Meditation And The Law Of Attention

The following article was written by Mr. Kim, who is from Pakistan. He is a student of neuro-psychology, and interested in topics related to self-improvement, social relationships, mind sciences and metaphysics.

The Law Of Attention/Focus

This law states that whatever you focus your attention on it increases, grows and expands.

This is the most crucial and helpful law of nature. All creations are created on the principle of this law. According to this law, when a person starts giving attention to a particular subject/matter (through the increase of focus), the awareness and knowledge related to that subject also increases.

Nature will then assist that person in achieving the required knowledge and insight to better understand that subject.

This law operates in the field of knowledge and insight, as it only informs you about the details required to understand the subject better.

It should be noted that this law does not create circumstances, rather it produces the required knowledge to take proper actions.

To help understand this better, lets take a look at this example. Suppose you are walking in a jungle where there is no moonlight and it’s all dark. So, you would be unable to walk even a couple of steps because you are uncertain of what lies ahead of you.

Now you find a flashlight in your backpack and you light it. It would project a beam of light and anything which would come in the way of the beam would become visible, while everything else would remain in darkness.

Wherever you would point your light, the objects in that direction would become visible. However, you can not see all of jungle in this light, only that part would be visible on which the beam is thrown.

Very similar is the working and explanation of the law of attention. When our mind focuses on a particular subject, it starts creating a beam-like focus which illuminates anything which is under its attention.

But as you can see in the example, the flashlight only illuminates the path, but to walk on that path and move out of jungle is up to you.

Similarly, you are provided with the knowledge, but whether or not to act upon that knowledge is entirely up to you.

The flashlight would also illuminate any obstacles, such as thorns and bushes which are blocking the way. So then you would be required to find such means by which you can remove these obstacles, and again you would need the flashlight to find those means.

Likewise, when we start giving attention to a subject it illuminates our awareness of the subject. It then informs us of our short-comings (obstacles) and when we start focusing on those short-comings, we find ways to remove them. Eventually a time comes when we finally achieve our goal.

This is something which we experience on a daily-basis. Suppose for a college assignment you need to work on a project on chemical reactions of Hydrochloric Acid (HCL).

Assume that you have never written or heard about it in detail before. Now as a first step you would focus on reflecting upon your personal knowledge of what you already know about it.

You may only come up with the idea that its name indicates that it is a kind of acid, which is a combination of Hydrogen and Chlorine.

Next, you would research your course books, the library and internet to obtain further details. Through this reasearch you would get a good deal of knowledge.

If you become so involved in your project that it becomes the centre of extreme attention, you would soon notice that automatically you are introduced to the people and places which somehow increase your knowledge of this area, or expose you to your weaknesses or wrong-direction.

Now lets try to understand this law in relation to everyday examples. You may be surprised to find answers to many of your mysterious thoughts/questions through this process.

Have you ever noticed that sometime back you saw your friend wearing a particular shirt, and you liked it so much that you made up your mind to buy it?

Then after you bought it, you started to notice that many other people were also wearing the same shirt. As a result you were amazed at how the same thing which you bought quickly became so popular.

But actually, this is not the case. Most of those people were already wearing those shirts long before you bought it for yourself, but at that time your mind was not focused and thus you did not notice it.

After buying it for yourself your subconscious mind informed your conscious mind that you are now in possession of this shirt, and so you started to notice that the same shirt was being worn by many others.

A similar example can also be found with cars, jewelry, groceries, books and many other things. Often we are suspicious that other people are copying our style and selections.

So here we see that actually the opportunities are already present in our surroundings, and these are constantly noticed and registered by our subconscious mind as it has the power to store vast amounts of information.

But comparatively, the conscious mind is very limited and cannot focus on more than one thing. Therefore it is mostly unaware of these bundles of information present in the subconscious.

The only method to be aware of this is to focus. Focus is the gateway between both minds. When a brain starts focusing on any given subject/thought, it opens the gateway towards the subconscious mind and as the focus gets deeper, the more information is transferred from other side.

The “Subconscious Internet”

Interestingly, the subconscious mind has the power to attract other subconscious minds. When our subconscious is requested for some specific information by the means of an organised focus of the conscious mind, the subconscious first processes the already registered memory and sends it to the conscious mind through thoughts.

If this initial input is not sufficient and the conscious mind again requests further details, it then starts alerting the conscious mind for relevant cues, circumstances and messages which are spread in and around the environment and may further guide through dreams.

If again more information is requested, then just like an internet connection the subconscious signals and attracts other subconscious minds which possess related information in greater detail.

And at this stage rather than thoughts/dreams, the subconscious tries to attract them to the conscious mind (the person) in a waking state.

When this occurs, we often feel as though something has been a fortunate coincidence, as we are presented with information or an object just when we needed it.

It should be noted that because no person is consciously aware of what’s exactly going on in his/her subconscious mind, we never know exactly that what our subconscious is signaling or receiving and so we only experience the result of it. Which is why it can appear to be very automatic and fortunate to us.

We often called these happenings “coincidences”. Interestingly, this is how the molecular structure of the chemical compound Benzene was discovered.

A Subconscious Discovery Of Benzene?

Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz is a remarkable figure in the history of chemistry, specifically organic chemistry. He was trying to find-out the molecular structure of Benzene, but was unable to do so.

One night as he was constantly focusing on this subject, he fell asleep. Later, he had a dream that helped him discover that the Benzene molecule (unlike other known organic compounds), had a circular structure rather than a linear one. Thereby solving a problem that had confounded chemists for many years. He described the event by saying:

“…I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed.

Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion.

But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes.

As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.”

The snake seizing its own tail gave Kekulé the circular structure idea he needed to solve the Benzene problem!

By this amazing example, you can better understand that Law of Attention works very well and as much the focus is improved, as much the details and knowledge is revealed by nature through different mediums and means.

Further, when a person receives enlightenment/information, the personal beliefs play a great role in determining the next course of action.

The Influence Of Beliefs

Suppose you are informed that HCL reacts more suitably with metal elements as opposed to non-metals.

But because you were told in your primary classes (a childhood belief) that HCL works better with non-metals and you believed it to be true, it is now unlikely that you would accept this new information and your belief would prevent you from practicing it.

The only way to truly enjoy the benefits of the Law of Attention, is to be open to any new ideas and possibilities and a continuous evaluation of your current-beliefs.

You will find some important information on EruptingMind.com about how your beliefs shape the reality you experience.