The Wisdom of Presence

Notice where anger exists, pain or hurt lingers underneath. To be aware of this implies we no longer completely identify with it. If impatience arises, if we focus on or get worked up, overwhelmed about the next series of things, we are lost in continuous doing. Stress is the sense of feeling lost between now and later. Its common to feel lost in this gap in time or space. This dysfunction is amplified by technology which conditions people to focus on the illusion of "then." If we get uncentred, we get lost in thinking which underlies doing. This means we are lost in thought. Many thoughts hijack our attention to deny, devalue, disregard, reduce the present moment to a means to an end. How often are we taught the present moment is an obstacle to overcome? This revelation is a stepping stone to being here now- transcendence.

5 Tips to eliminate stress forever

At different stages, you may think you feel stressed and share stories about it. Listen to words and tenses you use to describe observations.   You may fear history will repeat or worry about what has not yet happened.  How do you keep your head above water?

Perhaps you also allow the mind to linger on missed opportunities because you felt something was too risky or you feared what would happen and got stressed.  Be attentive to how often you write and speak in the present tense.  Rest assured, life  exists beyond stress, and it is accessible to all.  Ponder these 5 tips to eiminate stress forever;

1) Let go of the past.  You cannot change the past so why spend your time thinking about it and talking about it? Watch what happens when people around you do this.  The pulse races, adrenalin kicks in and an emotional roller coaster can take over.  Know that a silent observer beyond brain and mental noise can shift your focus of attention. 

2) Stop worrying about the future.  Consider what happens as you allow thoughts to dwell on the future.  Fear encroaches.  Stay in the present moment and do what is necessary to prepare your mind for any challenges you may face around the corner.

3) Be a rubbish bin with a hole in the bottom.  Notice people dump their stories of frustration, imbalance, anger and pressure on you.  You can dwell onthem or allow them to pass through you.  Similarly, you can dwell on your thoughts and perceptions or focus attention beyond them.  Thinking about things reveals itself as the hard part. 

4) Explore meditation.  Allowing the mind to recell the feeling of emptying helps you trust that letting go of thoughts.  Notice the longer you hold onto a full glass of water (or something else), the heavier it gets.  Similarly, the longer you cling to memories of experiences and discuss them, the more they weigh you down.

5) Focus on the present moment.  Listen to the signs of the body.  Notice that you only get sick if you grow desensitized about what the body is telling you.  Notice the basic energy level of the brain and other body parts. Notice how often you ignore your body.  Notice how when you are kind and rest appropriately, you can perform to a very high standard.  Without rest, you are inefficient.

 “Be gentle first with yourself if you wish to be gentle with others.” -Lama Yeshe

10 Steps to take a quantum leap

When human beings speak of quantum anything, they imply something significant, but cannot always clarify it in words. The mind-centred self wishes to move ahead. The heart senses pure love without doing. Mind is in process of aligning with the heart. Consider10 steps to take a quantum leap;

1) Establish a baseline. Know where you stand. Are you self-directed or directionless or somewhere in-between? Originally, nothing exists. You start and end here. As you open mouth and mind, everything appears. Hindrances obscure your inner view.

2) Notice self-created limits. Misperceptions grow from the invention of time. Energy is fragmented in the mind to change shape, to create doubt, fear and incompleteness.

3) Turn off the mind. It is grounded in a human-conceived past or future and all that is external. This is not where you are. Conscious cooperation is crucial to discern and break mental patterns. To awaken the heart, sense the inner body.

4) Recognize problems do not exist. Sources of any perceived discomfort are not found in the present.  Problems are views of situations that may happen, that invite attention now, or that benefit from being accepted as they are.

5) Focus on a given moment.  To deliberately focus on the now shuts off the fear and pain inthe mind. You also heal others through example and vibration. Mental discipline enables you to attune to an ongoing transformation.

6) Stop basing identity on suffering. Who you are has nothing to do with perceived suffering. You are not what you seem to have or what you falsely assume you lack. You are not attached to situations.  A timeless essence shines through.

7) Feel grateful for everything. Learn to use your senses more fully. Develop compassion for everything.  Visualize a single focal point.  All experience is meaningful. Feeling will get you closer to your authentic self than thinking.

8) De-emphasize results. When you focus on a goal, on what has yet to be done, this is attachment. The ego mind perpetuates competitiveness and restlessness. To sense relief is to be okay with doing or not doing in the moment.  View the self as always doing well, without measuring quality or quantity.

9) Strengthen inner harmony.To gain insight into the power of energy vibration, a person may chant mantras aloud. As a person advances in understanding, mantras and other toning can be done internally. Voicing words silently attracts revelant energies into core or spiritual centre. You realize what is.

10) Accept pure love is universal.  Love only seems to expand as you detach from illusions of the mind. In truth, love is everyone and everything. It does not change.  Only the degree of intensity felt or layers of vibration experienced differ based on what you allow or resist.

Severing views of your history

Undesirable situations in your present are simply perceptions.  They are grounded in a belief about history.  The more you dwell on and share painful stories, the more you add energy to negative feelings and cement a sense of the past.  The essence of being exists beyond them. 

Consider an idea that Carlos Castaneda's teacher, the Nagual Don Juan, told him about what one requires to arrive at the highest level of peace and harmony:

"One day," he said, "I finally realized that I no longer needed a personal history, and just like drinking, I gave it up, and that, and only that, has made all the difference."

Whatever happened in your past is simply a belief.  Watch what happens as you shift attention from that kind of perception  To focus on the present is to know the past is imagined into being. You exert control over how you feel.  Use this time you have to your advantage.

Sever those experiences ona  teimline that evoke restlessness and discomfort.  Let them go such that they no longer control you. Focus on feeling good where you are and know everything emerges based on how you feel.  As you love everything. Life is perfect.  The more you encourage, the more you enrich the world.    Mind invites youto focus attention on the future, tells you the best is yet to come. The heart feels the best is here.  Now choose.