Help
Sign In
consciousness
June 2009 
Presence vs Awareness of Presence
1Vector3
A Heretical View of the The Nature of "Presence"
by Rev. O.M. Bastet, Ph.D., Head Minister
This article is presented and provided to you by
"Amplifying Divine Light in All" Church
Our main religious purpose and mission is to amplify the Divine Light in everyone. When you read this article, you will agree or disagree with its various points, and then you will know more about what is true for you. Knowing more of your own Truth amplifies your Divine Light. Thus providing/presenting this article is one way for us to accomplish our purpose and mission. This article and our providing/presenting it are therefore an integral part of our exercise and practice of our religion. None of the contents herein are claimed as absolute truth. They represent one possible perspective which might prove useful for you.
All rights reserved under the Common Law. This means please respect our creatorship.
We invite your comments and responses!
adliac at gaia.com
Preface:
I believe this paper can be useful to anyone, not just Tolle readers/students, if you translate the word "Presence" into your own language: God, Spirit, Great Spirit, The Supreme Ultimate, the Tao, All That Is, The Universe, Goddess, Allah, Isness, Suchness, Infinite Beingness, Creator, Nondual Reality, The Ground of Being -- whatever !!!
This paper is about Eckhart Tolle's concept of "Presence" -- based on my limited understanding of what he means by that concept. I call my view "heretical" because I am disagreeing with some of his statements and teachings - at least as people commonly interpret them based on his wordings -- and I am also disagreeing with some commonly held "New Age" viewpoints/beliefs.
I am not seeking agreement; I disagree only to offer us all food for thought, alternatives to consider, to expand our awareness of possibilities.
The practices Tolle recommends and the way he words his teachings, lends itself to some conclusions I disagree with. For example, many people conclude he is saying that Presence is "more present" in silence, in the gap between thoughts, than it is in words or thoughts. In my opinion, his teaching does not carefully distinguish that it is only our Awareness of Presence that is "more present" in silence or gaps; Presence itself is equally present in thoughts and silence, in words and gaps. Presence being aware of itself in us can begin as awareness of the gap between thoughts, but Presence itself is no less the thoughts than the gaps.
Any serious attempt to "discuss" Presence soon degenerates into paradox, because presence is vaster and more complex than mind or language can handle. So please regard what I wrote as partly poetry, and read as much with your "right brain" as with your left.
The Nature of Presence is more than our experience of the Nature of Presence. I am pointing to the Nature of Presence itself, which is of course beyond description, beyond experience, beyond the pointing, and cannot be contained by them.
Also please realize I am stating my own truths, my own story about "the way it is." I am open to yours being different, even though I appear to believe I am stating "facts." I am not really believing I am stating facts. I am hoping to stimulate you to know more about your own truths as you respond to mine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presence is not a thought, not a feeling, not an attitude, not a mood. It is not a viewpoint, not a perspective, not an experience, not an emotion, not a belief. It is not a concept, not an idea, not an understanding, not an insight. It is not a knowledge or an intelligence or a fact. It is not a sense, not a sensory impression, not a perception. It is not a space without content. It is not silence without noise, nor is it noise without silence.
Presence is not instead of judgment, not instead of anger, not instead of frustration, not instead of sadness, boredom, grief, depression, hopelessness, concern, or worry.
Presence is not instead of a thought, instead of a feeling, instead of an attitude or mood. It is not instead of a viewpoint, a perspective, an experience, an emotion, a belief. It is not instead of remembering or imagining. It is not instead of labelling or interpreting. It is not instead of conditioning. It is not instead of the Painbody. It is not instead of opposites. (It includes all opposites.)
All those are activities of Presence.
Presence itself is not instead of words, not under or between words. All those are activities of Presence.
Presence is words and beyond words, is language and beyond language, behind and above and around and under and within all that can be named or experienced. Presence exists as the substance of and all activities of, all that can be named or experienced. Presence is Beingness itself, the very nature of our awareness, as well as each and every bit of the content of it.
Presence is around and within and under and above and beside, and exists as the substance of and all activity of, all anger, all sadness, all frustration, all unawareness, all unconsciousness, all moods, all thoughts, all experiences, all perspectives.
Presence can go out of our awareness, yet is never anything but our awareness and our unawareness. Presence is who you are, whether you are aware of it or not. Presence does not come into existence only when we "take a step back" from our thoughts. Our Awareness of Presence does not bring Presence into existence, nor does our unawareness of it make it go out of existence.
Presence is the substance and form and activity of everything that is. Presence is that from which everything that is arises, and it is everything that is not, is not yet, or could be.
Presence is not different from matter. Presence is not different from energy. Presence is not different from Life, from awareness, from what exists, and yet Presence contains all of these. Presence is not in time, but time is nothing but an activity of Presence. Experience and matter are nothing but the substance and form and activity of Presence.
Ego is nothing but one activity of Presence.
Presence is, already. Presence is, always. Only Presence is.
"We seek what already is, here and now." Presence is inescapable. There is nowhere else you can go but Presence, nowhere else you can be except Presence, nothing else you can experience but Presence.
Presence is and expresses itself as and contains your awareness of Presence. Presence is and expresses itself as and contains your unawareness of Presence. Presence is and expresses itself as and contains your forgetfulness of Presence. Presence is not other than your forgetfulness of Presence. Presence is always always present.
Presence itself is not more present in your silence than in your thoughts. It is not more present in your sensory awareness of the world than in your lost-in-thought introspections, your daydreams, your deep sleep. Therefore, Awareness of Presence is not more possible when you are aware of the sounds around you than when you are aware of thinking about your motives for saying x to person y. Might be easier, but not more possible.
Bringing "the light of awareness" to anything at all, a sound or a thought or a feeling, brings Awareness of Presence, but does not bring Presence itself, which is the thought or sound, and the attention, and the process of transfer of attention, and the results of that transfer.
Our only choice is, are we aware of the always-presence of Presence, or not? Is Presence, through and as us, aware of itself or not? Those are the same question. Thus, the choice is not ours as separate from Presence. It's Presence's choice, in us and through us and as us.
There are no "blocks" to Presence, but sometimes Presence creates blocks to its awareness of itself in us.
Since there is never anything except Presence, all we as Presence need to do is relax out of our effort to be unaware ourselves as Presence. There is nothing to achieve, and nowhere else to be but here now, whether Presence as us is choosing forgetfulness of itself or not.
Seeking and searching and striving for Presence are simply activities of Presence. Thus, they are not a "waste of time" and not a reason for self-blame, though those feelings are also activities of Presence.
One might well turn one's attention then, to what Quality of Life for self and others, one prefers.
That is the real issue, question, challenge.
The way I see it, doing the "practices" Tolle teaches will greatly enhance a person's Quality of Life, but they do not affect the nature of Presence. The "practice of Presence" lends itself to the misunderstanding that somehow we are sometimes separate from Presence, that we are not always an activity of Presence. Whatever state of awareness or unawareness you are in, that's Presence.
So that's not the question.
But the questions might be: How aware do you want to be? Do you just want to be Presence, or would you like to be aware of being Presence? How "awake" would you like to be? How many repetitive useless thoughts do you want? How much do you want to be run by conditioning? How big a picture do you want of your life and your place in the scheme of things? How much inner freedom do you desire? How much inner noise are you willing to have?
Dealing with these questions can increase Quality of Life, but none of the practices bring Presence where it was not before. Presence can be pretending to not be Present to itself, but truly there is no either-or to Presence, no alternative to it.
What changes as Presence becomes aware of itself within us is that we are tuning in to what is, rather than something becoming different. Perception shifts, but "what is" does not. Awareness of Presence simply exchanges the activity of Presence in us as "forgetting" to the activity of Presence in us as "remembering." Both are fully activities of Presence itself.
"How do you experience Presence in your life?" As everything I am, do, experience, feel, think - and everything I don't.
"How are you experiencing Presence in this moment?" As all of this moment.
Access: Public
The paradessence of presence.
These are big questions:
But the questions might be: How aware do you want to be? Do you just want to be Presence, or would you like to be aware of being Presence? How “awake” would you like to be? How many repetitive useless thoughts do you want? How much do you want to be run by conditioning? How big a picture do you want of your life and your place in the scheme of things? How much inner freedom do you desire? How much inner noise are you willing to have?
My answers change from time to time.
Thanks for sharing this.
Blessings, David
Wow, never had such a prompt comment before. And thanks, David ! Yeah, I think if our answers don't change from time to time, we must be brain-dead !!!! LOL !!!!!!
Here are some links to the previous episodes in this opus about Ego:
First, the post in Living Metaphysics Group/pod where I began to YELL that we must DEFINE Ego before we can say anything useful about it, and my definition appears to be different from his.
Then a few words and comments in Bad Ego? blog, March 2008.
Then just recently, Guilt about Ego blog, July, 2008, with some fabulous comments.
And that ain't gonna be the end of it either !!
Really looking forward to the discussion, that's the best part ! Blogging is soooo much more satisfying than publishing !!!!!
Blessings, OM Bastet
Your short essay is a truly excellent pointing out of what needs to be clarified about Presence. Along the way it is so easy to grasp hold of each new insight as if it were the last insight to come, so in focusing on the silence between thoughts and becoming closer to an understanding, the thought arises that this is 'it', but as you point out this is all 'it'. There is a point at which even awareness of Presence is clarified as another activity of Presence. Thank you for the post, and for your concern to clarify a difficulty in Tolle's presentation.
James
Thank you so much for this post (and the last post you wrote, as well.) Sometimes it seems we get muddled or sloppy in the area of definition of some of these terms. I know I sling around words like “awareness” and “ego” and “Presence” without really thinking deeper into what is being expressed. Your posts provide clarity to some of these terms. If it's possible to hold on to them. :) I also think we both understand and don't understand much of this and we're using feeble words to attempt to describe a feeling, or an inner knowing, which is often incomplete and not the fullness of it.
Since there is never anything except Presence, all we as Presence need to do is relax out of our effort to be unaware ourselves as Presence. Such wisdom! I spent years feeling a complete failure because I couldn't maintain complete awareness. (before even adding the term “Presence” in the mix.) Most of that desire has abated within the last one or two years, although it sometimes arises. Now it's mostly being aware of the arising, without pushing it away.
Awareness of Presence simply exchanges the activity of Presence in us as “forgetting” to the activity of Presence in us as “remembering.” Both are fully activities of Presence itself.
Very succinct. As well as the questions that really are at the heart of it: How aware do you want to be? Do you just want to be Presence, or would you like to be aware of being Presence? How “awake” would you like to be?
Having read Tolle a few times now, I'm not sure he would disagree with your thoughts. Could it be that, in explaining something as challenging as Presence and awareness and Ego, you have to start somewhere with imperfect words? And then the next person (you, perhaps, in this case) will come along and then add another depth that will assist those who are beginning to understand (a little bit or a lot) in a way that might not have been possible without the laying of the groundwork?
Because Presence is pointing to everything….and now I'm getting confused because I use the words Presence & awareness as interchangeable….and because all of this points beyond words….. I'm sure some conclusion was coming forth in my response, but Presence is no longer aware of it, so off we're going into the day. Thanks again, OM!
Yummmy Yummmy, How juicy is all of this! Now that you have my brain in a twist my presence is not sure if it is present… Many times Neale Donald Walsch has done this juggle of words and phases that kind of chase each other around, Matter of fact in wrote a whole group of books…
I am not sure of what Tolle was discussing at this point but I think what he was seeking to do and I believe someone above has already stated. One must start some place. First awaking up, being conscious, becoming aware. How one goes about that is another story or a story in itself… Many of the so called spiritual books and or material I have read and or study over and over again suggest prayer and meditation, constant praying, constant awareness. Yes the Spirit is always present but Are we Present for it Presence? So Presence is found in the silence and nothingness until we can allow Presence to Be Known to us in our daily Being….
I am Love, Jeff
Just what I needed was so thinking on these matters…
Great thoughts folks. I like remembering that sometimes it's just having somewhere to start from and then through discussion and clarification more layers of the onion are peeled away.
Remembering a quote, concept right now yet not the verbiage: The idea that it's the journey and not the destination. That once you get to where you thought you were going you find yourself back at a “here” with a new “there” to pursue. Meanwhile presence is here, there, and in between though awareness of that may come and go.
Thanks OM Basket.
Blessings and hugs backatcha, David
Well, the limb I crawled out onto in posting this blog entry seems to be getting stronger. Thanks !!
And that means kindred souls, and I appreciate you all !!! Your comments are so enriching ! I can't do justice to them all, but here are a couple of responses for now:
Jeff, I am good company then, NDW as word-juggler. LOL !!!!!
David, this is lovely, lovely eloquent, right on the mark, laid out so well. Summarized my whole danged blog, you did.
That once you get to where you thought you were going you find yourself back at a “here” with a new “there” to pursue. Meanwhile presence is here, there, and in between, though awareness of that may come and go.
In view of many of the comments above, I am going to add another kindred soul -type way of describing this all, from Ken Wilber. What I love about this excerpt is the mantra I made of it, at the end. What I also love about it is that I can never get through reading it, let alone saying it out loud, without breaking down in tears…. I offer it to you all as a gift.
Ken Wilber, One Taste, pp. 300-301of Shambala paperback
Wednesday, December 3
Spirit is not an altered state of consciousness (ASC) or a nonordinary state (NOSC.) There is no alternative to it. There is only Spirit, within which the world rolls out. There is only One State, within which different states arise. There is only One Taste, through which different tastes flow. But One Taste itself neither comes nor goes; it is beyond motion and stillness, commotion and quiet, movement or rest.
Look to the ends of the world, you will only find One Taste. Let your mind wander to the edge of the universe, you will only find One Taste. Let your awareness expand to infinity, you will still only find One Taste.
So where is this amazing One Taste? Well, who is reading this page? Who is looking out from those eyes? Who is hearing with those ears? Who is seeing this world right now? That Seer, that ever-present Witness, which is your own immediate Self, stands on the edge of the non-dual revelation in this and every moment.
Rest as your very own Self; rest as the clear seeing of this page, this room, this world; rest as the vast pure Emptiness in which the entire world is arising…and then see if that world isn't one with that Self. For this moment of simple resting as the Witness, notice the feeling of the Witness and the feeling of the world are one and the same feeling (“When I heard the bell ring, there was no I and no bell, just the ringing”). In the simple Feeling of Being, you are the World.
Look! It's just this.
(He goes on to say how “once you taste this One Taste, no matter how fleetingly at first,” a compassion arises that becomes your basic motivation for your every activity, every impulse, every goal and purpose. )
[Commentary; When I say “relax from the effort to be unaware” he says “rest.” Same recommendation. The rest of the parallels are obvious. Although I wrote this paper before finding this quote.
If you can become actually consciously aware of the effort your consciousness is exerting in every nanosecond to stay unaware of its full Self, the “egoic contraction,” you will hasten to relax, and weep from the relief. That's my experience.
”Look! It's just this!” [this being any “this” whatsover] could become a mantra for moving into awareness of Presence at any moment, any second, not matter what is going on inside or outside of us. I have started using it and it's powerful.]
Gratefully, OM
Here's a bit more right-brained image of what my point is:
Imagine a stage on which there is a little human figure moving around, and a spotlight following it, always shining on it. The little figure scurries into a bunch of thoughts, and thinks, “Aha! The spotlight of Presence cannot follow me here. Surely, Presence is not present in this here and now.” Then it looks around. Ooops. The spotlight is there on it.
Then the little figure moves rapidly to another spot on the stage, this one full of anger and hatred. “Aha,' it thinks, “I am surely not in the spotlight of Presence in this here and now. Surely this hatred is not-God.” Then it looks around. Ooops. The spotlight has followed it here, and is shining here too.
The little figure scoots to a spot where it suddenly becomes aware “Oh my gosh, I have been so lost in my thoughts, so trapped in my feelings and roles, I got really caught up in the drama, and I was totally unaware of Presence, so Presence was surely not there.” Hmmm. It looks around, at the spots where it was lost, trapped, and caught up, and lo! there's the light of that danged spotlight called Presence, brightly shining in all those spots.
The figure can scurry and hurry and zip and scoot around that stage to any spots, those full of unawareness, of grief, of ego's restless thoughts, of identification with roles, of anger, of hostility, of upset, of doing “bad things,” and there is no shaking that danged spotlight, it just travels right along, always shining on the person.
Presence is inescapable. Nothing is not-God.
I hope this image speaks to you as much as it speaks to me. Actually it doesn't speak to me, it gets into my body, as I experience the scurrying and discovering !!
Blessings and thanks to all,
OM Bastet
This is a great image, OM. It does speak to the body as well as the mind. Thank you for adding this image…..
Great image.
Blessings, David
How do I experience presence?
I experience presence through love in ACTION!!! :)
I would like to dive right into that beautiful picture!
Thanks OM, for your blog,
Presence to me is not about what someone says, or thinks I need to do to feel present.
Presence is within my own essence of who I am , that be sitting under a tree, and hearing children run freely , talking with a friend , and realize , they say something a word that makes me think of a thought .Presence is how ,I dance with the storms that come my way.
Presence is looking at each day , and trying my best to make a presence in this world.
Much love to all in the presence of your own time.
Loriann
Thank you all for your comments about the image and blog, for adding your own perspectives and experiences. I am deeply honored you would respond to my writing; it is so soul-satisfying !!!!! And enriches the reading, for all.
HeyOK, a special thanks to you because you perhaps have a special challenge in encountering places where the spotlight might not seem – to many people – to be there !!!
Yeah, Bluewater, I wanna dive right in, too !!! Such pictures FEED me !!!!
Namaste, OM Bastet
Your notion of “presence” sounds much like the age old Logos. Very nice.
Interesting-sounding book, Molly, appreciate your contributing a review. Too few Members bother to do that about books they add to our database!
Yeah, we could add Logos to the list of alternative nouns I provided at the beginning of my piece. It is a nice one that I relate to. I coulda also added The Plenum, The Implicate Order, Existence as Such, and The Void, though some terms are less precise or inclusive than others.
“Presence” is not MY notion at all, it is Tolle's term. Not at all one I would have chosen; it doesn't resonate nearly as much for me personally as some of the other alternative terms I mentioned. But I used it because so many people worldwide are now involved in Tolle's teachings.
Thanks again for expanding us with your comment !!
Namaste, OM Bastet
Two more variations on the theme:
FIRST
Awareness of Presence opens up the possibility of some very interesting experiences. In awareness of Presence we begin to experience certain qualities or activities of Presence we were previously unaware of.
{Technicalities: “Awareness of” is misleading terminology. It creates a subject/self that is aware of something outside self or not-self or Other. Self-aware even splits the self. Language fails. Ditto “experience.” Experience of being Being is not an experience OF anything, again the subject-object split. It is just Being, Suchness, Beingness, Isness. Language fails. Paradox rules.}
For example, one activity or quality or experience or expression of Presence is a peculiar kind of sense or experience of Freedom that we might use the term Infinite Freedom to feebly and inaccurately attempt to try to convey. This kind of Freedom is not the opposite of conditioning, programming, constriction, contraction, tension, closedness, limitations, choices and decisions that end up including something and excluding something else. This odd kind of Freedom lies under and within these. It is the Freedom that is free to create and experience all these !! This kind of Freedom characterizes or is the very Creative Power which creates, or is the Beingness of, these.
For another example, Presence also expresses itself as (and in our Awareness of Presence can be experienced as) an odd or peculiar sense or experience or kind of Love that we might call Unconditional Love, that is not the opposite of hatred, violence, torture, war, murder, anger, hostility, but is an odd kind of Love that lies under and within these, that is Loving enough to include in its Love, as expressions of itself as this Love, even these - as well as kindness, respect, goodwill, caring, and valuing.
For yet another example, a strange sense or experience of Peace that is not the opposite of turmoil, chaos, worry, agitation, fear, terror, or panic, but is peaceful enough to create these, to include these in its own Peacefulness, that lies under and within these that expresses its Peacefulness as these.
For one last example, our experience or awareness of Presence can bring what we might choose to call Unconditional Joy, a peculiar sense of Joy which is not the opposite of sadness, grief, mourning, depression, boredom, anxiety, but lies within and under them, and is Joyful enough to create and contain them all -as well as happiness, exhilaration, cheerfulness, optimism – as expressions of its Joyfulness.
SECOND
Ken Wilber, One Taste - Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality, Shambala paperback 2000, pp. 212-213
Sunday September 21
There is such a strange and radically paradoxical thing about One Taste: you never really enter or leave it. You have always known One Taste - literally, for fifteen billion years you have known this, and one day, sooner or later, you will admit it, and the Great Search will be undone. And then you will see that any state that can be entered is not One Taste.
Emptiness though all eternity, Fullness to all infinity. And it's just this, only this. It cannot be any more obvious, which is why it usually takes lifetimes to see. Too close to be grasped, too effortless to be reached, too present to be attained. The Buddhas never attained this; sentient beings never lost it. Who will believe this? [emphases added.] [meaning: Who's ever gonna find this believeable, because it's so preposterously simple and obvious?]
Whenever I read those underlined words, I break down into tears…..
Namaste, OM Bastet
Thanks for letting me know about this entry. It was the kind of no-BS, direct, merciless pointing which I enjoy. Ranting on about theoretical concepts (true or false) that enchance the Quality of Life for an apparent person will indeed do nothing but alter thoughts which arise in the present moment. Thank you for cutting through to the core of reality - there is nothing but what apparently is.
I really like the association of One Taste with presence. Certainly removes the limits of Tolle's interpretation. Thanks for the wonderful insights.
Dear OM, not having read Tolle's concept of Presence I neither agree nor disagree with your thoughts. But the poetry of your flow about Presence is beautiful and uplifting.
It is Tao; it is Brahman.
Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you thank you Molly and Meenakshi !!
Is. , I surely do more of the latter than the former, and thanks for the high compliment that I even managed to do some “no-BS direct merciless pointing.” I will try to be more mindful to do more of that and less of the ranting on about theoretical concepts. But it's so much FUUUUUNNNN !!! :)
Namaste, OM