pseudonymous
Obtuse Kineticist
The Present Moment
Considering it was my only (true) reality, I am amazed at just how rare it was that I ever witnessed the present moment. I know now that to witness the present moment isn't to be in a place of time as much as it is to be in a state of presence. For those who speak volumes about "being here now", if they don't describe a state of being that is completely alien to the vast majority of the human population, or describe emergent properties arising from attaining presence, then I can surmise that they are talking from conceptualization, and not from actual experience of being present.
I will give you my most common unconscious experience of being in the present moment. I am sure you have experienced the phenomena of witnessing someone doing some type of activity, or artwork that left you transfixed. A great example would be the gentle artist Ross on PBS that used to talk in a soft singsong voice as he painted some landscape picture. I literally would become absorbed in witnessing him. My senses took in every movement without my mind defining the actions. Just an absolutely outward witnessing of the action taking place.
I used to become transfixed watching someone being creative or just sitting reading a book. It produced in me a passive sensual feeling when there wasn't any processing going on within my mind, tiredly defining the activity. That to me is the key between being present, and being locked in the past unconscious. If the flow is from the object inward to my mind, then my brain begins to process the information gathered from the physical senses in order to tell me down to the smallest details the definitions of what I am looking at. The present moment is witnessed. The illusion is looked at and defined.
I remember whenever I was transfixed, or maybe just zoning out, there was no defining going on, because my senses were not picking up anything, but brushing against things (like when zoning out how I can hear, but I am not listening, and I can see, but I am not looking at any thing with focus). What is really taking place in the conscious present moment is that I slip my boundary, the skin. I literally pass right through my physical sense of self and drift over to whatever I am witnessing.
When I am truly conscious in the present moment, I will emit a presence to anyone able to sense energy. When present, I am likewise consciously aware that I am emitting the presence. Someone who is causal Self aware can take this ever present flow and consciously direct it into causal healing energy (without intermediaries), or causal creative energy used to change my own or another's thoughts or emotions. There is ample subjective anecdotal evidence of this presence-emitting ability in the world, such as surrounding the guru/disciple relationship, some of Rupert Sheldrake's work, and the old knowing when someone is about to call you phenomena.
Today it is difficult for me to imagine what it was like to be asleep (or unconscious) to my Self. I look at those around me, and their need for tittilation and distraction, and it makes me feel blessed to have awoken from the scripted dream I had lived for so many years. Of course it also makes me feel like a stranger in a strange desultorious world. Today, having discovered and being in the present moment, I prefer silence. I spend hours in contemplation daily for the sheer joy of being "on" without familial distractions or repsonsibilities. I try to surround myself with reminders of what I am, so that the frequency of slipping into who I was diminishes. The present moment for me is simply not about being in a state, but has become a state of being.
©2004 DC Vision
Considering it was my only (true) reality, I am amazed at just how rare it was that I ever witnessed the present moment. I know now that to witness the present moment isn't to be in a place of time as much as it is to be in a state of presence. For those who speak volumes about "being here now", if they don't describe a state of being that is completely alien to the vast majority of the human population, or describe emergent properties arising from attaining presence, then I can surmise that they are talking from conceptualization, and not from actual experience of being present.
I will give you my most common unconscious experience of being in the present moment. I am sure you have experienced the phenomena of witnessing someone doing some type of activity, or artwork that left you transfixed. A great example would be the gentle artist Ross on PBS that used to talk in a soft singsong voice as he painted some landscape picture. I literally would become absorbed in witnessing him. My senses took in every movement without my mind defining the actions. Just an absolutely outward witnessing of the action taking place.
I used to become transfixed watching someone being creative or just sitting reading a book. It produced in me a passive sensual feeling when there wasn't any processing going on within my mind, tiredly defining the activity. That to me is the key between being present, and being locked in the past unconscious. If the flow is from the object inward to my mind, then my brain begins to process the information gathered from the physical senses in order to tell me down to the smallest details the definitions of what I am looking at. The present moment is witnessed. The illusion is looked at and defined.
I remember whenever I was transfixed, or maybe just zoning out, there was no defining going on, because my senses were not picking up anything, but brushing against things (like when zoning out how I can hear, but I am not listening, and I can see, but I am not looking at any thing with focus). What is really taking place in the conscious present moment is that I slip my boundary, the skin. I literally pass right through my physical sense of self and drift over to whatever I am witnessing.
When I am truly conscious in the present moment, I will emit a presence to anyone able to sense energy. When present, I am likewise consciously aware that I am emitting the presence. Someone who is causal Self aware can take this ever present flow and consciously direct it into causal healing energy (without intermediaries), or causal creative energy used to change my own or another's thoughts or emotions. There is ample subjective anecdotal evidence of this presence-emitting ability in the world, such as surrounding the guru/disciple relationship, some of Rupert Sheldrake's work, and the old knowing when someone is about to call you phenomena.
Today it is difficult for me to imagine what it was like to be asleep (or unconscious) to my Self. I look at those around me, and their need for tittilation and distraction, and it makes me feel blessed to have awoken from the scripted dream I had lived for so many years. Of course it also makes me feel like a stranger in a strange desultorious world. Today, having discovered and being in the present moment, I prefer silence. I spend hours in contemplation daily for the sheer joy of being "on" without familial distractions or repsonsibilities. I try to surround myself with reminders of what I am, so that the frequency of slipping into who I was diminishes. The present moment for me is simply not about being in a state, but has become a state of being.
©2004 DC Vision