evolutionary because by being aware we literally ‘evolve’ our brain. Our brain becomes more sophisticated, integrated, streamlined… All so that our chances of survival, of success, are increased.
This form of attention is useful, for sure. In my work, the strength of this force keeping my attention on a subject matter (the present) allows me to produce original ideas and write about them in a comprehensible way.
The evolutionary force of attention ensures that we do not get into trouble when we go on holiday, and that we do not fall from our bike the same way over and over again.
When the force of evolutionary attention is demanding our attention to meet productive ends, we may call it deliberate.
It does not have to be like this, though. We have all ruminated over something or someone when we are past the point of learning anything from it. Our judgement of people in the present can make us feel uneasy, and our thoughts of the future anxious when it is the place nor the time for it.
When the force of evolutionary attention draws it to unproductive ends, we may call it undirected.
We will resort to undirected evolutionary attention when nothing more important demands it (either immediate attention or directed evolutionary attention). When we are waiting, driving, in bed… we ruminate over things so that we may run into something useful.
Living attention
The force of Living attention directs our attention to the present experience. It is a neutral awareness of our sensations, sounds, thoughts, smells, etc.
Living attention is not necessary for survival, but it is the essence of living.
Sadly, we do not learn to focus our attention on the present experience, such that the force of living attention is often weak.
If we want to experience life, we need to balance the forces on our attention. Specifically, we need to train our force of living attention so that we can use it to overrule the force of undirected evolutionary attention.
