"In the visible world you are the invisible presence" ~Mooji
By Presence, Eckhart Tolle means being free and independent of psychological time (past and future), and it is achieved by focussing our attention fully and completely on the present time, the events of the present.
This is inevitable for everyone, as this is the only way of recognizing that we are more than our personal life history. A gate opens up for us to see the world free of forms and shapes beyond the world of forms and shapes. Ramana Maharshi asserts that the presence thus achieved is the first step towards revealing the real PRESENCE that he terms as Self.
In Tolle’s interpretation presence is the Ego itself, Consciousness of the body, which has been cleared of most of the identifications. This is, however, only a pseudo-presence, as it is subject to change. It disappears in the state of deep sleep, when there is no presence. It emerges when one is awake and vanishes when one is asleep.
That pseudo-presence is our subjectivity (I am), which is oriented on some object appearing in the present time (e. g. internal body, respiration). This pseudo-presence is the key to PRESENCE. Maharshi believes that it is only possible to reach PRESENCE through a research of ourselves.
A research of ourselves means that we must divert our attention from the object to our subjectivity
and find the source from which it emerges and where it disappears. The source is the PRESENCE itself, the Absolute Consciousness. Seeing that means you recognize: there is only one Subjectivity. One wakes up in Unity and realizes: I AM THAT. I AM EVERYTHING!
Experiencing PRESENCE is not a static thing, but it is an ever evolving process. The presence, emerging in the present moment as described by Eckhart Tolle, is just the first step in the process. During the process, there is a critical moment when the Ego tends to interfere by suggesting that the point concerned is the terminal, the goal has been reached. I am here, I am present, I have elevated myself above the forms and shapes. That presence is, however, only a gate we must go through in order to reach real PRESENCE.
If we recognize this as our real state, it no longer matters whether our PRESENCE is aware of the outside world or turns inward. This conceptual approach only appears unclear if we try to understand it from our current state of Consciousness. In order to fully comprehend this, we first need to wake up in the PRESENCE.
From the book>> Frank M. Wanderer:The Biggest Obstacle to Enlightenment: How to Escape from the Prison of Mind Games?
(C) Frank M. Wanderer, 2013-2015
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About the author:
Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D is a professor of psychology, a consciousness researcher and writer. Frank is the author of the books “The Revolution of Consciousness: Deconditioning the Programmed Mind “, “The Biggest Obstacle to Enlightenment: How to Escape from the Prison of Mind Games?” and several books on consciousness. With a lifelong interest in the mystery of human existence, Frank’s work is to help others wake up from identification with our personal history and the illusory world of the forms and shapes, and to find our identity in what he calls “the Miracle”, the mystery of the Consciousness.
He has contributed to a few different spiritual websites including The Mind Unleashed, Wake Up World, Spirit Science, Waking Times, Zen Gardner, Awakening People, Expanded Consciousness, My Empowered World, ChangeYour Thoughts, and Body, Mind, Soul, Spirit.