Trying to be present implies that there is a person separate from
presence that can somehow become more present.
Presence is not a doing. It is being what you already are. Presence is what is sitting in the chair, breathing, watching this screen, and looking at these words. It takes no effort to be what you already are (or even to do what you are already doing).
Pointers to presence are simply inviting the noticing that life is already happening spontaneously and involuntarily. You are that life.
In trying to be present or to arrive at a future awakening, you are entertaining a mental dream arising in the very presence that you already are. Notice that your effort to be present arises in presence.
When the word “notice” is seen here, there is a tendency to make that into an effort. The idea is, “If I just continue noticing these thoughts and emotions, I will become more present and awake.” But the effort to notice thoughts and emotions arises in presence.
There is nothing you can do to become present. “Noticing” is merely a word inviting you to see that presence is what is already noticing. Your true nature is the very presence that would set out to find itself.
When you see the futility of trying to be what you already are, effort and seeking ends. What is left is what was always and already here — presence.
by Scott Kiloby
Rabbi Nachman of Bratislav, the 18th -19th century Jewish mystic, speaks to us today as he once urged his congregation, “Always be joyful, no matter what you are. With happiness, you can give a person life.”
Everyday, he further stressed, we should deliberately induce in ourselves a buoyant, exuberant attitude toward life; in this manner, we will gradually become receptive to the subtle mysteries around us.
And, if no inspired moments seem to come, we should act as though we have them anyway, he advised. “If you think you have no enthusiasm (no Spirit of God within), put on a front. Act enthusiastic, and the feeling will become genuine.”
From: The Way of Splendor: Jewish Mysticism and Modern Psychology, by Edward Hoffman
This is a traditional Jewish dish eaten at Hanukkah (Dec. 21 or Christmas). Serve these delicious crisp pancakes for breakfast or dinner. Often, they are eaten with sour cream or applesauce to sweeten them, but try them with a roast and gravy too.
6 medium potatoes, peeled and grated
1 onion, grated
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil or shortening for frying
Squeeze out as much liquid from the grated potatoes as you can and place in a mixing bowl; mix in the grated onion then add the eggs, flour and salt, mixing well.
Heat, over medium heat, enough oil in a heavy frying pan to cover the pancakes amply. Drop the batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil, spreading the batter to about 3-inches in diameter. Cook until crisp, puffed and golden brown on both sides; drain on paper towels. Makes 6 servings.
Instead of being a time of unusual behaviour, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses (the impulses of their essential nature) and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish. Christmas in short, is about the best chance one has to be oneSelf.
by Francis C Farley
If God is truly infinite, then there is not the smallest place, nor the shortest moment where God is absent. God, to be truly infinite, must (by definition) be everywhere, all times, with all life.
There can be nothing that is not God, nothing that is not made of God, because in the beginning there was only God and nothing else — pure creativity. God already filled all of existence. There couldn’t have been any room left over because if there was, then God wasn’t infinite.
Thus, God only had Itself out of which to make everything God created and thus, despite the illusion of separateness, we can not actually be separate from God because there is nowhere else to be separate from God.
“All of God is right where you are now and nowhere else. I AM is one. There is no second I AM to stand in your light, to put up the feeblest opposition. All is as you would have it because you are Who you are. Here is no spark of that Fire, but the blazing Furnace itself.” ~ Douglas Harding
Some have described it as a revelation and an inspiration, a powerful film about real people in search of real truth and a film about spiritual awakening in our everyday lives.
Closer Than Close is a recently released documentary with positive reviews from a wide range of figures in the spiritual community including: Hardcore Zen author Brad Warner, Janwillem Van de Wetering – author of the Zen classics The Empty Mirror and A Glimpse of Nothingness, and Academy-award winner Bruce Joel Rubin – writer of Jacob’s Ladder.
Former Tricycle associate publisher John Kain does an excellent job of summarizing the film: “…a deftly crafted a poignant tale that weaves the stories of a handful of seekers bivouacked at various stages along the spiritual path with the straight-talk wisdom of three extraordinary individuals who have seemingly put an end to seeking. These are real stories of struggle and despair, friendship and hope, but above all, insight.”
Video clips and ordering information are available Here
After the Sunday School had sung
Silent Night and had been told the Christmas story, the teacher suggested that her pupils draw the nativity scene.
A little boy finished first. The teacher praised his drawing of the manger, of Joseph, of Mary and the infant, but she was puzzled by a roly poly figure off to one side and asked who it was.
“Oh,” explained the youngster, “that’s Round John Virgin.”
Many come to the spiritual search identified with a painful past. It’s like living in a movie that you take to be real. In this movie, life as it presently appears is colored by the content of the past.
If you are a victim, present circumstances give the appearance that you are continuing to be victimized. If you believe your life is incomplete, present circumstances are interpreted to be “not enough.” If you were abused, neglected or mistreated in the past, it is likely that those patterns are repeating themselves now in some way. We believe we are our thoughts.
This past identity perpetuates itself through present mental and emotional interpretations. Reality as it really is now is veiled by this movie.
The question is, “How can I be free of the past?” “You” cannot be free because you are the movie. There is a presence already here — reading these words right now — that is beyond identification with the time-bound, thought-based movie of the past called “you.”
By noticing the movie of past whenever it arises to interpret the present moment, this presence is realizing itself. It is seeing that who you are is this presence.
What you really are is not a movie, interpretation, memory, or emotion. Those are objects coming and going in presence. Noticing the movie slows it down. Then it just stops. What is left is the utter simplicity, love, freedom, and freshness of what is in this moment.
by Scott Kiloby
The eternal Self is always free; yet so long as we are unaware of that freedom, we are bound. Liberation is therefore a state of awareness. So long as we are aware of the ever-free Self, we are entirely unconditioned by external circumstances or states of the mind.
For, one who has realized that Self possesses a certainty, a permanent underlying confidence, that can never be erased, and which allows her to retain an inner peace and joyfulness regardless of circumstances of destiny or the transient fluctuations of the mind:
Such “liberation” is the ultimate goal of all knowledge-seeking. It is the inner freedom which all people seek, a freedom from doubt, from the barbs of worldly misfortune, from the deadly sting of sorrow to which all those ignorant of their true nature must be subject.
For one who has attained this liberating knowledge of her eternal Self, neither bodily affliction, nor worldly circumstance, nor even death, has the power to afflict her with fear; she is fearless, for she is grounded and established in the unshakeable certainty of her permanent immortality and incorruptible bliss.
From: History of Mysticism, by S Abhayananda, pp181. You can download this FREE eBook Here.
Sunyata Mu, who lives just north of Sydney, has let us know, he’s started a new Web site — InTheNow.tv. The idea is that it’s like a Web TV-station where you can see a collection of videos to do with
Living in the Now, which he says he’ll add to as he finds further video clips on this subject. To try it out, >
Click Here.