The majority of the world lives inside their head. We are programmed as children from a very young age to accept the labels we are taught to believe as being a truth. When we name, claim, and label appearances we become separate from the appearance as labeling creates a specific object and a name for the object.
Presence is a raw, unfiltered perception or sensation of what is appearing as aliveness before humans apply their mental beliefs, opinions, and judgments about what they believe they see and feel. Embodying presence is not escaping who you are but realizing what you have always been and but forgotten. Waking up to what you already are is awakening and it has many labels but is beyond labels as there is nothing or no one to awaken or be enlightened. All reality is appearances of known as enlightenment (being full of light)
The mental processes, and some call this thinking mind or the thought stream, divide raw appearances, what is, into body and mind, subject and object, self and not-self, thus creating and projecting a virtual reality or mirage we believe to be substantial, personal, and lasting in time. This mirage was my unexamined habit for fifty-three anxious, weary, and fearful years.
Here’s the good news…there is a deep, quiet, peaceful aliveness that vibrates right here, right now, but we are so enmeshed within the story of ourselves and our mental processes that we completely overlook, disregard, and shut out this perfect peace with the noise and stories in our heads. Embodying Presence is not escaping who you are but realizing what you have always been and but forgotten.
Perception and sensation are the magnificence, the intimacy, and the wondrous mystery of this aliveness, this Presence.
Anita