Hay Fringe
ITT let's talk about presence. In case you are not familiar it is the attempt to describe a state of mind/ a possible way of life. Experiments with presence have enriched and changed my life greatly and i consider it the most valueable knowlege i stumbled upon.
Presence is something i learned from the (audio-)books of Eckhart Tolle. The books try to communicate that beneath the stressfull daily struggle most people embody lies a state of complete satisfation. Apparently there is happiness already inside every person, readily available to enjoy; which i found to be true.
There are several concepts Tolle has put into words to describe what is preventing from this natural happy human state. These concepts seemd far out when i first heard them, now i think they are great signposts for a person to question and improve the way they live their life.
One of these concepts is what he calls the "pain body". A unconcious desire for pain, conflict and violence most people are taken over by. The pain body can only live in unconciousness, so understanding and observing the painbody will disolve it.
Another concept he calls "ego". Ego can be thought of as a voice every unconcious person hears in their head that makes sure their life remains shit. The goal of the ego is to convince the person to identify with the ego so the person believes they are the ego.
Involuntary thoughts are considered a hinderance. Most thoughts are involuntary and repetetive. Goal of the practise is to redistribute the attention away from useless thoughts. Most thoughts anchor the person in time; either future or past. Experiencing freedom from conditioned thought by quieting the mind disolves time. This he calls presence; being in the present moment instead of lost in thoughts that concern themselves with past or future. This is enough for the underlying feeling of bliss to be noticable.
Yet another concept he calls "feeling the inner body". Through a process not unlike meditation parts of the body (starting with hands, then the feet, then the legs,…) are "flooded" with attention which soon after results in a pleasant feeling in all parts that are flooded. This was the first of the concepts i was able to feel and verify for myself. I thought it was fascinating that i could generate a good feeling of contentment in myself in this systematic manner. I summarized it like this: How to feel good? Take a small part of the body and make it feel good, then take the next part until the whole body feels good.
The concepts are not unique to the teaching of Eckhart Tolle, he points out a few similarities in old religious texts and spiritual traditions across cultures, which helped me to appreciate old teaching i considered obsolete.
One last aspect i thought was interesting is how he tells the story how he found about about this feeling of presence. Once he found it he spend 2 years sitting on park benches, just smiling. I though this was hilarious when i first heard it. Then i experienced this feeling of pure bliss myself. I'd summarize it like this: 'being happy for no reason'. I like to describe it like that because most of the time happiness is thought of to be dependant on circumstances. Presence is not dependant on anything.