Practicing the Presence is most commonly achieved is through the deliberate act of sitting in meditation, seeking to drop away from being identified with our individual selves, and to merge with THAT presence that is larger, beyond, …. enveloping all of Life itself.
I propose a different approach to Practice the Presence. Rather than seeking to escape ourselves, to escape our humanity, to escape our sense of identity as individuated beings, we seek to practice OUR presence. If we are created in the image of God, Spirit, Amma, Allah, Vishnu, Yahweh, if we are ‘chips off the old block’, then practicing the presence becomes the practice of being present to the elemental aspect of ourselves: the ‘Chip off the old block.”
This isn’t something that is done at a special place, such as at a church or synagogue, or at a special time such as during our prayer or meditation practice. This is something that can be (and ideally will be) practiced every moment of every day, whenever we remember or have that ‘moment’ when we have or feel an awareness of our connection, connection to ourselves, to our loved ones, to someone we encounter, or we work with, to our pets, to our creative self that yields music or art, or connection to something where we feel more than our ‘singular self’.
In that moment — that moment of Connection — we have an opportunity to practice the presence of our SELVES, to have a glimpse of the awareness of something more than habit or being on autopilot.