In Sahaja, we regularly speak of the power of our attention and how important and central it is to our meditation practice. If you’re new to Sahaja, here’s the upshot. The rising Kundalini energy elevates our attention to a higher plane of consciousness. All the wide-ranging and amazing benefits of meditation result from our attention being in that higher unique spiritual realm. A purer and clearer attention can get us more easily into that state, and vice versa, when our attention is in that higher state, it gets purified, steady and balanced – enough for us to take full control of it.

While there have been many aspects of our attention spoken about in our articles, and we’ll continue to do so in the future, here are the most important things your attention needs to avoid. These are abjectly harmful to our attention and, therefore, to our pursuit of spirituality and meditation.

False gurus

At the top of our list is the harmful impact of spiritual, philosophical and even some self-improvement gurus or teachers who can do a lot of harm. This is because they fall short of giving the true experience of our inner self-realization and spiritual awakening. But they take us into devious paths by promising a lot or attracting us by their charisma. The effect of such gurus is that we can lose our way, sometimes permanently, and cause damage to our spiritual system within us. Thanks to Sahaja, you will be able to use your vibratory awareness to spot out such gurus and avoid them instantly.

Spiritualists, mystics, occult practices

The next category of people and activities that can be harmful to your spiritual growth and subtle energy system are those that do dangerous things at a spiritual level, almost similar to black magic. There is the great, expansive, divine power that we can use for our spiritual growth and there are also these dark negative forces that we need to avoid. Spiritualists that promise cures and even those who can forecast our future can cause long-term damage to our attention.

Too much of the past or the future

The fundamental working of our spiritual energy system is such that the Kundalini rises through the Central Energy channel, which is associated with the present, while the left and right energy channels are with the past and future. Therefore, excessive thinking or involvement with the past causes an imbalance in our attention, pulling it towards the left or right energy channels. These interfere with our ability to have steady, focused and relaxed attention that can enjoy a higher state of consciousness during meditation.

Too much reading and analysis

While cognitive activity is absolutely essential in our lives, it still occurs at a level of consciousness lower than the higher state of meditation. Not only that, but it can also generate additional thoughts that hold our attention down and away from meditation when we’re already struggling to make the thoughts go away and relieve our stressors caused by these thoughts. In fact, spiritual growth is directly tied to the experience of the higher consciousness and not to the extent of knowledge one has about spirituality.

Materialistic things

It should be obvious to us that materialistic pursuits are a bottomless pit and we keep getting pulled into wanting more and more without being satisfied. Our attention gets dragged and entangled into the endless attraction towards material things that make it harder to remain without thoughts or lead a simple, uncomplicated life.

Advertisements

You’ll be surprised to know that the barrage of advertisements thrown at our attention causes a lot of negativity to enter our mental, emotional and spiritual systems if we pay attention to them. They create unnecessary desires and create a way for more negativity to creep in by drawing us into them. This is because advertisements have only one motive – to grab our attention more and more regardless of the consequences and for someone to profit.

News and social media

It’s established now by science that the stream of news bytes and social media hurts our attention span. Whatever is newsworthy isn’t necessarily positive. In fact, for the most part, sensational and newsworthy items are typically about negative events or fears that are passed around. We definitely need to be connected and aware of what’s going on around us, but not in a manner that news and information are uncontrollably bombarding our attention. Choosing a specific time and duration and motivating and inspiring news and social media content can positively impact our attention.

The recent explosion in streamed video content over Youtube and Netflix-like platforms is also getting close to harming our attention unless we’re careful about it.

Critics

This category of people has to pass judgments to make a living, and they can rarely be kind. They promote conflicts, hurtful and negative feelings all around, even if inadvertently. They do not teach people to love and enjoy people, things, and situations unconditionally and witness everything without reacting. Rather they aim to strongly condition or push their viewpoint and cement their status as an expert of some kind. They stifle and sometimes destroy creativity and inspired attempts by people.

Critics and their views and articles can negatively affect our Agnya chakra and create more inflexibility and biases within us. If you like to keep your attention flexible and healthy, cut the middleman out, i.e., the critic and even the reviewer. Rely on your superior awareness and judgment about everything.

Negative people and emotions

Skeptics, pessimists and fearful people are infectious and harm our attention. Many of them might need help from us and struggle with negative feelings or emotions for no fault of their own. In such cases, we’ll need our positivity and energy to assist them. But if such people and their views and fears are avoidable, we should try and preserve our attention. When we are connected to the divine energy of the universe, nothing untoward can happen to us; we can spread this positive power all around us.

Artificial, man-made objects

Today’s world is filled with non-recyclable, toxic waste that is not just hurting the earth, but these objects lack natural vibrations and beauty and actually interfere with the spiritual energy and vibrations. If we want purer, clearer attention, we need to keep our homes and workplaces free of plastics and harmful chemicals and artificial substances to the extent possible and realistic. Meditation in a serene, natural environment enhances vibrations and makes it easier to fall into meditation.

The simple technique to protect your attention

This aspect is highly underrated but avoiding directing your eyes and placing your attention on potentially harmful things and people can improve the quality and depth of your meditation. Most of the negativity that hurts our spiritual energy system is known to enter us through our eyes.

Spirituality is entirely about getting subtler and you’ll be surprised to know how subtle negativity can be in trying to creep into our attention, thinking and psyche. The fight against the negative forces can be successful if we’re alert and refuse to allow these to get into our attention. If we can, more often than not, place our attention on beautiful, natural things, small children instead of complicated adults, inspiring stories, our spiritual progress can be much easier.

Transforming Life using your attention

The power of your attention