This morning, I watched a lecture by J Krishnamurti. In this lecture, he addressed the distinction between attention and concentration. Concentration, he says, comes with resistance. In concentration, one resists all the other thoughts to concentrate on one. And, when there is resistance, there is friction. And with friction, there is pain.
On the other hand, attention, Krishnamurti says, looks at one thought and only that thought. However, there is also an acknowledgement of the presence of other thoughts. Yet, one does not negate (or invalidate) the other thoughts.
Even if one is being "unattentive" because of attention on all prevailing thoughts happening at once, giving attention to the inattentiveness brings attention. Attention comes with acceptance.
In concentration, there is resistance while in attention there is acceptance. I felt that this same distinction lies between decision and choice. A decision comes with rejecting all other thoughts, and therefore there is resistance, friction and pain. On the other hand, a choice is frictionless. In 'choice' there is an awareness of all other prevailing and affecting factors but is independent of all of them.
This duality of tone in words exists across language in various aspects that subtly impact our own way of being. It is only the conscious and wise use of language that can open us to a new field that will allow us to know the nature of our own self.
Comments