I wrote this as part of my post-paper for a Wisdom University course on Living in Mastery in 2012 – and just found it again as I review all my papers for my PhD dissertation. Not sure what I think of it but was told to not make that choice for others – so here it is :-).
Presence
There is not much
One can say about
Presence
As really it is
Empty
Of anything.
“Empty”
from Old English meaning “rest”.
Rest.
Not doing.
Still.
Still.
Not moving.
Noticing movement.
Feeling stillness.
Eye at the center.
I at the center.
The center at I.
I as the center.
The center as I.
I as that.
That as I.
I thou it we you its.
Mmmm.
Still.
At rest.
Present
With it all.
Presence.
Something stirs.
Pre-sensing resonance.
Resonance
In the stillness
Something stirs.
Or is stirred.
Still again.
Still. Stir. Still. Stir.
Stir Stir. Still.
Stir Stir Stir. Still.
What’s that stirring?
Attention drawn.
Curiosity awakened.
Something is stirring.
The first awake seems to stir others.
New others.
And old others.
New constellation though.
What’s stirring?
It’s disturbing.
My stillness.
It’s growing.
Something is forming.
Strange.
Stranger.
Strangest.
Still is safe.
I know still.
Staying still
I watch the strange stirring.
The connections
Start to draw me in.
I feel excitement.
Something is growing in me.
As me.
It’s me growing!
An explosion of stirring
Like the crazed whisking of a spoon in a teacup
Sloshes tea all over the place
Yet is held together by the stirring
At the center.
Then I see.
The harder is stirred,
The emptier the spiral at the center
The fuller the tea all around.
Presence holds resonance
As a new form is born.
Bring on the tea!
Coherence
As I see
Myself in the strange
My whole being
Sings a new tune.
From teaspoon
To dervish dancer
Whipping the world into its orbit.
I look up.
Things look different.
They look strange
And I recognise
The strangeness.
It fits.
We fit.
New me, new world.
We move.
We dance.
We sing.
We play.
And stillness fills the movement.
And movement fills the stillness.
As one.
And my mind asks:
But what changed?
I see the same world
But feel it is different.
It responds differently.
I act differently.
But physically it’s all the same.
My life is different.
Or so it feels.
What is that out there
If it so malleable
By this in here?
How can I impact that
When there is so much of it?
What’s the difference
Between my experience of reality
And reality itself?
Is there a difference?
What if someone else
Changes their experience of reality
Does that change mine?
And if it’s all moving together,
Then who’s doing the moving?
That’s a conversation killer.
Mind stops.
Still.
In presence
I feel the resonance
And am the coherence
And that’s all I know
For now.
4 Comments
Sensing and pre-sensing. The world within, the world outside…what is first?…is there first in experiencing the whole from that place…
Thank you for sharing Peter!
Inge Hindriks
Very profound yet simple. Thanks for posting. With your permission and due acknowledgement i would like to use this in my workshops on presence, fully present, noticing etc.
Thank you Vibha. Permission granted with pleasure. Please just reference the source.
Thanks for sharing Peter. I think of resonance from a musical standpoint too – the vibrations of sound energy in many forms – overtones, undertones, tones, dissonance, resonance. A symphony.