2022-08-04-Presence

Session

Opening

Tonight we shall speak then on your friend’s suggestion of “Presence”.

Lesson

Presence is the essence of the entire experience. Presence is where it began and where it evolves to. The actual experience of Presence is not something other-worldly or transparently metaphysical, it is the abundant awareness of the motor keeping the entire tournament moving, the realization of the moment’s greatness, the moment’s All-ness; the realization of both the thread and the weave at once. Presence is both a gift and a giving – you receive it because you give it. “As seeing is believing, so giving is receiving” to quote you and your own pen. Presence has brought all the participants together in one basket, embroidered the basket and placed all those assembled in the entire tableau in relationship to one another, so that each will see the other in each, and sense that what is making the whole scene tick is that which makes each of the participants tick as well.

When one listens with one’s whole heart, that is presence – your presence; when one expresses with one’s whole heart, that is the conveying of Presence. It is very much a microcosm/macrocosm thing: “As above, so below”. Or perhaps “As within, so without.”

The problems with the world are not due to a lack of Presence, but a lack of the awareness of Presence. If we don’t bother to stop, look, and listen, we will miss the whole purpose, which is the divining of Presence. How can we have, assert, presence if we don’t allow Presence to steer the ship; keep the lid on; find what’s begging to be found? (to mix a raft of metaphors!) But that’s Presence for you: a raft of metaphors; all things at once. The beginning thrust, the radiant experience, the final flourish, all in one given moment… after moment… after moment. You are faced with “the Holy Instant”, as a famous book says, which is all the power that could ever be assembled in one place at any one time. In fact, it transcends time and that is its real power. It brings you into the presence of Presence, behind which all things – all created things – must line up and wait their turn.

To perceive Presence requires presence. In the moment. To the moment. For the moment, taking you beyond the moment.

Presence is your birthright, the living shadow of your Ancestor; pointing you to, and protecting you from, a Light you cannot yet be a party to. It is too bright; it is too glorious; it must be kept cloaked and divvied out for you slowly in the loving expansion of Presence.