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Inner
Frontier Fourth Way Spiritual Practice |
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Inner Work For the Week of December 22, 2025
The Practice of Divine Presence(The Practice of Divine Presence Overview)
The practice of Divine Presence has several stages. At first, it is a matter of being in contact with the material world, both the natural world and the rest of the physical world, the whole Earth and everything on it, in it, and around it. This includes all living things, all the land and waters, the sky and the clouds, and the human-made artifacts and constructions: every thing. Being in contact refers to our immediate surroundings, the whole of our immediate environment. It means straightforward awareness of and sensitivity to our surroundings. Our senses are open, and we are mindful and alert to it all. We know our surroundings, we feel our surroundings, and we sense our surroundings. The second stage involves opening to the presence within everything in our surroundings, opening to the presence in everything and everyone. Just as we have our own presence, so does everything and everyone. With material objects that presence is rudimentary and simple: just being what they are. Ordinary objects do not have a dynamic presence like we do. Our attention and our intentions go beyond our own body and we have the power of choice. Not so with material objects: they have no power of choice. Regardless of the complexity of some material objects, their intentions are limited to being what they are and nothing more. Their static presence is wholly contained within their physical boundaries. The presence of plants, animals, and especially human beings is obviously very different from the presence within material objects, different in power and in possibilities. Nevertheless, something is shared. Just as we can become aware of the presence of our body, we can be in contact with the presence of material objects. In this second stage of the practice of Divine Presence, we reach out from our own within to the within of everything and everyone around us. We look deeply into the world and find presence everywhere. We are not passive in this: we look for the presence all around us and we open to that. It is an intentional practice. The first two stages change our relationships with the material world, the natural world and with people. In the third stage, the distinction between ourselves and our surroundings evaporates. In this third state, the fullness, the presence in your body, matches the presence in the world around you. They are of a piece. This stage begins in the heart but certainly includes the head. Indeed, it engages the whole of us. It is a practice, an intentional practice, just as prayer is a practice. This is a form of prayer, contemplative prayer, connecting prayer, opening prayer. And that is what happens with our heart: we relax and let go and open in our core: a deep, inner, and visceral letting go. Our whole center relaxes, letting our walls drop, our boundaries evaporate. We let ourselves merge with the whole of the reality around us, to the point where it all becomes one reality, where it becomes one presence all around and within us, one unifying, loving presence that embraces us completely. Here, relationships do not apply, because relationships imply two entities related. Now there is only One. The fourth stage begins with noticing that this One Presence across our entire reality is SomeOne's Presence. Just as we can intentionally inhabit and be present in our whole body, we can open to the bare realization and even tenuous contact with the SomeOne Who is intentionally present in this whole universe, in us, in everyone, in all we see and touch, in the whole world. The third stage can give us a hint that such a SomeOne is there. Now, in the fourth stage, we take that hint and open to the One behind all. We open to the One Whose Presence is within everything and everyone, open to the benevolent One Who embraces us and infuses us always and everywhere. Each of these four stages is a major milestone in our spiritual path. Yet all four stages are possible for us. If they are possible for anyone, such as the great mystics and spiritual teachers, then they are possible for you. We are all human. The One Presence is in you, just as it is in anyone and everyone. We are all exactly equal within the Divine Presence. We learn where we can, but we do not put any other person between us and the Sacred, we do not classify any other person as higher or lower than us, as closer to or further from the Sacred than us, for the Sacred is fully within us all. Notice that none of the stages requires any beliefs. It goes the other way around. The beliefs that we might have about the Sacred can be validated by our own direct experience of this greater Sacred Presence. What was a viewpoint becomes the reality we live in. It is transformative. In the coming weeks, we will explore the four stages of the practice of Divine Presence.
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