Simone Weil | Attention Is the Rarest and Purest Form of Generosity 1909 FRANCE 1943 UNITED KINGDOM
Simone Weil is a philosopher of attention. She asks us to give our attention to what feeds the soul and supports the human spirit. Weil believes the most loving thing we can do for others is to listen and see them without distraction by giving them our concentrated attention. For Weil, attention is a disposition: it is a way of being toward others in generosity, love, and prayer. When we are distracted, we relate to others from our self-interest or ego: we are therefore not giving the other person our undivided attention. When we are truly and fully present for the other, we stand in true attention. Weil describes attention as “suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrated by the object.” “Above all,” she continues, “our thought should be empty, waiting, not seeking anything, but ready to receive in its naked truth the object that is to penetrate it.”