Identification and Divided Attention

Identification and Divided Attention

From ‘A Question of Presence’ by Sergio Antonio

What characterizes divided attention is the fact that a part of the energy of consciousness is directed toward ourselves, to maintain the sense of “I am.”

I'm reading a book. I’m aware of the pages in front of me, and simultaneously of the fact that I am here. In other words, I remember myself. I remember that I am included in the scene.

The possibility of remembering oneself is, as we will see, much more revolutionary than it seems the first time one hears about it. Self remembering, the third state, is a rare and precious spiritual condition. Without it there is no contact with reality. Every spiritual teaching, in its own way, describes how to achieve this state.

Over the centuries, various teachers have devised methods to recreate this state, designed for the particular difficulties their students faced. Each era, each nation, each group, each individual has its specific difficulties, its most recurrent forms of sleep.

Let’s imagine that we have a son who is pathologically shy, and we want to help him gain more self-confidence. What is the right method? There isn’t just one. We can come up with multiple solutions: take him on a holiday in the woods, enroll him in a singing course, talk to him, have him visit a therapist, help him strengthen his body with sports, give him a dog, leave him alone for a while. All are possible methods. We have to see who he is, why he is shy, how he can receive our help, what we are capable of, and so on.

The fact that for another child a certain swimming course has worked wonders does not necessarily mean that it will be the same for him. Likewise, the fact that Gurdjieff suggested exercises based on attention to the body, such as concentrating on the left foot and right hand at the same time, does not mean that that is the only method, or the best, or the one that will suit me specifically.

Remembering oneself is definitely more satisfying than being asleep, overwhelmed by the multitude of ‘I’s. But, if that is so, why don't we choose to be present all the time? Because it requires a certain kind of effort. Just as we are, without a conscious strategy and specific actions, in other words, without the help of a school, we naturally tend to be asleep. Sleep is our usual condition.

We have talked about the fragmentation into many ‘I’s. Another important point to understand is that all of us are constantly in a state of identification.

It’s not easy to understand what this means, and how pervasive this state is.

To identify oneself means to lose one's sense of identity, to place it in something external to one’s real self, projecting it toward an object, a person, an idea, a feeling. When we are identified, the sense of “I am” is stolen from us. We look at something—a beautiful woman, let's say —and we lose ourselves in her, we disappear, letting the feeling of “I am here” escape in that moment.

We can identify with an increase in salary, with a car model, with a political or religious idea, with the beauty of our body, or with the idea of being good and honest. With anything, really. Even with the ugliness of a picture in a diner, if we want.

With divided attention, in contrast, we keep something for ourselves, without losing the perception of what is in front of us. Only then can we really see what is around us.

In this context, we can say that identification is the absence of divided attention. For those who attempt spiritual work, divided attention is normality, the state to be sought and maintained, while identification is the negative exception. It does not matter if, counting the hours and minutes, we discover that we spend 99% of the time in a state of identification. It’s still abnormality. Frequent abnormality.

In Leonardo's version, when the archangel visits Mary to announce the conception of Christ, she, while giving the unprecedented situation all its miraculous value, does not forget to keep her place in her book with two fingers.

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Image: The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci