On 21 August 2017, at least here in the United States, we were all witness to a special word – presence.
What exactly is presence and how can it be defined? I look at presence as simply taking action or inaction where there is no forefront on results. You are simply acting without any repercussion. It is also being in a state of timelessness – or freezing.
The Eclipse of the Century – as some call it was such a major even in time. For a split second, millions in North America were witness to the perfect alignment of the moon and sun as it cast a shadow on the United States.
Where people can’t sit still, they did for a split second. What does the eclipse teach us? Well a few things:
- We are patient
- We can stand still for less than 2 minutes
- We have the ability to freeze time
- We have the ability to create time
The bottom line is this: being present is something that we are all in control of achieving. In fact, to be even present, we don’t need to do anything. We just need to be. There really is no science or art behind this. We can be 100% present without doing anything. Contrary to this, we can also be 100% present by doing something. Action in inaction and vice versa.
Presence is the point where your action is timeless, your activity is effortless, and where your thinking is endless. You can’t even define what being present is other than something that straddles between something that you materially try to define and something immaterially that can’t be defined.
Many of us are trying to understand how to be more present. Buzzwords like “mindfulness” and “awareness” have taken over the marketplace. If you are trying to figure out why you are not present, you are thinking too much. You need to cease your thinking.
If you wondering why others are more present than you, you are again thinking too much – and you need to cease your thinking. Ceasing the modifications (i.e. memory, imagination, past-thinking, future-thinking, assumptions, etc.) of the mind is the key to opening the door of your presence. There is nothing more to it.
I will give you a materialistic clue of where to find your presence if you are looking for a place to start: it is the space between every single breath you take in and every breath you take out. It is also the space between your heartbeat and the space between every blink of your eye.
Ultimately, the goal of being present is to continuously extending the realization of these spaces. It is by continuously discovering these spaces and feeling these spaces that you realize that the space is all there is to focus on. You become the space and lose yourself in it.
This continuously stretching of space is where you will find Joy and where you will find the seed of your presence.