Presence Is Not the Same as Being Present.
Presence is what you are, but being present is something you do.
Being Present implies a "doing"... Where as Presence is the absence of doing, Presence is Being... Presence is peace itself. Where as attempting to "be present" is a struggle.
Being present is an apparent stepping stone toward realising Presence. Presence is ever present, changeless, formless. It is the Aware Nothing at the centre of your being that all experience happens to. The experiencer.
If we are attempting to practice presence then we are ignoring, or missing the fact that presence is ever present.
Instead of "trying" to be present. Why not simply recognise that presence is already the case? Next time before you try to be present, check to see if you are not already present, check to see if you are not already aware. Notice what is already there...
Feel into the presence that you are, simply feel and notice that you are, the feeling that you exist, that you are aware. You already are. Notice it, be it, know it as you.
Can you ever get away from your own presence?
Any step you take toward it is a step away. And in that stepping away, you go with yourself, you can never not be this Presence.
You are this presence. It is not so much a practicing because practicing would imply you are not already it and it is something that has to be acquired. We practice in order to get somewhere.
Instead of practicing, lets use the word noticing.
It is simply because of habit that you forget your Self. You get lost in your mind. So constant remembering is needed. Constant noticing that you are not you're mind, noticing that you are this presence brings one out of past and future and into the moment.
From this sense of presence we can inquire, from this presence we can look. Noticing that which notices is the basis of inquiry, and is true rest.
Something is awake, aware, and ever present. Something has never changed throughout your entire life, something has been the knower, the experiencer of your entire life. The knower wishes to be known.
Notice...
Peace,
Matt Nettleton
www.mattnettleton.com