Presence first;
Thought, speech and action second.
Presence is awareness of what is here and now. Presence is being present with whatever is arising in our awareness both inside and outside of us. Presence is a priori, the foundation of our experience. It is always…present. Thought, speech and action arise in and from presence. Right thought, speech and action flow from presence. When we rest in the ground of awareness, the appropriate, effective and compassionate thought, speech and action arise, just right for the current situation.
We cover up presence when we put thought first. We bury the ground of awareness under our preoccupation with thought. This focus on thought is propelled by the following mistaken beliefs:
- Thought is the source of the solutions to all our problems.
- We are our thoughts located somewhere in our heads.
- Our thoughts about reality are real; more real than our experience of the here and now through our senses.
This preoccupation with thought is a long-standing habit that cuts us off from presence—the ground of awareness of what is here and now. Because of this separation, this habit unknowingly takes a lot of effort and energy to maintain, and ends up causing all kinds of problems. Presence, on the other hand, takes no effort at all, because it is the foundation of what we are; it is always there.
The difficulty is breaking or, better said, letting go of the thought habit, and allowing the ground of awareness to be our source, our identity, our reality. Try as it may, thought cannot break or let go of the habit. No philosophical insight will do the trick. That would be a case of throwing gasoline on the fire. Nor can thought grasp or bring about presence. That would be like a single, microscopic organism of plankton trying to swallow the ocean. Finally, presence is not a question of replacing the old habit with a new habit. Presence is not a habit; it is our true nature.
Just as every grain of sand and each of us is unique, the pathless path for each of us to uncovering the ground of awareness is unique. There are many paths up this mountain; this mountain that we are. What a wondrous adventure!
A Tasty Present
Presence,
Open, loving awareness of the here and now,
Is a present that is eternally present;
A cake out of which pops just the right
Thought, speech, action,
Beings, places, things.
Our just desserts are always being served;
A smorgasbord of ever-changing flavors:
Bitter, spicy, bland, sour, sweet.
Let presence do the tasting:
Indescribably delicious