To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
-William Blake
Zen and the poets have been addressing presence for centuries. What’s new is that everyone is paying attention to presence now, not just a handful of monks.
Presence lives outside of language so I find it hard to talk about. Blake’s poem points to it brilliantly.
Let me take a stab at it, too.
You travel into Presence often, but perhaps you don’t fully grasp the importance of this. If you’re like most humans, you don’t even notice it.
When you are fully present, the chatter in your mind goes still. You experience this as the peace which passeth understanding.
When you start to notice you are having these experiences of peace and stillness, you can begin to learn to encourage them.
When your mind quiets, your mind’s obsessive concerns and fears no longer drive you. You may even feel at one with all.
This is good, right?
You can think of your frightened, controlling mind as your ego. Yogis and eastern traditions call it the “monkey” mind, which is short for “a drunken monkey who has just be stung by a scorpion” mind.
Have you been there? Of course, you have.
Another name for this mind is the competitive mind. I like this one because it points to the fear that underlies and drives the competitive mind. Yet other names for this are the survival mind and the lizard brain. (See Related Article below.)
What Do You Get When This Mind Is Silent?
· You get the peace which passeth understanding.
· You get a small tastes of enlightenment that gradually become huge tastes and last for ever longer periods.
· You feel one with all.
· You live in the pleasures of flow. (See Related Article below.)
· You feel safe and supported by the whole. There is no need for faith. You become faith itself.
· You get “heaven in a wild flower”.
· You “hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”
How, Then, Do You Still the Mind?
You still the mind by being present. When you become present, the mind is still. It has no choice.
“But William, I thought that when I was still, I got to in presence? Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”
“Probably… Hmm…
“Let me see, the confusion comes by using the very similar and related words, Presence with a capital P and present with a lower case p.
“Presence is sacred and although you are part of it and it fills you absolutely, you don’t control it. Being present – being right here, right now – is something you have some control over.
“When you become present, you become still and you enter into Presence or more accurately, you experience Presence directly.
“Does that help?”
You can use silence as a doorway to stillness. Hang out in the silence of nature. Even amongst roaring rivers or melodious birdsong, you will experience this silence and the stillness underneath it.
I have written two books that will show you easy methods to explore Presence. Obviously, they will be of immense help to you.
· Simply Serene – Four Amazingly Powerful Ways to Be Instantly Alert and at Peace
· Looking Deeply into Presence
Here’s the Cliff Note Version for Becoming Present
· First, get some silence.
· Go outdoors – somewhere peaceful. It needn’t be a national park. A city park will do – anywhere you have a spot of nature.
· Practice Owl Eyes – Lightly gaze at something in the distance. Keep your eyes resting there while you taken in as much of your peripheral vision to the right and left as you can.
Slowly, deeply breathe in your belly. Now, while maintaining all of this, take in your peripheral vision above and below. Do this for a few minutes. Your mind has quieted. You’ll notice you have moved into stillness. Yes?
What did you notice when you tried this? More peace I hope.
Practice every day.
Invest in Simply Serene and Looking Deeply into Presence for the full versions.
Smile.
Flow
Although Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the guru of flow, doesn’t talk about Presence in his books, his observations imply that you be present to get into the lovely state of flow. All of his strategies for experiencing flow, therefore, would be good for becoming present.
Being in flow may be the most important goal of my personal practices. When I am in flow, everything, well, flows. I live in Heaven.
You love flow, too. You’ve been there often.
I want getting into flow to be high on your list of things you want from your Deliberate Living Program.
(Read my article, The Delightful Magic of Flow, below.)
Resources to Guide Your Way
1. The Scent Of Green Papaya – I saw this film in the theatre when it came out. The first five minutes into it were some of the slowest in my movie watching life.
Then I got it, “Oh, this is about Presence.”
This Vietnamese film takes place in French Saigon.
With almost no dialog, a young servant, by simply cleaning and cooking, models how you can move in your world fully awake. It’s lovely. You will emerge from the experience as after a lovely meditation.
2. Eckhart Tolle has written several wonderful books on the subject and I recommend them as a starting point on the subject of presence.
1. A New Earth
2. Stillness Speaks
3. The Power of Now
Find them here.
3. Again, I recommend my two books Simply Serene and Looking Deeply into Presence for working with Presence vs. talking about it or explaining it.
4. Obviously, you can read books on Zen to get a feel for it.
See Fun Resource on Spirituality.
5. The poets have visited Presence often and written beautifully about it.
Mary Oliver is my favorite. Invest in her books so you can dip into them when you want. Her books plus The Sound of Water, a book of haiku, reside by my bed. Find some books here.
Google Mary Oliver Poems – read some. Then invest in her books.
Browse the poetry books and poems I have posted in Poetry and Cool Ideas section.
Also here – Poetry of Life for titles.
