Based on recent revelations, some of my students may be confused about transcending the person upon awakening of the waking-me. I would not be surprised, as we have religiously cultivated the center of the person for many years in the teaching. However, I hope that a more clear explanation of this subject will clear all your doubts.

What is the person, or the thinker as we often refer to it? It is the center in the mind, a presence in the mind that is autonomous from the coming and going of thoughts. What is this center made of? It is made of attention that has become conscious of itself. Without attention we would not have been able to think, obviously. But for most people, they are not conscious of ‘who’ is thinking, they are only aware of the information that their thoughts carry. The human mind in general is a subconscious creature devoid of identity. Everyone has the capacity to focus on their thoughts, and to become a bit more conscious through this focus. In those moments of lucidity, one is conscious in thoughts, but not in attention. In order to be conscious in attention, one has to recognize the subjectivity of attention and its sense of me. And as we know, most humans are simply incapable of it.

The center of the person is none other than attention being conscious of attention (not of thinking). Having such a center is crucial in order to create presence in the mind and counteract the human tendency to drown in thoughts. Without the person, the mind simply cannot stop thinking. Many traditions of meditation were proposing different solutions to the mind-problem, but all these solutions were artificial because they did not understand why people actually think all the time and cannot stop. And this is because they have no center in the mind, no presence of attention.

So what do people have? They have externalized attention, which is completely unconscious and allows them to identify objects outside of themselves and to think about them. This external attention is still precious, but its preciousness is lost in the mind. Should we take this attention back to itself and become aware of itself, then it becomes the center beyond thoughts, our true place in the mind but beyond the mind. Yes, this is recognized by pure attention that comes from primary attention, and thus is recognized as Me.

The question is why do we want to transcend the person if his presence is so important? It is because he is being replaced by higher attention, the master attention in the waking-me. From the perspective of primary attention, we now understand more about the principle of the awakening of the person. What kind of attention is embodied in the person? The answer is both very surprising and very simple – it is pure attention. The attention of the person does not feel like pure attention because it is naturally stronger, but it is stronger only due to the proximity of primary attention. It is very interesting that the person can be conscious while the primary attention remains unconscious. But now it is the time to change this.

You may wonder, and I was wondering myself, to be frank, if we can entirely bypass the awakening of the person and go straight to primary attention? Wouldn’t it be grand? I am afraid not. People live in the mind and have no presence of any kind, and we would want to go to primary attention from the start? First of all, even if one manages by some miracle to identify it, this center is just too intense. The ensuing result would be a perpetual headache. No, we must tread softly here. One has to first become conscious in the mind. Then, one has to open the space of consciousness through the realization of pure consciousness. And only then can one attempt to become conscious of primary attention in the waking-me. And even that has to be immediately connected to the fundamental me, or else it is still too intense to bear. We need to prepare the ground for the awakening of the master-attention. It is meant to come at the end, in order to complete the process.

When primary attention is awakened in our eyes, it immediately replaces the person. In fact, it resembles the center of the person in some ways, but it is different. Primary attention is not a thinker, but it can think via mental attention in the prefrontal cortex. And what is this mental attention? It is pure attention in the mind. When primary attention is present, all the other expressions of attention – mental, emotional, physical, and the ones connected to the absolute, the heart and pure consciousness – are all pure attention. Because ultimately, there are only two types of attention, primary and pure attention.

When the person is replaced, in the event of activating the mind, the thinking attention is pure mental attention which serves as the dynamic center of the mind, even though the deeper center is primary attention. Now that we have primary attention, we no longer want to embody conscious attention in the mind (as the person), because we are no longer in need of having a perpetual center in the mind. If based on your habitual tendency, you keep holding onto the person, this will create a conflict of identity with the primary attention, because you cannot have two master attentions in your consciousness. There is only one master attention and subordinate to it are all its expressions of pure attention.

When the original me is realized, primary attention moves to the fundamental me. At first, fundamental me is recognized through pure attention, but in the end, through primary attention. This is where we come to the deepest samadhi, freedom and bliss. But can we live from this place in the world? Keep in mind that the moment primary attention moves into the fundamental me, it is no longer present in the eyes. So how can we see the world outside of us, and how can we function in it? All our functions are being taken care of by pure attention. For instance, now the visual attention becomes pure visual attention that connects to the world from the depth of the original me and primary attention. In the same way, pure attention becomes the thinker, and pure attention is one with the innate me, the heart and the body. All is taken care of by pure attention. So yes, certainly, we can live in the world from the place of samadhi of the primary attention, which is from the original me. In fact, it is only now that we truly live in the waking state of this world, because only from the original me this world becomes real.

Why is primary attention so important? It is the strongest and most fundamental sense of self in our consciousness. It is the ruler of consciousness. All the other centers of the soul are recognized by pure attention, which is beautiful, but inherently weaker and secondary. There is only one center that is owned directly by primary attention – the waking-me. It is waking-me at first, but then it becomes original me when merged with the fundamental me. And it is so close to us. We don’t have to go into the ‘beyond’ to discover it. It is and has always been in our eyes.

You may be wondering about the importance of the innate me, which as the name implies we were born with. Yes, it all starts with the innate me, but primary attention is the manifestation of the innate me; it is all innate me. However, the main center of the innate me in the amygdala serves a different role. It is not the dominant center of consciousness because it has no primary attention. It is a center illuminated by pure attention and has a crucial role as the main axis of our human consciousness and our emotional self. It is also a window into a deeper realization of the waking reality experienced from and through the universal me. Our soul is a complex organism where all her parts play a unique role in our existence. However, it is through primary attention that the soul arrives at complete freedom, because here our deepest self is both attained and liberated.

You may also be wondering if the term ‘attention’ is optimal. The common association with attention is ‘paying attention’ to externals. Well, it is also about paying attention to internals, such as any center of the soul in our inner reality. There are actually not many words that could substitute for ‘attention’. For instance, words like awareness, consciousness, or even Me, do not fit at all in this specific context; they are too generic and lack precision of meaning. Attention is really the essence of our existence, and even Me is recognized through attention; in fact attention is Me. When attention recognizes itself, it knows itself as me. Attention has a dynamic nature, it is the essence of recognition of anything, including itself. It is the spirit of consciousness, not a static sense of self. It is very alive; it is life itself. When conscious, attention in its essence is prior to activity, it is just conscious of itself. Any center of Me in our body is but the home for attention. For instance, in the heart, attention realizes itself as love. So in the end, primary attention is the best term to describe the main master attention, having the greatest resonance with what it really is. But to really know it, you need to meet this attention, the master attention, in yourself and as yourself. You must awaken to it as your very true self, because it is the essence of who you are.

So far, you have known only pure attention and it is Now that the great change takes place in your life, in your existence, because it is Now that you can finally discover who you truly are as primary attention and the primary me (aka, waking-me). What we have named the original me is the final home for primary attention. When it merges with the fundamental me, it replaces the fundamental me with itself, while merging at the same time with the absolute and primordial I am. Primary attention is the ruler of pure attention, but the time has come that it awakens to itself. Only then you can experience true peace and freedom. Primary attention is Self, the light of itself. Attention is you, and me. Attention is the essence of awareness in its great journey to discover itself, to meet itself, to know itself, and to return to unity with the primordial I am.