An Attentiveness Apocalypse
How learning to pay attention and learning to pray are pretty much the same thing
[The demons’] unremitting purpose is to prevent the heart from being attentive, for they know how greatly such attentiveness enriches the soul.” - St. Hesychios the Priest
The goal of spiritual exercise is not simply to “do” it, for we can easily fall into mindless activity that does nothing to direct the soul toward God. Mere recitation of of words with no connection to the heart is something Jesus roundly proclaims to be useless.
Of course we can just as easily fall into mindlessness through a lack of discipline, allowing whatever happens to catch our attention to direct our affections. Not saying our prayers is not a solution to mindless recitation of prayers.
Prayer is attention; attention is prayer
So it seems to me that the goal is attentiveness in prayer, and indeed in all things. Staying awake to the soul’s movements throughout the day, attentive to our own thoughts and feelings and temptations, so they cannot rule us, but rather we are able to direct them toward trust in Jesus.
I’ve written before about the deep connection between attention and prayer. I am reminded of Simone Weil’s words:
Prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God. The quality of attention counts for much in the quality of the prayer… Every time that we really concentrate our attention, we destroy the evil in ourselves. If we concentrate this intention, a quarter of an hour of attention is better than a great many good works.
All attention is connected
Another way to say this is that all attention is connected. Learning piano or watching birds or studying math are connected to the same faculty of soul that prayer requires and develops. Likewise, anything that cultivates mindlessness in us works in the other direction: reducing the soul’s capacity for communion.
So much about the modern world propels us toward inattentiveness, because it’s very good for profit margins. If I don’t examine my loneliness and seek to understand what it is and where it comes from, it’s much easier to sell me a “solution” like a new streaming service, or more time on Instagram. We could go so far as to say that capitalism is an enemy of attentiveness, and thus an enemy of prayer. It pressures us into mindless consumption and conformity to behaviors that merely maximize the bottom line of corporations that have no interest in holistic human flourishing.
A friend of mine says that as a culture we have largely lost the ability to read and interpret texts, and he sees this as a legitimate crisis. It makes us easy to manipulate and control, and it shrivels our faith, since the primary way we claim God speaks to us is through a collection of texts.
Learning to read and interpret Scripture requires attention. Learning to pray requires attention. Being fully human requires attention. Our general loss of the capacity to pay attention has withered our capacity for living lives of convivial abundance and goodness.
When everything is lost
I think my friend is right: we’re in deep trouble as a society, in no small part because our capacity for attentiveness has been systematically whittled away by powerful nefarious interests. But just when I find myself tempted to despair of the situation, I remember another Simone Weil quote:
“You could not have wished to be born at a better time than this, when everything is lost.”
For my part, I try to resist the inattentive spirit of the age by learning to pay attention to what is here: God and the good world. I do this by watching birds, getting to know the flora and fauna of the place I live, learning its history, listening to people’s stories, reading out loud, lighting candles, sitting in silence, learning to pray.
In learning attentiveness, we learn to see what is actually in front of us, and all kinds of creative acts of love and justice spring forth from this kind of beholding and appreciating. It seems to me that this kind of attentiveness is at the foundation of living a good life, and unfortunately it doesn’t come easy nowadays. Media companies are screaming for our attention with glittering lights, special effects, quick dopamine hits, and the promise of easy consumption.
To go against the tide takes a lot of intentionality, but you could not have wished to be born at a better time that this, dear reader: when everything is lost. Stay attentive, my friends.