The Interplay of Attention and Consciousness: A Unified Exploration Across Traditions

The distinction between attention and consciousness is pivotal in spiritual exploration. This chapter delves deeper into the experiential understanding of these two facets, interweaving the perspectives of Mahamudra, Rigpa, Advaita Vedanta, Gurdjieff, and Krishnamurti. Through this synthesis, we reveal how attention acts as the dynamic tool of consciousness, and how awareness, when rooted in its unchanging source, illuminates the path to enlightenment.

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Attention as a Manifestation of Consciousness

The simple exercise of focusing attention—looking at a hand while feeling the opposite foot—reveals a profound truth. Attention, whether narrowly focused or widely dispersed, is a movement emerging from consciousness. It acts as the ray of a sun, while consciousness itself is the sun—vast, boundless, and formless.

In the Advaita Vedanta perspective, attention can be likened to the activity of the mind, directed outward or inward. The consciousness, or Atman, is the unchanging awareness behind this activity. Ramana Maharshi’s self-inquiry method, “Who am I?”, aligns closely with this understanding. By redirecting attention to its source, the seeker transcends the limitations of the mind and discovers the non-dual truth that consciousness is self-luminous, eternal, and indivisible.

Mahamudra and Rigpa: Resting in Awareness

From the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, the practice focuses on recognizing Rigpa—the pure, primordial awareness that underlies all experience. The exercise of shifting between focused attention and expansive awareness mirrors the Mahamudra instruction of recognizing the space within which all phenomena arise and dissolve.

When attention is merged with the spacious clarity of Rigpa, the practitioner sees directly that attention itself is a dynamic movement within a luminous field of consciousness. This realization reveals that what we call the “self” is merely an arising phenomenon within this vast awareness, dissolving the illusion of separation.

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Gurdjieff’s “Self-Remembering” and the Dance of Attention

Gurdjieff’s Work introduces the concept of “self-remembering,” a practice that integrates attention with consciousness. Gurdjieff emphasized that ordinary human beings live mechanically, their attention consumed by fragmented thoughts and habitual reactions. Through self-remembering, one becomes simultaneously aware of oneself and the external environment. This dual awareness creates a bridge to the higher centers of being.

The interplay of focused attention and expansive awareness in self-remembering parallels the Mahamudra perspective of integrating focused mindfulness (shamatha) with insight into spacious awareness (vipashyana). Gurdjieff’s teaching calls for intentional effort to break free from the mechanical patterns of attention and reconnect with the vast reservoir of consciousness.

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Krishnamurti’s Direct Path: Observation Without Division

Krishnamurti often spoke about observing without the observer. His teaching highlights the distinction between the conditioned mind, which operates within the bounds of thought and attention, and pure awareness, which is free of division. He argued that true freedom lies in the direct perception of “what is,” without the interference of the egoic self.

This insight resonates with the exercise of noticing how attention operates. When attention is directed outward, it identifies with objects. When directed inward, it can dissolve into the formless field of consciousness. Krishnamurti’s insistence on choiceless awareness echoes the Dzogchen teaching of Rigpa—resting in the natural state of unaltered awareness.

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The Journey from Attention to Consciousness

To deepen this understanding, consider the implications of this exercise across these traditions:

1. The Nature of Attention
   Attention is directional and finite. It can be sharpened or broadened, directed outward or inward. In Advaita, this is seen as the function of the mind (manas). In Gurdjieff’s system, it is the faculty that can be harnessed for self-remembering. In Mahamudra, attention is the starting point for mindfulness practices that lead to the recognition of awareness.
2. The Nature of Consciousness
   Consciousness is dimensionless, non-local, and self-existent. It is the substratum in which attention arises. In Rigpa, this is described as the luminous ground of being. In Advaita, it is the Brahman or Atman—pure existence-awareness. Gurdjieff might describe this as the unification of the fragmented parts of the self into an integrated whole that resonates with higher being.
3. Recognition vs. Experience
   Enlightenment is not an experience but a recognition. Experiences come and go; recognition is eternal. The shift from seeing attention as an effort to witnessing consciousness as the source of all effort is the turning point in spiritual realization. This is the essence of Rigpa, the heart of Advaita’s non-duality, and the fulfillment of Gurdjieff’s call for awakening.
4. The Role of the Observer
   Krishnamurti dismantles the illusion of a separate observer. By observing attention itself, the observer dissolves into the observed, revealing the unbroken unity of consciousness. This parallels the Dzogchen teaching that thoughts and emotions are not obstacles but expressions of Rigpa.

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Conclusion: Awakening to What Is, what is REAL

The journey of understanding attention and consciousness is not an intellectual exercise but a direct experience. Whether through self-remembering, self-inquiry, or resting in awareness, the seeker begins to see that attention is a tool of consciousness, and consciousness itself is the ultimate reality.

When the seeker’s attention dissolves back into its source, the recognition of one’s true nature arises—a nature that is infinite, unchanging, and free. This is the essence of the teachings of Mahamudra, Rigpa, Advaita Vedanta, Gurdjieff, and Krishnamurti. Each points to the same timeless truth: that to know oneself is to awaken to the boundless reality of being.

In this recognition, the duality of seeker and sought vanishes, and what remains is the pure radiance of consciousness itself—a state that is not achieved but realized to have always been present. Shunyam Adhibhu – Life is only Real, than when I am!