We have to learn to pay attention before we can have any idea of what love means in the way that the gospel is speaking about it. We realize, first of all, just how unmindful we are. We find ourselves “looking out of the window and drumming our fingers”, as Thomas Merton once wrote in his diary. We are always doing that. We’re very easily caught up in external distraction. Of course that leads to unmindful behavior and the lack of care for others or care for the work that we’re doing. Good work depends upon bringing your full attention to what you’re doing. Whatever kind of work we’re doing we need to be practicing and developing our attention in it. Of course, without the help of others pointing it out to us we probably would never realize how distracted we are. So this is the beginning of the mystical vision of God: actually just learning to pay attention and recognising how easily distracted we can become.
Recognising Distraction
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