It's simple

Resting in presence is as natural as swallowing. Like the air we breathe, it’s in us, in front of us, all around us.

For this there’s no need to sit stiffly for hours in tomblike silence. Or master the fine points of The Gospel of St. Thomas or The Ashtavakra Gita. If that’s what we’re drawn to along the way, that’s fine. That said, the presence that we are is already here, available to each of us right now without doing a thing.

All that’s needed is to stop and allow things to be just as they are. When we're conscious in the moment—aware and fully present—the thought stories that upset us about people, work, and everyday life vanish. In the silence  of letting go, where worries and fears fade, we find serenity.

Everyday problems die down. Life, no longer burdened by difficulties, feels lighthearted and serene.                                                      

A brief pause...

At first some find turning to this awareness obvious, even dull. At one point I wondered, What’s the point of sitting around doing nothing? But as I kept acknowledging presence, an all-embracing silence arose in the midst of the emptiness. It was unfathomable, yet unmistakable. Peace itself.            

In this simple pause, so easy to dismiss as insigni- ficant, something magical occurs. We realize that we’re not the body-mind contraption with its muscles and blood, skin and bones. Nor are we the thoughts that come and go or the feelings that ebb and shift like the desert sand. We are nothing less than presence itself.

This presence

Right now as you read

this you exist and you are aware that you exist... This awareness is what you are; it is what you always have been... This is undeniable and certain. Be willing to stick on that point and linger a bit.

—John Wheeler

Awakening to

the Natural State

We do much more by a gentle and tranquil concentration in the presence of God than by the greatest eagerness and all the efforts of our restless nature.

—Francois Fénelon

The Complete Fénelon

Sense your presence, the naked, unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes.

—Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth