‘We can’t just tell our ears, “Hear this sound and don’t hear that one,” or tell our eyes, “See this, but not that.” So how do we align the senses? It is said that the mind can be like a poisonous snake, like a great thief, like a wild animal — full of attachments to love and hate; full of greed, anger, and ignorance. These confuse our senses and our judgment. Thus in order to align our senses, we have to align our mind. But this does not mean that we negate anything; we can’t force the mind to be suddenly still. This is clear in the Buddha’s explanation about the minds of the past, present, and future, and the Sixth Patriarch is very clear about this as well. To align the mind we must bring it into oneness — into focus on one thing. This is why the Sixth Patriarch says not to give attention to the constantly changing aspects of the mind. But this does not mean to stop seeing or hearing or smelling. If we negated the mind, we would stop responding, and that is not the point. So what does alignment mean? It means to not be moved by what is not real, but also to not move blindly, to know that which does not change no matter where we are or what we’re doing.’ (Not One Single Thing)
Shodo Harada
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This doesn’t negate what the Sixth Patriarch said, but we do “Hear this sound and don’t hear that one” and “See this, but not that.” We hear and see (and physically feel) selectively all the time, but not usually under conscious control. As Ram Dass said, “When you’re hungry and you walk down the street, all you see is pizza parlors” (or something like that). In other words, we hear and see and feel what interests us and might affect us, what we desire or what might be a threat, and mostly ignore everything else, from moment to moment.
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And don’t forget that this is not the only level where things are happening
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Shundo David Haye - Zen Priest 
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