KEEPING THE FOCUS: WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO A STRONG SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
I am not an expert on Buddhism by any means, but a teaching that always struck me as worthy of reflection is around what is known in more esoteric branches of Buddhism (and Hinduism) as siddhis. In short, if you don’t already know, siddhis are what we would consider supernatural manifestations as a result of a person’s intense meditative practice. The seemingly odd part of what I am talking about is most practitioners in these religions would say that a siddhi is actually a distraction. It is a distraction from the original intention of meditation and mindfulness. Most teachers of practitioners who can manifest siddhis would tell their disciples to ignore them and maintain steadfast focus on their spiritual practice instead.
This seems on the surface counter-intuitive, because the siddhi itself is evidence of a person heading in the right direction of their spiritual development. But the point as I understand it is that a mindful practitioner focuses only on one thing, meaning the meditative moment. Part of the mindfulness practice is to be able to engage the practice even when distractions are going on all around.
Buddhists and Hindus definitely do not have the market cornered on this struggle though! Even in espiritismo, during something like a misa many messages can come through from different spirits. I can be in the middle of giving one message, only to have another message or spirit show up and want attention. Now, if they are elevated spirits, they will wait until the work I was doing before they “called” is done. But even with their patience, it is still a distraction to feel the coattail pull of a spirit while giving another message from another spirit.
What happens in espiritismo is as you develop, you learn how to retain control over the flow of messages coming through you. You direct and train your spirits to know that you can only receive one message well at a time.
Why is this so important, you ask? Well, a distracted spirituality will bear the fruits of distraction. Your work won’t have the potency behind it that it should because your energy, intention and attention is too diffuse. Workings need a concentrated, disciplined push of magical energy to break the dam of a problem. Working with focus also makes it significantly harder for people to throw at you or attack some part of your life. There’s no place for a baneful working to take root in a disciplined mind, and many baneful magical attacks ARE mental in nature.
If you find that your practice lacks focus, the first step is to take an inventory of where your attention and time goes into your life. As an example, if you find yourself wasting a lot of time doomscrolling, shift that activity with reading a book on your tradition or practices. There are many ways to approach this challenge, but the rewards that a focused practice brings is invaluable.
