ATTENTION

in philosophy •  6 years ago 

att.png

A student once said his master, "Please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom."

The master picked up his brush and wrote one word: "Attention."

The student said, "Is that all?"

The master took the brush again and wrote, "Attention. Attention."

The student became irritable. "That doesn't seem profound or subtle to me."

In response, the master takes up his brush a third time and wrote, "Attention. Attention. Attention."

In frustration, the student demanded, "What does this word attention mean?"

The Master answered gently, "Attention means attention."

Source: Ancient zen story.


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Attention.

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Image Source: 1, 2

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Since this is the age of internet, I'm going to add a footnote to the master's words with 3 identical images.

Now the real question is if they are identical, how come there be 3 of them?

They are not identical, there can not be two things with the same identity, being that identity is precisely what distinguishes one thing from another. In any case we can say that they are equal, although they are not.

These "images" are mere illusions, they are only pixels that change color, in appearance they are similar, but they are not the same thing, they are not equal, much less identical.

Well said. The "sameness" is abstract.
We can count 1 egg + 1 egg = 2 eggs
or 1 chicken + 1 chicken = 2 chicken
The "1"s "2"s and "3"s are abstractions and there are 3 QR codes that all lead to the one place named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen