Empty Presence
THIS WEEK'S BLOG IS AN EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK OMS FROM THE HEART, AVAILABLE NOW FOR PURCHASE ONLINE.
“Empty presence can be said to be a mind without thought to clutter it, a spaciousness, a sense of profound resting in non-doing.”
— Ariel Spilsbury
It’s moments when the mind is clear of thought and there is nothing but nothingness. And I say moments because when you realize you are in (or have achieved) empty presence, you have then dropped out of it.
It’s a higher state of consciousness where you are open to receive, which goes against the very way we humans “do” things. The paradox of those moments is that in that nothingness, there is everything. You see, we have it all wrong. Our society would like us to believe that we have to do, prove, accumulate and achieve in order to BE, but that is not truth. Truth is BE-ing is just that … BE-ing.
Thankfully we have this amazing mind that judges, categorizes and filters our thoughts daily. However, the mind is not the least bit concerned with the evolution of our soul. It is instead focused on survival, fitting in, and making things happen.
Did you know that we receive more information in a day than people received in their lifetime just 100 years ago? That’s crazy! How can you possibly make any decision based on truth when you are getting pummeled, yes pummeled by stuff!
Everything you could ever want or need is a click away and you better get yours! With this type of instant access to the Internet and social media, it’s easy to fall into the old paradigm of “not-enoughness”. Pssst.. you are enough already….
This practice of empty presence is one that is important for anyone on the spiritual path. Why? Because you are no longer interested in “surface” skimming life. You are no longer involved in wallowing in everyone else’s drama. You are no longer adamant in “charging ahead” to get what you want.
No … you are ready to dig deeper – into the sediment of your life. You are ready to use your power in difficult situations instead of giving it away. You are ready to syphon the sediment out and be completely clean and clear to receive whatever messages you are supposed to hear.
And as I see it, we are bombarded with everyone else’s drama, ideas and beliefs with one click. We are giving away our power left and right because we are subject to so much distraction we couldn’t possibly discern truth in a moment. We are so busy being busy that we don’t have a moment to get to sediment … even though the sediment is what is driving every important decision in our life.
Empty presence brings us to the stillness, the quiet, the spaciousness and vastness of all that is. It brings us to the nothingness that holds everything. It drops us out of our heads and into our hearts. It illuminates truth immediately.
And yes, it rustles up the sediment. The question remains, do you want to syphon it or do you want to keep sitting on it.
In empty presence we are aware of our breath, we are aware of others’ breath, we are aware of the consciousness that connects us, we become aware that we are part of all that is. We fall into this amazing matrix of connection between us all. We see with our hearts and we realize that is all that matters.
In empty presence we hear: we hear the call of our soul. We see ourselves as a part of the whole and experience that Oneness… for real.
In empty presence we trust: we trust what we hear and we act on that trust and intuition, even when it goes against the ideas and concepts of others.
In empty presence we know: we know that we are supported and that we can fly when we are ready; we know that we are held by the Universe and that it is safe to let go.
In empty presence we receive: we receive all the grace, beauty and awareness that we will ever “need” in this moment.
Sit … sit with that for a moment. And then sit with it longer … especially if it’s uncomfortable.
Photo by Robert Sturman.