Attention, concentration and a stream of oil.

I remember reading somewhere that one's attention should be like a stream of oil, not like a stream of water.

Consider this, for instance, in a given room, a civil engineer would be able to perceive materials, structural forces, construction cost - an electrical engineer would see the illumination level and the energy required for the same, the wiring material and cost ... and so on; each perceiving what they can identify with through their senses which have been trained. Among the (perhaps) lesser gifts of Yoga is that it gives the ability to identify oneself (yoga: union) completely with anything. This allows a yogi to unite with any object - with awareness expanding and it's nature taking on, among other things, the nature of a stream of oil. This enables the yogi to perceive much more than is normally possible for a person in any given situation.

Attention like a stream of oil being poured. Constant. Unbroken. Continuous.

Here's the cool thing - yesterday, I discovered that the kanji character for 'attention, concentration' and 'to pour out' is the SAME.
It is the chu 注in chuui 注意　（to concentrate, to pay attention)。It is also the chu in chusui suru (to pour out water) 注水する。　

What we see around us is a result of us pouring out our attention.
There are other connections between the nature of pouring out and the nature of seeing.
To observe is written as chuumoku 注目。　To pour out + eye.
To gaze steadily at is written as 注視する。chuushi suru. To pour out + to inspect (which has the radical for an eye on walking legs).

If you haven't seen it yet, go NOW to the kitchen and pour out some oil into a bowl. You'll see what the Chinese meant.