Notes on The Next Attention

PAPERBACK EDITION now available on amazon.com under the title The Next Attention (ASIN: ‎B0CJXBM1L7).

To help one explore the process of waking up, Dr. Michel de Salzmann makes a distinction between something one does and something one receives. He speaks of a subtle energy that is both sacred and accessible. In the instant one recognizes this energy and consciously receives this finer attention, one awakens and begins to be.

We are in a process to come under another influence, he says in these talks to groups from around the world. There is my attention, secondary attention, that runs up the mountain, sees obstacles, does this or that. If it is my attention, it is not this other attention, which transforms.<P>This other attention, which transforms, is the subject of this book. Here is a voice that may open the listener to this next Attention.<P>From the Recollected Talks of Michel de Salzmann (Chandolin, Switzerland, 1993-2000)<P>Everything we need is here in us. Everything for fuller being. There is a kind of sacred descent of attention that can bring this about. Seeing the obstacles, thoughts, feelings, yes, perhaps a pressure that keeps me from it. But if I can relax inside, just allow the pure attention to flow in, be in that. Very natural. It is what we are.<P>Attention: a sacred energy coming into me. Be sensitive to it. Recognize again and again that it is there. Be touched by it, link with it, something real in you. Not thoughts, techniques, not the head, but that touch. Can I liberate myself from all my concerns and enter the mystery?<P>Stay just exactly as I am. There is an intelligence in me that can accept. Like the sun. It does not care if an ant is crawling across the rug. The sun radiates with life. The whole of me becomes sensitive to this intelligence, listening for it. We were made for it. When very quiet inside--need an atmosphere of sensitivity--aware of breathing--become more interested in that, in this connection with something precious, so ego and vanity and judgment melt away.<P>We cannot change ourselves, but when we are related to this energy inside us, the goodness of it pours through me and changes everything. From it can come my best action in the world, my best action for others. There is a calm, a quietness. A look upon me, not from my ordinary self, but from that which sees objectively as it is. If you keep looking, prefer that look upon you no matter what is taking place, you will be able to become stable in this attention, and a new freedom and possibility will appear.<P>You are not alone. There is a network always, actively working, since the dawn of humanity. Offering reminders. And you can come near to it. Create a link with this network of influence. This energy creates love in you, creates consciousness in you. But it needs your care, your full care.

Fran Shaw, Ph.D., a professor of writing at the University of Connecticut at Stamford, a Danforth Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, is the author of seven books. After many years at the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York, in 1991 she met Dr. Michel de Salzmann (1923-2001) when he came to the city in his capacity as director of the worldwide network of Gurdjieff institutes. She worked with him throughout the last decade of his life, including eight summer periods in Chandolin, Switzerland.<P>Shaw says in the Preface, The intention is to take the reader to Chandolin to hear Michel and experience what some of us heard and try to live: this bringing together of awakened consciousness and our everyday selves. I am grateful to Alexandre de Salzmann for granting permission to publish these notes.