Aura, Focus vs. Attention and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
March 9, 2025
8 min read
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Newsletter
{Body}
Your auric field
Let’s talk science for a moment.
Electricity is produced when electrons are flowing through a wire.
Electrons flowing = power on. Electrons not flowing = power off.
As they flow (i.e. when the power is on), electrons generate an electromagnetic field (EMF) around them. This field radiates outward in waves, can be concentrated or dispersed, and its strength depends on the flow of energy (voltage) creating it.
EMFs aren’t mystical or theoretical — they’re derived from basic physics. Without their existence, your phone couldn’t wirelessly charge, and the MRI machines in hospitals wouldn’t work.
Why does this matter?
Because your body operates on similar principles. Your nervous system conducts electrical impulses through neurons, your heart generates measurable electromagnetic waves (which is why EKGs work), and every cell in your body maintains an electrical potential across its membrane.
In other words, because your body conducts electricity, it also has various electromagnetic fields orbiting around it.
These biological electromagnetic fields are known in ancient traditions as an “auric field.”
One who has a “good aura” has an electrical energy system that is working harmoniously, generating a symmetrical and expansive “orb” around their body, which can be directly felt by others.
{Mind}
The difference between focus and attention?
There is a distinct difference between focus and attention.
Attention narrows reality whereas focus sharpens it.
In other words, attention operates via exclusion — to pay attention to one thing, you must disregard all other things. By paying attention to your hand, you must avoid paying attention to your foot.
Focus, on the other hand, operates via intent — how clearly would you like to see what’s here? For instance, while you can “pay attention” to the ambient sounds around you (by centering yourself on that portion of reality), it requires genuine focus to actually hear them.
Attention without focus is like being blind while insisting upon using a flashlight to navigate a dark room — useless. Focus without attention is like looking through a perfectly clear lens pointed at nothing — reveals nothing.
Think of it like a microscope: Attention zooms into a sample and focus brings it into view. You need to be able to master both in order to successfully use your mind.
In meditation, that means attending to one part of reality — breathing, the third eye, emotions — at the expense of all others, while simultaneously making sure focus is resolved enough to observe its unique features.
You can meditate with me below to get a feel for this.
Next week I’ll talk about the differences between focus and attention, and their subtle ally: concentration.
{Soul}
From just two interplaying forces — attraction and repulsion — the material Universe emerges as an infinitely complex set of patterns and geometries.
Using nothing but two numbers — 0 and 1 — the internet, smart phones, and artificial intelligence reshape our entire planet and culture.
With only two possible modes available — ignorance and Truth — souls undergo radical evolution and expansion into realities unknown.
On and off, love and wisdom, everything and nothing. These unpretentious opposites reverberate off of one another like the feedback from two microphones, generating human lives that are infinite in scope, but unique in expression.
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