The path of presence is a spirtual practice that comes from the heart and goes to the root of many religions and traditions.
So what is presence? And how does it differ from plain awareness? Lets look at two types of awareness. You can have an awareness of the consequences of your actions. Or you can have an awareness of the inner and outer, ordinary and non-ordinary, emotional, physical or what-have-you world. In this case you might be aware of the wind blowing, your breathing, a bird flying above your head, your stomach gurgling, or you might be getting this information about weather conditions or that person standing in front of you is in pain. So awareness is a particular way of using our mind to open us up to experience and is a necessary step toward presence.
Now the essence of presence is becoming. From awareness we take a further step into becoming. Awareness is a choice and becoming is a stronger choice to let the world in, to invite it in. This is both the inner and outer world. If you have lost someone dear to you, you allow yourself to feel that loss. Notice the energy around it: it might be a complex of fear, anger, and sadness. The mind has a memory, you notice the feeling in your body and you become it. This means you lean into it and you breath into it. You let it into your core like a shimmering breeze. You relax and you let yourself tremble, cry or ache. It’s only energy. You become the great circle of being thorough this energy moving you at that moment.
This becoming is practiced with all things that enter our awareness and as we expand our field of awareness, we expand the depth of our becoming, the circle of our being.We become the world. And since we already are the world, we only reclaim what we already are anyway. We reinspire it into ourselves. We give it permission to live within us. We become a shimmering leaf, the flight of an eagle, a raging river, our hurt and anger, the trembling in our heart, the ant that we crush, people we dislike, noises that bother us. In the act of becoming we are led into the pulsing heart of all things. We are led into a dynamic state of presence. So presence is a rootedness into the depths and the heights of all things.
Awareness, becoming and presence permeate every aspect of being. It is the main component of universal energy living fully through the body. When we become aware of this and accept life, becoming present to it we give ourselves a “present.”
Peace and Love, Jim
