In The Four Attentions, Mark Griffin presents a tantric map of consciousness through the lens of cognition, meditation, and samadhi, describing spiritual awakening as a progressive upgrade of attention within a single mind. Anchored in the dynamics of Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the teaching explores how the mind evolves from ego-bound perception to direct absorption in the Ocean of Consciousness, where doer-ship and ownership of experience are extinguished and the soul is liberated.

Griffin outlines four graduated modes of attention—first, second, third, and fourth attention—corresponding to the transformation of cognition from basic, real, and essential cognition into ultracognition, the supraconscious state. The first attention operates through sensory perception, memory, inference, and ego-centric identity. The second attention introduces subtle discernment, intuition, and the capacity to perceive beyond surface appearances, including the subtle body and deeper layers of mind. The third attention marks the onset of samadhi, where one begins to directly perceive the underlying Ocean of Consciousness while the seed of identity still remains. The fourth attention culminates in the absorption of mind into consciousness itself, the Nirvikalpa condition, where cognition becomes still, identity dissolves, and liberation arises.

Central to the teaching is the distinction between the mind and the content of the mind. Griffin emphasizes that thoughts, emotions, and karmic impressions (kleisha-born content) are like clouds in the sky of awareness—reflections within consciousness, not the mind’s true nature. Through sustained meditation, concentration, discrimination, and intuition, practitioners systematically filter and dissolve these stored impressions, liberating trapped energy and clarifying perception. Meditation is presented as the bridge that withdraws attention from the sensory surface and redirects it inward toward the subtle, causal, and supracausal dimensions of being.

Using the metaphor of a drop suspended in the ocean, Griffin explains that ordinary consciousness remains fixated on reflections within the “bubble” of identity, unaware of the Ocean that has always surrounded it. As attention refines and samadhi deepens, the barrier between drop and ocean is pierced, and the contents of mind are gradually absorbed into the underlying field of consciousness. This process is accelerated through continuous meditation and Shaktipat, which places a “drop of the Ocean” within the practitioner’s own consciousness, making awakening an irreversible movement toward integration.

Ultimately, the fourth attention is described as the condition of Ishvara—the simultaneous presence of the liberated state and embodied existence. Advanced beings, such as the Siddha lineage, are characterized as functioning from this fourth attention: their individual minds absorbed into the Ocean while still appearing in human form. The teaching concludes by emphasizing continuousness of practice, the integration of all levels of cognition, and the realization that the drop and the Ocean have never been separate—only obscured by habit, ego-reflex, and misidentification with the contents of mind.