To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
  -William Blake

Zen and the poets have been addressing presence for
centuries.  What’s new is that everyone is paying attention
to presence now, not just a handful of monks. 

Presence lives outside of language so I find it hard to
talk about.  Blake’s poem points to it brilliantly.

Let me take a stab at it, too.

You travel into Presence often, but perhaps you don’t fully
grasp the importance of this.  If you’re like most humans,
you don’t even notice it.

When you are fully present, the chatter in your mind goes
still.  You experience this as the peace which passeth
understanding. 

When you start to notice you are having these experiences
of peace and stillness, you can begin to learn to encourage
them.
 
When your mind quiets, your mind’s obsessive concerns and
fears no longer drive you.  You may even feel at one with
all.

This is good, right?

You can think of your frightened, controlling mind as your
ego.  Yogis and eastern traditions call it the “monkey”
mind, which is short for “a drunken monkey who has just be
stung by a scorpion” mind. 

Have you been there?  Of course, you have.

Another name for this mind is the competitive mind.  I like
this one because it points to the fear that underlies and
drives the competitive mind.  Yet other names for this are
the survival mind and the lizard brain.  (See Related
Article below.)
What Do You Get When This Mind Is Silent?

• You get the peace which passeth understanding. 

• You get a small tastes of enlightenment that gradually
become huge tastes and last for ever longer periods.

• You feel one with all.

• You live in the pleasures of flow.  (See Related Article
below.)

• You feel safe and supported by the whole.  There is no
need for faith.  You become faith itself.

• You get “heaven in a wild flower”.

• You “hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity
in an hour.”
How, Then, Do You Still the Mind?

You still the mind by being present.  When you become
present, the mind is still.  It has no choice.

“But William, I thought that when I was still, I got to in
presence?  Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”

“Probably…  Hmm…

“Let me see, the confusion comes by using the very similar
and related words, Presence with a capital P and present
with a lower case p. 
“Presence is sacred and although you are part of it and it
fills you absolutely, you don’t control it.  Being present
– being right here, right now – is something you have some
control over. 

“When you become present, you become still and you enter
into Presence or more accurately, you experience Presence
directly.

“Does that help?”

You can use silence as a doorway to stillness.  Hang out in
the silence of nature.  Even amongst roaring rivers or
melodious birdsong, you will experience this silence and
the stillness underneath it.

I have written two books that will show you easy methods to
explore Presence.  Obviously, they will be of immense help
to you.
 
• Simply Serene – Four Amazingly Powerful Ways to Be
Instantly Alert and at Peace
• Looking Deeply into Presence
Here’s the Cliff Note Version for Becoming Present

• First, get some silence.

• Go outdoors – somewhere peaceful.  It needn’t be a
national park.  A city park will do – anywhere you have a
spot of nature.

• Practice Owl Eyes – Lightly gaze at something in the
distance.  Keep your eyes resting there while you taken in
as much of your peripheral vision to the right and left as
you can. 

Slowly, deeply breathe in your belly.  Now, while
maintaining all of this, take in your peripheral vision
above and below.  Do this for a few minutes.  Your mind has
quieted.  You’ll notice you have moved into stillness.
Yes?
What did you notice when you tried this?  More peace I
hope.

Practice every day.

Invest in Simply Serene and Looking Deeply into Presence
for the full versions.

Smile.
Flow

Although Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the guru of
flow, doesn’t talk about Presence in his books, his
observations imply that you be present to get into the
lovely state of flow.  All of his strategies for
experiencing flow, therefore, would be good for becoming
present.

Being in flow may be the most important goal of my personal
practices.  When I am in flow, everything, well, flows.  I
live in Heaven.

You love flow, too.  You’ve been there often.

I want getting into flow to be high on your list of things
you want from your Deliberate Living Program.

(Read my article, The Delightful Magic of Flow, below.)
Resources to Guide Your Way

1.  The Scent Of Green Papaya – I saw this film in the
theatre when it came out.  The first five minutes into it
were some of the slowest in my movie watching life.

Then I got it, “Oh, this is about Presence.”

This Vietnamese film takes place in French Saigon.
 
With almost no dialog, a young servant, by simply cleaning
and cooking, models how you can move in your world fully
awake.  It’s lovely.  You will emerge from the experience
as after a lovely meditation.

2.  Eckhart Tolle has written several wonderful books on
the subject and I recommend them as a starting point on the
subject of presence. 

1. A New Earth
2. Stillness Speaks
3. The Power of Now

Find them here.

3.  Again, I recommend my two books Simply Serene and
Looking Deeply into Presence for working with Presence vs.
talking about it or explaining it.

4.  Obviously, you can read books on Zen to get a feel for
it.

See Fun Resource on Spirituality.
5.  The poets have visited Presence often and written
beautifully about it.
 
Mary Oliver is my favorite.  Invest in her books so you can
dip into them when you want.  Her books plus The Sound of
Water, a book of haiku, reside by my bed.   Find some books
here.

Google Mary Oliver Poems – read some.  Then invest in her
books.

Browse the poetry books and poems I have posted in Poetry
and Cool Ideas section.

Also here – Poetry of Life for titles.