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“The Exercise of Attention-Dialogue”: a pillar of the process of spiritual perfection in a lab
After “Exploring our real self”, OstadElahi-inPractice now carries on with its series dedicated to the study and in-depth practical approach of the Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide in a new lab tackling “The exercise of attention-dialogue”. Bahram Elahi already referred to this exercise in La Voie de la Perfection as “one of the pillars of the process of spiritual perfection”. In the Practical Guide it is the subject of a special chapter that can be considered a reference for both theory and practice. This chapter presents numerous “recommendations for a good practice”, providing students of the “new medicine of the soul” with many guidelines resulting from years of research and in-depth experimentation. The purpose of the exercise of attention-dialogue is not to offer “a prescribed ritual, but rather a form of universal prayer and invocation that can be practiced by anyone sincerely seeking the Truth regardless of individual beliefs and culture”. To explain in detail the way the exercise should be practiced on a daily basis, Bahram Elahi refers to the physiology of the human soul on the one hand, and to the foundational principles of gravitation, causality and divine flux on the other hand. The aim here is to harness Divine Light which is vital for the soul’s process of perfection.
“The consciousness of the One is like a ‘light’* that radiates upon and within all existent beings through the divine flux (…). This divine flux, which is imbued with His thought, power, and will, is omnipresent, enveloping and penetrating the whole of creation. For beings, existence, consciousness, and understanding are dependent on this radiating light; if He wills for this light to no longer radiate within a being, the latter would instantly return to nothingness. The ‘amount’ of Divine light that a being can absorb is commensurate with the capacity of its soul. The capacity of the human soul to absorb Divine light is so great that it is possible, through one’s efforts, to complete one’s knowledge of Truth and thus reach the threshold of Perfection. (…) One of the practices that can help us actively turn our attention toward Him, or a true God, is the exercise of attention-dialogue.”
* Divine light bears metacausal energy and confers the discernment of Truth. Metacausal energy reinforces our faith, rendering our soul alert and active, while the inoculation of our soul with the discernment of Truth helps develop our sound reason.
Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide, Rhinebeck, NY: Monkfish Book Publishing, 2022, p. 147-148.
OstadElahi-inPractice is about to launch a “28 days straight” lab whose format has already proved its worth with “One day, one Maxim”, “In Ostad Elahi’s footsteps”, “Exploring our real self”. The chapter will be studied in its entirety. The text will be divided into excerpts assembled into the following main parts:
- Some Preliminary Observations
- The Attention Phase
- The Dialogue Phase
- Conditions for the Exercise of Attention-Dialogue
- Spirituality in Practice
- Figure 5
Users are reminded by a tutorial at the outset of the lab that each studied excerpt should be put into practice in a personal exercise for one or several days according to their wishes. One might even go so far as to keep practicing the same excerpt for 28 days. Each individual can truly progress according to their own rhythm, the goal being to absorb the text, meditate on it, try and understand it, and above all put it into practice in a concrete and palpable way, pondering the quality and the results of their practice through a daily assessment.
Here is the teaser:
“The Exercise of Attention-Dialogue”: Harnessing the Light of the One
“What is referred to as ‘attention-dialogue’ here is not a prescribed ritual, but rather a form of universal prayer and invocation that can be practiced by anyone sincerely seeking the Truth, regardless of individual beliefs or culture.”* “It is one of the most efficient and tangible means of directing one’s attention to Him and of harnessing His Light.”** What is the best way to put this exercise that is indispensable to the physiology and growth of our soul into practice? What are the conditions required for such a practice? How may we improve our daily practice of it? OstadElahi-InPractice offers a methodic selection of excerpts from the chapter addressing these questions, to begin, consolidate, or even reconsider our practice in the light of the precise recommendations given in Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide.* For those who have succeeded in opening their hearts to the light of the One, the objective will be to concretely grasp its effects.
Note: to begin this lab, it is important to be acquainted with the functional structure of the human soul, based on the teachings of Ostad Elahi, as presented in Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide. This functional structure can also be revised in the 28-days straight Lab entitled “Exploring our real self”. If you prefer a lab that can introduce you to prayer without directly including these notions, you may undertake the 5-phase lab entitled “Connecting with the Divine”.
* Bahram Elahi, Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection: A Practical Guide, Rhinebeck, NY: Monkfish Book Publishing, 2022.
** Bahram Elahi, The Path of Perfection (La Voie de la Perfection : introduction à la pensée d’Ostad Elahi, Paris, Albin Michel, 2018).
The labs available on OstadElahi inPractice:
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Exploring our real self
The goal of this lab is to provide help and support in this exploration. Projecting ourselves into these figures means that we should memorize and understand the faculties of the soul from a perspective of functional anatomy (definition, origin, role, relationship to the other faculties, etc.), but it also entails that we practice perceiving and concretely grasping them within ourselves, in vivo, in order to eventually master them and fulfill their potentials. (…) |
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One character weak point after another
Perfecting one’s humanity requires that we establish a precise diagnosis of our character weak points or flaws relating to ethical and divine matters so as to tame and control them. The reservoir of our character weak points is however located in a zone that seems at first to be out of range of our ordinary self-consciousness, namely, our unconscious psyche. How then can we still attempt to concretely make a diagnosis of our character weak points? (…) |
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In Ostad Elahi’s footsteps – 28 days straight
One day, one saying, and the possibility to deeply reflect on its content and to build upon it in vivo, at the heart of our daily lives. This time, a selection of 40 excerpts from Words of Truth will take us as close as possible to an approach Ostad Elahi vividly embodied in the smallest details of his life. (…) |
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One day, one Maxim – 28 days straight
For those wishing to travel on the road to self-knowledge, it may at times seem more like a maze than a road. How is one to keep moving in the right direction and avoid getting lost? Meditating on principles of wisdom can help us find our way, but there can be no progress unless we put them into practice. How can we then go about combining action and meditation? (…) |
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Breaking free from backbiting
“Are you prone to backbiting?” Our immediate response to this question would certainly leave room for no doubt: “Of course not!” Backbiting seems so obviously unethical that no one would think of themselves as a “backbiter”. Yet, there is no single path to backbiting. No matter how obvious or subtle they may be, experience has shown that we go down such paths much more often than we would like to admit. (…) |
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Connecting with the Divine
What is prayer? What purpose does it serve? What is its role in the process of spiritual perfection? Under what conditions can one best benefit from prayer? This lab aims at helping you better understand the goal, the effects, and the conditions of prayer, and make the practice of prayer a part of your daily life. |
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Toward an in vivo practice
What would be the best approach to begin an ethical and spiritual practice? Focusing on one’s thoughts? On concepts? On actions? What method would be most effective? How can one avoid falling into an imaginary practice with only the illusion of progress? In this first open curriculum lab, it will be up to you to progressively define the content of your work by exploring the foundations of an ethical and spiritual practice that is truly adapted to the soul—that is, an in vivo practice. |
This work is offered under a Creative
Commons licence
I am about two thirds into this lab, and I can attest that it has opened up at least one new and major spiritual door in my practice of attention dialogue and added countless nuances to my understanding of the concepts in this process.
I can warmly recommend this lab to anyone reading. Good luck!