Attention

 

 

Whenever suffering happens, don't collect it. Allow it to happen, but don't nourish it. Why go on talking about it? Everyone talks about his suffering. Why is there so much emphasis on it? Why give so much attention to it? Remember one of the laws: that whatsoever you pay much attention to grows. Attention is a growth helping element. If you pay attention to something, it grows more.

 

Now, biologists say that a child grows more if he is loved because, through love, he gets more attention. Even a plant grows more if the gardener gives attention to it. If it is neglected, if everything else is given to it -- the right soil, fertilizers, rain, sunrays; everything is given to it except conscious attention -- it takes a longer time to grow. Now this is a scientific fact: observed and found correct. If you love the plant and you pay much attention to it, if you talk to it, if you sometimes say to it, "I love you," it grows faster.

 

Attention is a vitamin. The most vital thing in existence is attention. If no one loves you, you start withering away. If no one pays attention to you, death settles in. You want to die. If someone pays attention to you, you become alive again. Attention is life, elan vital.

 

If no one loves you, you will commit suicide, because you are not capable of loving yourself. If you were capable of loving yourself, if you were capable of giving attention to yourself, you would not need anyone else's attention. A Buddha can live alone on this earth. You cannot. If you are alone, you will immediately commit suicide. You will say, "What is the use? Why should I live? Who will love me? Whom shall I love?"

 

Inside also, psychologically also, the same law applies. If you pay much attention to suffering, you help it to grow. If you pay much attention to happiness, you help it to grow.

 

Don't be your own enemy. If you are immersed in suffering it is because you have been paying attention to the wrong things. Shift your attention. Even if you have only one memory of a blissful moment it is enough. Pay attention to it and it will grow. The seed will grow and it will become a big tree. I hen you can rest in its shade, you can dance in its shadow. You can relax under it.

 

-Osho, “The New Alchemy: To Turn You On, #12”