Conscious communication Part 3

Conscious communication

Part 3

Read part 1 here and part 2 here before reading part 3

Why is it helpful to meet our traumatic energetic inner-world thoughts and outer-world interactions with Presence? The Knowing of Presence reveals that our essential nature is not the transient arising of thoughts and their further manifestation in interactions. The movement to grasp a thought as ‘my thought’ is what creates suffering. Once we are invested in a separate self we become a slave to the sense of inadequacy of our identity. Our experience becomes solely the activity of seeking solace and recognition in the outer world to validate the inherent insecurity and suffering of a separate self.

How to meet Presence? Presence is that which is eternal; the unchanging. Knowing this we can undertake an investigation for ourselves. This investigation will return us to our innate Presence. Let’s go on an investigation together:

Sit comfortably in an upright position. Tune into your breathing. Bring all your attention to this rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. Allow yourself to turn your attention from habitual thinking and take this moment to drop into the direct experience of breathing. Turn your attention to your sense of your body experience. Run your attention lightly over this experience of your body with a sense of quiet curiosity. Note the subtle inner experience of your heart beating. Feel for a moment the rhythm of your breathing along with the rhythm of your heartbeat. We can feel our heartbeat in the tingling of blood in our fingers. Tune in to this sensation and connect with it for a time. Notice that your body is fully supported in your chair or on the floor or bed. As you breath slowly and rhythmically allow your mind to engage in the following investigation:

Who am I? Am I my breathing? Who is noticing my breathing sensation? Am I my body? Who is noticing this body experience? Am I my job or my life-role? Are there moments when I am not my job or my life-role? Who experiences these activities? Bring up a memory of yourself as a small child and ask: am I this memory? Who is noticing this memory? Am I my thoughts? Who is hearing/seeing/experiencing my thoughts? See if you can pin down exactly who is the experiencer of these passing phenomena? If you can pin down this experiencer, who is it that has them pinned down? Sit now in the silence that remains. Drop all concepts, drop all sensations, become empty. Who is Present?

Repeating this practice and engaging with it sincerely will transform your life. This Presence that remains after all has fallen away is Us. We are One in and AS this Presence. This Presence does not need to be good enough for there is no question of worth. This Presence cannot be lonely for there is no true other. This Presence does not need to become powerful for it IS limitless power.

I find it so helpful to bless any inner or outer arising of what I experience as ‘difficult energy’ with this Presence. I know that if I am finding it difficult this is simply my resistance to it and I know this can shift into acceptance. All experiences arise and fall away in and as Presence. I know there is no small inadequate person who can’t deal with what arises and falls away in her attention as I have seen for myself the only true Attention is Presence.