Attention and its flow



Attention's  (or Consciousness's) natural home is in the heart and through nerve channels it can flow to various parts of the body. Why do I think so, well if a nerve is severed or otherwise numbed by medicine (e.g. painkillers), consciousness cannot reach that part of the body. So it is reasonable to assume nerves are the channel through which consciousness (or attention) flows throughout the body.

Further these channels are deepened as consciousness flows through them again and again, thus if you give importance to certain pain (or sensation) in the body, the channel will deepen, and so next time consciousness will flow there again.

Similarly if you give importance to certain thoughts, the channel to the head will deepen and next time consciousness will flow there again. In general giving attention to thoughts causes consciousness to go to the head.

In fact the head is the seat of thoughts and different parts are responsible for various thoughts, giving attention to certain thoughts causes attention to flow to those thoughts more easily next time. 

From childhood we have been taught to give very high importance to thoughts and emotions,. The reality is that I experience emotions and their corresponding thoughts by leaving my natural state of contentment (in the heart) and traveling to the head (or the place where emotion is felt in the body). Over time we have practiced deepening certain emotions and thoughts by giving attention to them and our nerve channels have become quite deep and so consciousness readily flows to those. The net effect is that our attention hardly every stay in our home (expect in deep sleep) and thus do not even experience the deep satisfaction that is our real nature.

One meditation practice is to remind ourselves where our focus is in the current moment. If we have left our home in the heart, we should return focus back there. With this practice of returning attention to its source  these deep channels become shallow and start filling. And so consciousness flows less readily outside. The net effect is that we start to become more and more content as consciousness stays more and more in the heart. Over time as channels become shallow, we gain more contentment and practice becomes easier and more rewarding.

What is the difference between a normal person and an enlightened person. The latter has practiced staying in the heart, so that eventually the channels are quite shallow and consciousness stays in its natural home and they are content without any particular reason. While in a normal person the channel to head is so deep that consciousness immediately flows to the head and they are troubled by all the thoughts that keep arising there.

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