What is Presence?
© Thorn Yang
Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now speaks about stillness and presence. This book has transformed many lives (including mine). What is stillness? And what happens in presence?
The mind’s way of guiding your decisions is sneaky. What you do and how you react to situations is projection from the past. Your conditioning guides your fears; your beliefs influence your emotions. It could be that listening to a certain song triggers tears running down your cheeks. Think of them as the result of your mind excavating memories. Whether happy or sad memories, what is happening is that the past is infiltrating the present moment. In this state, your next thought, decision and action will most likely be guided by emotions that may, frankly, belong in the past.
There is nothing wrong with cherishing memories, moments lost, as long as we are aware that this is what we’re doing. They’re like the notifications of an app that keeps running in the background, at the back of our mind. The key is to be aware and to not let it run the show, as if by default. An example would be feeling nostalgic about a past relationship and returning to it based on a feeling of loneliness, against a more elevated understanding telling you that it ended for the right reasons. When we are aware, we can observe what is going on and are in a position to simply delete old files (memories and emotions) from the cache (mind and action).
So, what is presence?
Presence is stillness in action, being one with all that is. It’s a thoughtless state, which is what (perhaps paradoxically) is what makes it so powerful. Emptiness, void, spaciousness, Now. This space of No-thing-ness contains the sacredness of Creation. In this infinite Quantum Field who you believe you are and the plans you have for yourself simply cease to be important. Whatever past drama, trauma, fears and anxieties, labels you have given yourself, vanish. Past doesn’t exist in the awareness of this space. You are free. Practicing being this space you become your own alchemist and conscious creator.
Your mind may reject or even rebel the idea of thoughtless state. Just accept it and notice. Enjoy this meditation by Eckhart Tolle which is an excursion into Presence. Access the meditation HERE.
Until next time!
From my heart to your heart,
