THE POWER OF SELF ATTENTION GROWS THROUGH PRACTICE
When we first start to practice turning our attention back towards our self, the power of our self-attention will be relatively weak, so we will be able to notice the rising of any vasanas in the form of thoughts only after they have already swept us away.
However with practice the power of our self-attention will increase, and the more it increases the more easily we will be able to cognize the exact moment that any vasana arises as a thought. If our self-attention is firm, our experience at that moment will be that this thought arises only because I know it, so our attention will cling to our self, the ‘I’ that is aware of the thought, and thus the thought will subside, being deprived of the attention that it needs to survive.
Each time that we deprive any thought of our attention by holding fast to self-attention in this way, we are weakening the vasana that gave rise to it, and strengthening our love and ability to hold on to self-attention.
- Sadhu Om, Mountain Path
