Acquiring a Daily Habit of Presence

(Thanks, Tracy, for inspir­ing this post with your com­ments on “Let­ting Go Of Our Need To Know” Decem­ber 13, 2009.)

Our human need to know, that inces­sant inter­nal harangue that goes on inside the mind and insists on an expla­na­tion for every­thing is one of the vic­tim ego’s more insid­i­ous ploys for keep­ing us dis­tracted and dis­con­nected from the present moment! The only help I’ve found for this oth­er­wise totally dis­tract­ing ego maneu­ver is my daily com­mit­ment to a prac­tice that sup­ports present moment awareness.

I can­not over-emphasize the impor­tance of hav­ing some­thing we do every day that can bring our focus into present time, and let go of the mind-made con­cept of a past or future. This future and past we empower by spend­ing hours at a time dwelling on them is sim­ply an illusion.

Prove to me that the past or future ever existed out­side of our own mind! I have found no proof that either of those places exist, or ever did! I have found only the evi­dence of a thought-generated present moment!

photo credit: ali­ce­pop­korn

Our task is to acquire a habit of pres­ence that works to hold our atten­tion, our aware­ness, our focus on the NOW.

For me what works is a body prac­tice. I have learned to use the body, through yoga & qigong, as a way to plug in to the stream of con­scious­ness that I am in this moment.

Through such prac­tices, we learn to focus on a still point (an immutable point of ref­er­ence, such as a visual focal point for the eyes, or to steadily hold ones aware­ness on the ener­getic pres­ence of Source) and so qui­eten the mind. From such a place we are sep­a­rated from our sto­ries about real­ity and shown some­thing that is not illu­sion!

What we find is an authen­tic, in this moment sort of Power that nul­li­fies the need to know any­thing beyond it. We come face to face with a Source of Energy that we can absolutely rely on to see us through. Through my prac­tice I’ve expe­ri­enced, first hand, our con­nec­tion to an ever present Life Source. I have wit­nessed its vibrat­ing alive­ness and have come to know Source as the One and only Reality.

May you, too, find it so,
Bless­ings, Lynne