An Advent Calendar for my Friends – December 19

ROSSO FIORENTINO: Musician Angel, c. 1520;
Tempera on wood, 47 x 39 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

The Angel of Attentiveness

by Anselm Grün

The Angel of Attentiveness is related to the Angel of Slowness. Attentiveness is a word that is very popular today with spiritual authors. Mainly the Buddhistic monk from Thailand, Thich Nhat Hanh, speaks over and over again about attentiveness, about the art to live attentively. For him the whole wisdom of Buddhism lies in attentiveness, in allowing the energy of attentiveness to flow into every single daily task. He learned already as a young monk to do everything in daily life attentively. All of his asceticism and his daily training consisted of being attentive to everything, to breathing, to walking, to cleaning, to washing his hands. Every time he washed his hands, he said: “Water is flowing over these hands. I will use it carefully to conserve our precious planet.”

The German word for attentiveness is “Achtsamkeit” and derives from “achten, beachten, hochachten” – “respect, pay attention to, to esteem”. It has also something to do with awakening. Someone who is attentive to her breath, who attentively guides her steps, who takes up the spoon attentively, who is wholly in that what she is doing at the moment, is waking up. Buddha means “the awakened” after all. And he thinks that many of us live as if they are asleep. They don’t really notice what they are doing. They cherish illusions about their lives. They are not in touch with real life. Attentiveness wants to get us in touch with things, with people. A Zen-monk was asked once about how he practiced meditation. He replied, “When I am eating, I am eating. When I am sitting, I am sitting. When I am standing, I am standing. When I am walking, I am walking.” The questioner asked, “But there’s nothing special about that. All of us are doing that!” The monk said, “No, when you are sitting, you are already standing again. And when you are standing, you are already on your way.”

The practice of meditation is to simply pay attention to what I am doing at the moment. Then I realize how attentivenes is a spiritual power that adds new flavour to my life. Then I get the feeling that I am living, and not being lived. And I feel how life is a mystery, full of depth, full of vibrancy, full of joy.

Attentiveness has something to do with respect, with appreciation. I use my breath attentively, because in it I feel the breath of Good, which fills me with life, which fills my whole body with His healing warmth. I take up my tools attentively, because I recognize the work someone put into them. I take care of the plants in my room attentively, because I can touch the mystery of Creation and the Creator in them.

Attentiveness is not only for Zen-monks, but also for western monks a characteristic of a spiritual person. Saint Benedict also asks his monks to take care of the tools in their monasteries carefully and attentively. Everything is precious, everything is a holy item of the altar. But even we monks often forget about attentiveness. Often we treat our books, our dishes, our tools disregardful. Therefore probably all of us need an Angel of Attentiveness in our daily carelessness and thoughtlessness, who reaches for us again and again, who wakes us from our sleep and makes us pay attention to live wholly in the moment, to be attentive towards whatever we are doing at the moment.

Attentiveness in everything I do bestows a tender hue to my life. Thus I am completely present, one with myself and the world. But this attentiveness is not simply given to us. It has to be practiced on a daily basis. But it turns into a way to measure my spirituality. I can use the most pious words or give the most beautiful spiritual lectures, if attentiveness is lacking, everything is nothing but hollow words. I wish that an Angel of Attentiveness may guide you to discover more and more of the art of living and of doing everything with attentivenes and appreciation, because every is precious, because everything was made in the most wonderful way by God and is filled with His Spirit.

© by Anselm Grün, 50 Engel für das Jahr, 1997;
 translation by JunoMagic.

Song for December 19:

(Click pic!)

Ein Augenblick mit Uriel (“A Moment with Uriel”)
by Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen,
album “Das Engelskonzert” (“Concert of Angels”)