See clearly in this moment that we are the Knowing Presence to which, in which and,
ultimately, as which the mind, the body and the world appear.
Normally we consider that ‘I,’ this knowing Presence, resides inside the body or as the
body. But one clear look at our experience shows that the body and the world both
appear in this Knowing Presence, just like our thoughts. The mind, the body and the
world all appear in this same placeless place of Presence and if we go deeply into our
experience of the mind, the body and the world, we find that it is made out of nothing
other than this Presence.
Nothing extraordinary needs to be done in order to know this. All that is required is to
look simply and clearly at our experience to see that it is ‘I,’ Presence, that is taking the
shape of the mind, the body and the world from moment to moment and yet always
remaining itself. Thoughts and images are coming and going in our Presence. Bodily
sensations are coming and going in Presence. Sense perceptions (that is, the world) come
and go in Presence. But ‘I,’ Presence, Consciousness always remains as it is.
The mind, the body and the world are always moving, changing, appearing, disappearing,
but Presence never moves, changes, appears or disappears. ‘I,’ Presence was never born,
never grows old and never dies.
It is only the exclusive association of Presence with this little cluster of sensations we call
‘the body’ that makes us feel that we are small, personal, limited, vulnerable, that we
were born into a ready-made world and that we will one day die.
We were not born into a ready-made world. The world is born ‘from time to time’ in
ready-made Presence. Presence is always here, not ‘here’ a place but rather ‘here’ this
placeless place of our own Being. The world comes and goes. The body comes and goes.
The mind comes and goes. However, Presence is ever-present.
When the mind, the body and the world are present, they are so utterly, intimately one
with Presence as to be indistinguishable, inseparable from it. In any experience there are
never two things - Presence and the objects of the mind, body or world. These apparent
two are not even intimately connected. They are closer than that: they are utterly one.
When the mind, the body and the world are present, they are the shape that this Presence
is taking at that moment and their substance is only this Knowing Presence that we
intimately know ourselves to be.
If we look at this Knowing Presence, we find nothing objective and yet we know beyond
any doubt that it is both knowing and present, that it is what we are. However, it has no
objective qualities and cannot therefore be found in the mind, the body or the world.
Try right now, in your actual experience, to find this Presence in the body. See clearly
that the body is simply this current sensation. Do we find Presence inside a sensation?
Does Presence appear inside a thought? Or rather is it not our experience that sensations
and thoughts, along with sense perceptions, appear inside this Presence?
The belief that we are separate entities located somewhere inside the body is simply a
belief. One clear look at our experience shows that this belief has no experiential
foundation. There are no separate entities or objects anywhere in the universe, nor is there
a personal subject. It is simply a thought, an unsubstantiated belief, that divides the
seamless totality of experience into a knower, an entity inside the body, and the known,
an outside world.
However, in reality, there is no separate ‘knower’ of experience and no separate object,
other or world that is ‘known.’ There is simply this knowing, this experiencing, this
Presence, taking the shape of thoughts, images, sensations and perceptions, and yet never
becoming anything other than it always already is. If this is known to be our experience,
then there is truly nothing to be done.
However, if we think and, more importantly, if we feel that we are an entity or a person
located somewhere inside the body or as the body, then doing, choosing, seeking are
inherent in that position.
So if we stand knowingly as this Presence taking the shape moment by moment of the
totality of our experience, we simply abide as that. However, if we think we are a person,
an entity, if we feel that we are located somewhere behind the eyes or in the chest, then
seeking is inevitable and unavoidable.
In this case we take the belief or feeling of being separate or located and go deeply into it,
tracing it back to its source and substance in Presence. As we come to know ourselves
again as this Presence, we simply abide as that. Back and forth between these two,
seeking the source and abiding as Presence, our life unfolds, until we can no longer feel
the difference between them.
