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Kevin Kaiser's avatar

Every word you’ve written here lands for me. In the foreword of one of my favorite books, Know Yourself: An Explanation of the Oneness of Being, is this idea: “the movement of existence is the movement of love for the sake of the revelation of beauty.” As I think about it today after reading your words, I’m reminded that awareness and attention are at the heart of it all. Love is the recognition of our shared being, the merging you write about. Devotion. Worship. Thank you for the reminder; I needed it today.

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Sabra Saperstein's avatar

Thank you, River, for giving word to this powerful capacity that is so often squandered. I learned this first through meditation and then realized the importance of bringing it back into the world. That the quality of presence we bring as we walk through our day matters. Deems that which we are fully with as Sacred. The piece about how we can attune to the desires of Reality and take part in the unfoldment of the cosmos is so resonant.

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David Keizer's avatar

Thanks River, this really resonated with me. I've often thought of attention as "trusting the flow" or "being with what is", a way of surrendering to the moment rather than trying to control it. And reading your piece I felt that same recognition; that deep, unmixed attention isn't just a skill, but a form of worship, a merging of self and other. Thank you for putting it so eloquently.

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JL Risso's avatar

and then I'm reminded that we live in a reality full of persons:

"we don’t worship anything, we feed things"

~ Martín Prechtel

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martin knox's avatar

What is it to ‘pay’ attention ? Might we better ‘have’ attention or even ‘BE in attention’? Might we wear it or yield to

attention?

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Randall Jason Green's avatar

I suppose I have a lot of opinions here. Very much yes, and very much no. This idea of reality as consciousness, I agree with. But the what we pay attention to part that’s tricky. If everything is consciousness, everything belongs. Paying attention to the bad is as important as paying attention to the good. You mention porn.

Would porn be bad if it wasn’t made for the male gaze and for profit? Would it be so bad if it was made for the female gaze as much as the male gaze? Would it be so terrible if you went online to watch the real union of men and women or (whatever combination of gendered people you prefer) and learned new ways to connect in divine union? Weird how that’s not likely to show up on pornhub, yet it absolutely could. .

Focusing on what’s missing, paying attention to lack or imbalance is important too. I’m pretty sure that’s part of the unfolding as well.

I apologize if this sounds like a disagreement, it’s not.

Thank you 🙏

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Dave Nadig's avatar

This was lovely river. I keep thinking of Dogen’s “Enlightement is the tea and rice of everyday life.” I totally get the “but wait, this feels small” vibe of what is actually, the least small thing. But I think that paradox is exciting and instructive. I see the unsatisfactory ness of “McMindfulness” but try to remind myself that no how gaudy the exterior and how misguided the pathways might seem, at the bottom of all that Cruft in the heap, reality is still waiting with breathless anticipation for our participation. So it’s maybe it can be everything and small all at once.

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BH's avatar

Thank you.

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