Don’t pay attention, let attention pay you.

A student said to Master Ikkyu, “Please write for me something of great wisdom.” Ikkyu picked up his brush and wrote one word: “Attention.”
The student said, “Is that all?” The master wrote, “Attention. Attention.”
The student became irritable. “That doesn’t seem profound or subtle to me.”
In response, Master Ikkyu wrote simply, “Attention. Attention. Attention.”
In frustration, the student demanded, “What does this word ‘attention’ mean?”
Ikkyu replied, “Attention means attention.”

—Koan Story

We are unexpectedly painting our inside walls and ceilings right now (that’s a whole other story), and in preparation, the contents of half the house have been folded over into the other half. Leaving the kitchen and living room an empty shell of echoes. A blank canvas.

There is a certain freedom to be found in emptying out your home. It brings attention to the strange unfamiliarity of the familiar space.

It’s like redecorating. It’s like reinventing. It’s like moving in. It’s like moving on.

This could be anything. And also, I could go anywhere.

I walk down to the enfolded end of the house. Doubled down with the clutter of stuff. Stuff of comfort. Stuff of burden.

And there is an unusual emptiness here too amongst the out of place familiar.

There is nothing like shaking out (and shaking up) the contents of your life to arouse the waylaid significance of attention.

—ooOoo—

Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen….

How they steal your attention by activating your dopamine pathways, eliciting a deep emotional response, and instilling a profound FOMO:

• Infinite scroll.
• Pull to refresh (just like the handle on a slot machine).
• Autoplay videos and clips.
• Variable notifications/likes (dopamine rewards).
• Nagging notifications.
• AI generated slop.
• Rage hooks.

Reclaim your life. Your days left to do this really are less than you imagine. So do not dither:

1. Put it down.
2. Shut it off.
3. Attention to the analogue.
4. Attention to the moment.
5. Attention. Attention. Attention.