Carpe Momentum: Seizing the Moment through the Re-collection of Attention
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) September 19, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22839847 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | The paper argues that carpe momentum should be understood as re-collecting attention within present experience, not possessing an instant or seeking gratification. It proposes that distraction takes three functionally distinct forms—attractors, repulsors, and obstacles—classified by the movement of attention they produce rather than by content, making the scheme orthogonal to contemplative classifications of disturbance. Narrative is said to give these patterns temporal continuity, and re-collection through recognition, non-rejection, gathering, and reopening is proposed to suspend their automatic authority without abolishing their informational value. |
Abstract
This paper develops a contemplative phenomenology of the present moment. It reinterprets carpe momentum — seizing the moment — as the re-collection of attention within present experience rather than the possession of an instant or the pursuit of immediate gratification. It differentiates distraction into three functionally distinct deformations of the attentional field. Attractors make attention converge upon an anticipated fulfilment; repulsors scatter it through fear and aversion; obstacles arrest it at an apparent boundary, altering not what can be achieved but what remains perceptible as possible. The obstacle proves irreducible both to approach and avoidance and to the classical category of delusion: contemplative traditions classify disturbances by content, whereas this triad classifies them by the movement of attention they produce, so the schemes are orthogonal rather than competing. These structures acquire temporal continuity through narrative, which threads distinct experiences into a necklace of attachment and preserves affective force by determining which memories reactivate. The present is therefore lost twice, once in the moment and once across time. Re-collection interrupts this transmission through four movements — recognition, non-rejection, gathering, and reopening — suspending the automatic authority of attraction, aversion, and obstruction without abolishing their informational value. This gathering discloses an openness with neither fixed centre nor predetermined circumference, within which wisdom is unobstructed seeing joined to discernment and compassion is concern whose restrictions have been partly removed. The triad is offered as a phenomenological hypothesis for empirical test; no interview data are reported.