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

  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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.


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