Embracing Presence

My title is an actual book title, “Embracing Presence,” published by a friend I have never met in person, Ken Collier.  We know each other via social media, introduced by mutual friends.  He also is a clergyman, and kindly asked me for some critical attention when finishing the manuscript, which is why I know it and like it.

So Why Mention It?

Well, I do want good ideas to get around, so feel free to check it out, but the title itself is a two word summary of Pilgrim Life.  To be a pilgrim is to embrace whatever presents itself to you along the way.  Conscious pilgrimages make this easier, but the power and insight and dare I say revelations can be had anywhere and anytime, if we are present to them.

It Goes Both Ways

So there I was, walking a narrow trail through the Katlav Nahal west of Jerusalem.  I was so focused on the trail – not falling off it to be honest – that I missed the turn off and had to backtrack half a kilometer.  Because I was not present to the trail, I was not present the world in which I was walking.  Focused on the narrow, if legitimate, anxiety my perceptions narrowed to the thin dirt track.

Embracing presence means noticing where you are and who you are in equal measure.

Most Days We Are Not Present

The tasks we have, the thoughts about those tasks, plans, memories, reveries, are mostlty what we think about.  This may seem like being present to ourselves, but we are wrong.  Presence means ‘in the present,’ here, now, this time and this place.

Pilgrimage is how we practice being present in the rest of our lives.  There are other ways, of course.  I have several friends for whom Zen meditation is how they practice being present to presence.  Yoga devotees must focus their minds and bodies in the moment to move from asana to asan; Tai Chi Chuan does the same thing.  Sure, you can meditate badly and literally ‘go through the motions’ of yoga and other body practices.  Monastics across religions teach that prayer is only effective when the pray-er is in the moment, totally focused on being present to the words and their meaning.

Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!

My other spiritual practice is attending shabbat services in a local synagogue.  The liturgy is largely in Hebrew and has a tradition of kavvanah  – cultivated by ways you stand and move during the Amidah prayer.  There is the standing itself, which brings your body to attention.  At certain words one steps forward and back, bends and bows, wobbles (called shuckling) which are inherent to the act of praying.  You can’t phone it in, as it were.

The same principle can also be found in Islam as niyyah, about which I found this description from a  site, haute hijab, that started as a store for Islamic women’s wear and clearly has grown:

“As Muslims, we are taught that we should consider our niyyah, or intentions, make good intentions in everything we do – not just in our deen (faith) but also in our dunya (pursuits). Why are we doing what we are we are doing? For what reason? Whom are we doing it for? Is it for praise? Is it because you want to be seen? Or, is it for the sake of Allah (S)?”

Those pictures of Muslims prostrating and kneeling are all essential parts of praying, which make it necessary to be present.

All these particular religious forms are about cultivating presence to yourself, to the world, to the moment.  You cannot embrace presence when you are absent from yourself.

Pilgrimage is a retreat that demands you embrace presence; it is a time for making it the one thing you .

Many Paths to Choose From

So choose already!  Find a way to cultivate presence in all its iterations and implications.  I can assure you that iof you practice presence, you will become better at it in the rest if your life.  And isn’t that what spirituality is supposed to do?

By the way, another of my practices is making a daily diary entry via Facebook, where I post what my day was about.  Why?  Because I need accountability, and having people who expect to hear from me keeps me disciplined.  But there is a whole other entry and this one is already quite long.