High fever, acute pain, unbearable discomfort, pain in the back, etc. renders one unfit for work. An employee takes leave of absence from his work spot until he is relieved. In extreme youth when the energy of life is overflowing, when the very flavour of life is to express this energy, age overlooks similar conditions in favour of living abundantly. The same conditions that find a well-to-do man in bed with several persons attending on him, will find a poor person at work. He may not be able to afford losing his wages or his boss will not take cognizance of his illness.
When one such poor man rises in affluence, he may be one who continues to disregard his minor illnesses or he may be very opposite. He may tend to pay greater attention to himself. Such a situation will be a sight to see. What happens to the poor man who works with his rising temperature? His employer will let him off when he faints. Or, as he works with fever in his nerves, he will discover that there is in him a capacity to overcome the fever and work. Should that become a habitual ability of his health, his face will acquire a dark shadow, his hopes will be pitched lower than before, his hardihood will rise and he will be efficiently functioning at one level lower than before. The music of his life will be playing one Key lower.
What I described above is physical attention to oneself. There is a universal phenomenon of psychological self-attention, by which a few people begin to live their lives taking themselves the centre of their lives. These people will live an intense life. They are those who feel that without them their office cannot function or their party will fold. By evaluating every event of life in their own terms, they give an unparalleled intensity to their daily lives. Should they pay the same intention to their Spirit, before long their Spirit will rule their lives and all their fantastic dreams will become the reality of Spirit in life.