Attention is a multifaceted concept vital to self-realization and personal growth.
The practice of attention in the Diamond Approach involves collecting and focusing one’s awareness from being dispersed in external activities to forming inner subjectivity. This shift in attention leads to a change in the value system. People practice attention because they desire to live fully, be free, discover the mysteries of existence, and fulfill life’s purpose. The motivation for this practice is seen as a natural process, and the commencement of this journey is considered fortunate. The willingness to dedicate energy and effort to this practice is a blessing.
Attention also requires a commitment to being real and genuine. People must exert the utmost attention to be real and put themselves on the line. This is how true nature comes forth. Being real and truthful is seen as valuing oneself above all else, and failing to do so is considered a failure to oneself and one’s potential. The sense of gaining value through right conduct has a true origin, and being true to oneself leads to self-appreciation and respect.
Furthermore, attention in the Diamond Approach is related to the experience of being both the infinite and the individual. It involves a conscious presence rooted in universal Love, where one feels oneself as a personal expression of the divine presence. The focus of attention on personal presence leads to the realization of being an individual suffused by the tender softness of conscious presence without any sense of boundaries.
While the emanations of spirit appear in many dimensions, forms, and subtleties, our ordinary consciousness limits those we actually perceive to a restricted band. The band we perceive is determined by our focus of attention, which is called, in the Yaqui tradition according to Castaneda, our “assemblage point.” When this point is present in a certain emanation or dimension of reality, it lights up that dimension and you see it. What is spotlighted, then, is what you see and experience, and if a particular set of emanations is continually illuminated in this way, you will take this band to be reality. So the assemblage point is the point of presence which, using a certain cluster of emanations, assembles or creates a particular world view about reality and the self. – Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas , ch. 15