Inner Work

For the week of: November 1, 2004

Sustaining Presence

Choose to be here, in the whole of yourself, inhabiting your entire body, heart, and mind. And now that you are here, choose to be here more powerfully, more fully, more robustly. Keep yourself here in the whole of yourself. Do not fall away. Do not shirk the effort. When you notice that your intention to be present has faded, then come back to this moment and reinvigorate that intention. But stay relaxed in body, heart, and mind, while your intention to maintain your presence in this moment stays firm and effective. Let your intention to be present arise from your depth, not from your surface. From the surface it brings tension; from the depth it brings relaxed openness, rooted in the moment.

Choose an hour each day this week to practice this. At first choose times when the external demands on you are minimal: perhaps while sitting quietly in meditation or in a meeting or in the audience at a performance. Eventually, you will be able to work this way in any situation.

The essence is to maintain your presence, strongly, intentionally, and continuously. It is a difficult practice, requiring the whole of your attention and intention. Do not demand perfection of yourself in this, but do strive toward the reality of sustained, wholehearted presence. Even brief efforts in this direction can yield profound results.

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