On the Importance of Focus and Why the Contemporary Man Lacks it.

 On the Importance of Focus and Why the Contemporary Man Lacks it.

 

When Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, it is unlikely that he was contemplating politics at the same time. Even if his genius were so that he could be involved in the artistic process whilst multitasking and doing all sorts of mental gymnastics, it is probable that he would have preferred to just focus on his Art.

 

The student of poetry knows the breathtaking impact of a few uninterchangeable words. The composer never underestimates or marginalizes the importance of the right notes, even if they appear as a mere flourish on the staff. The monk loves the subtle balance of stones. A child recognizes the subtle grooves in wood.

 

Yet our modern attitude towards detail has become perverted. Details are treated as necessary evils, and they are almost entirely abstractions, most of which only refer to other abstractions in a post-modern fashion. Practicality has taken precedence over the Person. The Individual ceases to exist where minute distinctions disappear. It is these that cease to appear Real to most Others that the individual encounters. For this reason, we RELATE, but we do not CONVERSE. CONVERSATION is that act of two uniVERSEs CONvening. One rarely impresses upon another something NOVEL, because of the incredible unlikelihood that this stranger would even notice it when it makes its appearance. It has become too easy to marginalise Revelation because we are so fixated upon that kind of thought which we feel we can simply “return to later”.

 

Consider the mind of a da Vinci. The consciousness, in the act of painting, must be intensely focused on the subtle strokes of the brush that draw hairs from the aether. The great fallacy of the conventional contemporary person, however, is that he or she identifies his or herself entirely with his or her consciousness. It is rarely thought that what really MATTERS, if anything does, lies beneath the threshold of awareness entirely.

 

In a world of perpetual distractions and diversions, symbols occupy more attention than FACTS, as facts are understood to be ineffable experiences of consciousness. When we have the pretense that things like the Stock Market, the News, and the Future are more important than the subtle grooves in a tree or the proper word in a poem, we commit a hideous fallacy. We forget that these “things” are mere “thoughts”. The thought of a word is not as important as the use of this thought in the production of a poem. Yet when we allow a number of these abstractions to become inflated, we begin to behave in such a way that we attribute meaning to them, AS THOUGH THEY WERE THE OBJECTS OF IMPORTANCE. Obviously, if we were to treat human beings as though they were the abstractions that we used to describe them, we should be entirely divorced from Reality. The abstractions may be of use to us, but the maps are not the territories. In this way, the consciousness of the conventional contemporary person is almost constantly crowded with useless abstractions to which he or she reacts with obsession. The perceived necessity of REACTING to these symbols, either in the act of thinking about them or speaking about them, takes precedence over the possibility of FOCUS. This is because the ego is excessively identified with the “well-rounded” consideration of “Important Matters”, as opposed to having the humility to dispossess itself of the illusion of an “Important Thing” or thought and to acknowledge its rightful role as the focus of attention on minute details. This essential Focus may bring us to a true understanding of what is IMPORTANT and what our condition is, but not by virtue of the illusory authority of the ego but by that of the Creative Unconscious.

 

Dm.A.A.