Posts Tagged ‘Presence’
So, if you’re fully Present in the moment, does what happened in the past no longer matter? Given that the idea of “past” is an illusion anyways, how does it fit in?
From an energetic standpoint, what you put out is what you get back. So in that sense, what you did in the past is like an energetic karmic boomerang. The external world functions like a mirror to reflect back to you the energy you’re putting out into the world.
If you bought a house in the past and now live in it, you can live in the house in the Now, but the past purchase still plays a role in the Now that you experience.
Some people think that by focusing on the Now, all their past problems will magically be resolved on their own. Sorry, but this isn’t the case. In actuality, the power of Presence gives you a better springboard with which to deal with the issues from your “past.” Who you were in the past contributes, to a large extent, who you believe yourself to be now. Thus there’s a lot of past residue, so to speak, a lot of momentum.
What being fully Present allows you to do is to realize that right now, in this very moment, the problems you think you have don’t really exist other than in the mind. That is, you’re making it all up. It’s a big game of make believe. You’re making yourself believe it. With this realization, it’s much easier to let go of attachment to problems because we realize they’re much less tangible and solid than we imagined.
Additionally, this realization makes it much easier to change course in life. Without the burden of the past, life becomes much more innocent and pure. The ability to move in a new direction becomes very easy without the shackles of the past.
While the past often brings limitation and constriction, Presence brings freedom and a sense of spaciousness and openness.
There is a school of thought which suggests that silence is found in the space between two thoughts.
In order to experience mental peace, you need to experience and gradually lengthen the gaps between two thoughts, thereby extending the duration of the silence.
Now, this sounds pretty logical at first, but I disagree with the reality of this idea, for a number of reasons. This viewpoint creates a few problems. Allow me to explain.
1) It creates the idea that thoughts/noise can somehow replace stillness/silence/awareness/presence.
The idea is that you experience either silence OR thoughts. This is true. Physical experience is indeed dualistic, but it’s not how things actually are.
The problem with this idea is the belief that silence somehow “disappears” when thoughts are present. It then magically “reappears” in the space between two thoughts.
Silence is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS present. It can not be replaced by noise, only temporarily covered up by a noisy distraction.
It is the infinite silence of the forest that allows us to hear the rustling of the wind.
It is the silence of the audience in the concert hall that allows us to hear the orchestra perform.
It is the stillness of the mind that allows us to hear thoughts at all.
If the silence was replaced by infinite noise, it would be impossible to pick out any thoughts in particular. It is the presence of silence that allows us to listen to thought in the first place.
Our true nature is one of awareness. Now, awareness can be focused on awareness itself, the unmanifest silence, or it can be focused on thought, the manifest form.
The unmanifest is permanent. The manifest is transient, temporary.
Thoughts do not REPLACE silence. They simply sit on top of silence, are supported by silence, come up from silence and subsequently fall back into silence.
Thus, awareness is more like a continuous background awareness. Awareness can be aware of itself (silence) or of thoughts (noise). Either way, awareness is always aware.
It may SEEM as though silence disappears when the mind is thinking, but the reality is simply that awareness has shifted focus to the thoughts. It’s not that the silence has actually disappeared and will only reappear in the space between two thoughts. Read More …
We’re going to do two quick exercises. Instead of me telling you what the answers are, I’m going to encourage you to experience your own Truth for yourself.
In Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now, he discusses the importance of Presence, of being fully in this moment.
Being fully in this moment is a very powerful experience because it sidesteps the ego itself. Now, there’s a subtle trick that can happen as the ego tries to sneak in the back door. It will try to “do” Presence. It will try to take credit for being the individual who is Present. It will say that “I” am being Present.
Let’s look at the ego-based way of being Present and compare it to the experience of the non-ego way of being Present. The differences may be subtle, but they are very important.
Doing Presence
Pay attention to your breath as it goes in and out of the body. Notice what your 5 senses are detecting. Take note of the room you’re in. Consciously be totally in this moment and feel your world. If the mind starts blabbering away, bring your attention back to the sensations of the body and feel this moment.
This will probably feel very good, especially after doing it for a little while.
Now, as you are being present, notice if you feel like an individual being. Can you detect the boundaries between your body and the room? Does it feel like you are being conscious of other objects and sensations in the room?
Just honestly note your experience in doing the activity called Presence.
Allowing Presence to Be Present
Now we’re going to put in even less effort. Instead of trying to do Presence, I want you to just stop doing altogether. Just completely stop.
Notice the sense of Presence that is sitting underneath the action. Is it already there? Allow the Presence to be without trying to do anything with it or magnify it in any way.
Allow the sense of awareness to be aware on its own.
Allow this experience to be for a little while.
Then take note of if you feel a sense of localization. Do you feel any boundaries between your body and the area surrounding your body? There is no right or wrong answer. Just trust your feelings.
Compare and Contrast
How does the sense of being compare to the first exercise in which you were actively doing Presence?
If you’re having trouble remembering, feel free to bounce back and forth between the two exercises. Repeat as necessary.
Find out if each exercise feels more like there’s a separate self doing something or if there’s just infinite beingness being.
Your own experiences will be your most powerful teacher. Find out how the differences feel between deliberately doing Presence and allowing Presence to be.
Let me know. I’m very curious as to your experiences.
Namaste.
I don’t know why everybody’s trying to get to Now since they could never get out of Now in the first place.
Have you noticed that it’s always Now?
I’ve never met anyone that was ever out of Now.
Isn’t your very trying to get into Now happening Now?
There’s nowhere to go!
Certainly there’s a lot of value to being present and not being stuck in psychological time, in the mental past or future. I get that.
The key to realize is that the Now is the most natural thing ever. In fact, it can never be not Now. Getting into the Now is not supposed to be some sort of challenge, a battle against the mind, though it may seem that way at first, when the “me”, the ego, is trying to insert itself into the Now moment.
Thinking does not pull you out of the Now. It just distracts you from the truth that you’re already in the Now.
Realize that you’re already in the Now.
You always will be.
Spirituality is so simple, yet the ego tends to complicate things. Why? That’s how it sustains its own existence. Over the years it’s gotten really, really, really good at it.
Spirituality is simply recognizing who you truly are, right here, right now. It’s being who you truly are, not who you think you are.
The Now moment is where you truly are. The mind is what thinks itself into past and future, though you can never actually go and get there.
You’re already in the Now. Consciously being in the Now becomes your natural state with the realization that you’re already here. Then the struggle starts to dissolve and our lives become that much easier! 
Are you interested in being able to handle any event and any circumstance without being shaken from your core?
Do you want to be in a state of imperturbable Peace no matter what is happening around you?
If so, here is another very powerful change I’m going to suggest you implement in your life. If you try and adopt this as a belief or intellectual concept, it will be basically worthless in its effectiveness. It will be food for your spiritual ego and will be a hindrance to your Liberation, not a stepping stone towards it. Thus, if you’re serious about experiential spiritual growth, this is for you.
So let’s get right into the heart of the matter, no pun intended, yet still “coincidentally” awesome.
The mind is 99% empty space.
There’s just the little voice in the head blabbering about and it’s that one voice that gets all the attention. You see, it’s necessary for the majority of the mind to be completely silent in order for that voice to be heard. It’s necessary for a concert hall to be silent in order to fully hear the music. It’s necessary for the forest to be silent in order to hear the soft rustling of the leaves in the wind.
The vast majority of what we experience is pure silence, yet it’s the movement and noise that attracts our attention. It’s like having a huge stadium devoid of people with the exception of one person sitting in the stands cheering for no good reason. 
Your attention will automatically go to the crazy cheering looney because that’s where the action is.
The self is found in the noise.
The Self is found in the silence.
Great. Cool. So what?
Here’s how we can use this information to further our own growth:
Pay attention to the silence.
Instead of focusing on the CONTENT of life, namely events, actions, circumstances, sounds, and happenings, focus your attention on the CONTEXT, the field of energy surrounding all the action, the energy from which all form arises and ultimately falls back into. That is where you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Photo by Mahesh Thapa
Look at the photo. What do you see?
Perhaps the elk, antlers, grass, mountain, trees, clouds, perhaps even the lighting. You see, the mind looks at all the content, all the “stuff,” while it misses the biggest part of all: EMPTY SPACE!
It’s the empty space that you want to bring your attention to. Only there will you find Peace.
Feel the Unmanifest from which all that is made Manifest arises from and falls into.
When you are being consciously present, instead of paying attention to your breathing, thoughts, body, or surroundings, make the state of Presence even more powerful by abiding in the infinite field that permeates and runs through all things.
Adopt this change from focusing on content to focusing on context and see how your experience of Life changes.
Have you ever had that experience where you’re watching a movie or TV and suddenly you get snapped out of it, back to reality? Instead of being totally absorbed by the film, you now see the screen in front of you, your surroundings, and even the portion of the screen where the movie isn’t playing.
Before you saw nothing but the screen.
What happened? Did you go anywhere or did only your awareness shift?
Could you maintain total presence in your body and physical reality while simultaneously being totally absorbed by the movie?
No way. In a sense, you have to “fall asleep” in physical reality and totally enter another dream-like reality. The emotions you get from the movie, the sounds and sights, they all feel very real… yet when you snap out of it, you realize it was all just a flicker of images and not much more.
In fact, if you remain present while watching the film, you find you can’t get lost in the film. It loses its sense of reality and you are conscious of the fact that it’s simply a movie in front of you and not real life.
Yet interestingly, when you “wake up” out of the movie life, you find that there is a life which is even MORE real. Nothing real was actually lost by awakening. You begin to see the movie for what it actually is: simply images on a screen.
What we call “real life” in physical reality is EXACTLY the same way. Our ability to feel that it is real and get sucked in with all its sights and sounds and emotions allows us to fully experience the reality. As long as we’re asleep and absorbed in this reality, we get to “juice” all the drama and emotions, illusions that are only part of a dream.
Enlightenment is an awakening, just like snapping out of the movie. Nothing real is lost and you don’t actually go anywhere. You realize you’ve always been here the whole time. Your awareness has simply shifted from the “dream world” (separation consciousness of physical life) to the “real world” (unity consciousness of spiritual life).
Nothing real is lost and everything is gained.
Life beyond the illusion.
What is it like when you awaken and see this physical life as just a dream?
None of our fears or worries have any reality. They’re all just mental images on the movie screen.
Everything physical is made up of pure energy. What we see in physical form is simply a temporary manifestation of the perfection of creation appearing in the form of a person, thought, plant, or idea.
Everything is cradled in unconditional love. Like the light of the sun, it shines to all equally. What makes the difference is not who is special and is being given more sunlight, but rather who is willing to receive the light and be open to it warming their presence. One can block the sunlight and choose to not receive it, but it will continue to shine just the same.
Time is seen as an illusion. Reality is timeless. What we call “time” is simply a shifting of awareness from one frame of the film to the next, yet every frame of the film already exists in this moment.
Sometimes we are able to “peek” at a future section of the film and then come back to the part of the movie that’s playing now and somehow we just know what is to come if we continue playing this same film. This is called intuition, psychic abilities, or clairvoyance. It’s nothing more than recognizing that the whole movie and all potential endings to the movie exist now. If we continue playing this same movie, we can figure out what is most likely to come by simply looking ahead at the “future” which exists right now. It all literally exists right now.
All of this and more… just from “snapping out” of the movie of life. This snapping out comes from quieting the mind, abiding in the present moment, and recognizing your true nature as the awareness that is watching the film instead of the character in the film.
Past and future are illusions, nothing more than pieces of the film that you’re not currently bringing your awareness to.
Bring your awareness to this moment. This present moment. It is only Now that you can experience life. Totally experience Life as it unfolds right in this very moment, not your mental beliefs and distorted interpretations of what’s happening.
Become fully aware of Now and the more you remain in this state, the more you remain awakened from the mind-made mental reality we believe is real life.
Snap out of the movie. Ultimate reality is WAYYYYY better than the movie.
Meditation is often talked about as a stress-reduction tool.
Let’s look at some of the benefits of meditation and see why it works the way it does.
Most people today are unconscious. This means that when a stimulus comes up, the person automatically reacts in a certain way based on their beliefs and emotional surges. This is particularly dominant when the painbody overtakes the person.
One of the main aspects of meditation is that you simply sit in silent presence and allow yourself to be aware of your mind, your body, your surroundings, and all the stimuli that is constantly competing for your attention.
There’s a bazillion things we could pay attention to at any moment, but our brain (thankfully) helps us focus our awareness down to just a few things at any point in time.
In meditation, you allow yourself to sit still and consciously choose not to react to any mental or physical stimuli such as your thoughts, things you need to do now or later, any itchy sensations, sounds and noises in your environment, and so on. All the stuff that would normally pull you in a certain direction, you allow yourself to notice those things without getting pulled away from your meditation. They start to lose their control over you because you come to realize that hey, wait a sec, I don’t HAVE to respond to this stuff.
What happens is that by doing this, you notice a gap between a stimulus and your response.
Most people operate primarily unconsciously. That is, when there’s a stimulus such as someone saying, “You’re an idiot” or, “You’re wonderful,” these statements make them automatically react a certain way.
Through meditation, you come to be conscious of the small gap between a stimulus and your response. You become aware of the possibility of actually choosing your response consciously to any circumstance instead of being controlled by every external event that is beyond your control.
Stress is basically the feeling that life is getting out of hand and we’re losing control. It’s a sense of pressure beyond normal levels which leads to anxiety, discomfort, and fear. This stress is all mental. It all exists in the mind, in one’s imagination, no matter how real or justified it feels.
When one doesn’t know how to manage this stress, it commonly grows stronger and becomes more and more amplified.
A wonderful thing about meditation is that it gives you practice in consciously choosing your response to what is instead of unconsciously reacting to what is.
There is tremendous power in this consciousness, in the sense of presence that one embodies.
Being unconscious makes you feel confusion and anxiety. This confusion clouds over your inner knowingness and makes it harder to realize solutions to life’s problems.
Being conscious and fully present brings in a sense of clarity and focus. From this place, solutions are easy to come up with. You begin to feel like an oak tree who is certainly aware of and conscious of life’s twists and turns, but you don’t get pulled every which way. You maintain your centeredness and stillness, your sense of inner peace and freedom.
Instead of being pulled away from your centeredness, you get better and better at maintaining a sense of inner peace no matter what is happening externally or in your mind.
Meditation is a wonderful practice towards helping one deal with stress, in the short term and especially over the long term. It’s a way of life, a way of being.
The ability to easily handle stress and maintain a sense of clarity and stillness while life continues to unfold all around you is but one of the many fruits of regular meditation.
Strengthen your roots and you’ll enjoy some delicious fruits.
The famous enlightened master Ramana Maharshi teaches the pathway to enlightenment through self-inquiry and constantly asking the question, “Who am I?” Just ask yourself, “Who am I? Who sees when I see? Who hears when I hear? Who knows that I am aware? Who am I?”
Is your name, its letters and sounds, you?
Or is it just a label? It’s not you. If you changed your name, would you still be you?
Are you your body?
If your body changes, if you lose a limb, you would still be you.
Is your mind you?
If yours thoughts change or your beliefs alter or the mind you have goes quiet in meditation, you’d still be here. The thought processes are not you. Who is it that’s noticing the thoughts?
The “I am” that I am is the same beingness that existed when you were five years old. Various qualities and characteristics about you may have changed since, certainly, but the very core of the fact that you exist hasn’t changed. Read More …
