Lesson 3 – You are Aware of Presence

Guided Meditation: Aware of the Sense of Presence

Relax. Take a deep breath…

Give away all thoughts. Give them back to Life; give your thoughts back to God. Give them back to the Infinite Creator. Don’t hold onto any thoughts—they can be there, they can come up, but they’re not yours.

As you let go of thinking, as you relax your thinking mind, you start noticing the Presence that is here. Just become acutely aware, in a very relaxed way, of the Presence. That sweet ever-present Presence that is right here and right now.

Take another deep breath and relax again; relax even further. Give away even more subtle thoughts, until all you notice is this sense of Presence energy. The sense of being right here, right now; the sense of beingness. The sense I-Am, I exist, I am present. Tune in to that. Make that your reality for this moment.

Feel the ease of it, the naturalness of it; the soothing nature of it.

Now, as you are aware of Presence, start recognizing the very fact that you are aware of Presence. Notice Presence, Presence energy—I am here now. And start noticing that you are noticing Presence-Consciousness; that you are actually aware of Presence energy. Acknowledge that there is an awareness of Presence; there is an awareness of this moment; there is an awareness of energy; there is an awareness of “I am alive, I exist;” there is an awareness of this text; there is an awareness of being here now.

Acknowledge that you are aware of Presence. Notice how that subtly shifts your sense of identity from I-AM to I-I; from the density of Presence energy to the spaciousness, the sky-like nature of Awareness.

Presence Is “In Front” of You

Again, tune into Presence, here and now; and then, in a sense, turn your attention around. This may not work for everyone in this way, but it is one way to go about this. So, try it out. Notice Presence. And notice how Presence energy, or the sense of I-AM, in a sense, is appearing “in front of you,” from an Awareness standpoint; from an Awareness point of view.

The I-AM Presence of Creation—the is-ness of Presence—is appearing, in a sense, “in front” of you. Notice this.

Turn Your Attention Around 180 Degrees

As you notice that Presence is in front of you, turn your attention around 180 degrees, in a sense, pointing back at yourself, at your head—beyond your head even. You’re pointing your attention 180 degrees back inwards, into what is looking, rather than to what is looked upon.

Notice you’re looking upon Presence, you’re noticing Presence, you’re aware of Presence. And if you notice that there is a) an Awareness, and b) of Presence, then in a sense, you can turn the subject in on itself. The subject, Awareness, becomes aware of its own nature, of its own “presence,” its own “I” awareness.

So, turn in on yourself, go backwards, notice awareness, and move away a little bit more from noticing what is in front of you (Presence). Go backwards, go inwards, turn around and look, in a sense, at yourself.

An Increased Sense of Spaciousness

Can you notice the increased sense of the spaciousness, the increased sense of clarity and awareness, the increased sense of freedom, and the lessening of the denseness of I-AM? It feels even lighter than I-AM. It feels even more uncatchable, ungraspable, unfindable, unlocatable. It is freer, more non-local, more non-space-time, more timeless.

Notice that you are aware of “this”—whatever “this” may be, whatever item may come up into Presence-Consciousness, for example my voice. Say to yourself, “I am aware of this.” When another item comes up, perhaps a thought or a sensation in your body—another item within Presence that’s created out of Presence—say, “I am aware of that.” And with every appearance that comes up for a moment, repeat: “I am aware of this; I am aware of that; I am aware of this; I am aware of that; I am aware of this; I am aware of that…” And then say, “I am aware of the Presence of both this and that. I am aware of the Presence energy that is the entirety of my experience in this moment. I am aware of Presence.” Then, emphasize the “I-am-aware” aspect, rather than “this,” “that,” or “Presence.”

With anything that comes up in life, you can simply acknowledge, “I am aware of this.” There are two aspects to that equation: There is the “I-am-aware” aspect, which can be noticed. And there is the “of-this” or “of-that” or “of-Presence” aspect that can be noticed. But emphasize the “I-am-aware-of” aspect, rather than the “this” or “that” or “Presence” aspect.

So, you bring your attention back one step—from noticing that you’re aware of what you’re looking at, to simply noticing that you’re aware. You do this until, in a sense, you simply remain with the awareness of being aware.

As you keep noticing and acknowledging the fact that you’re aware of the appearances that appear in life, recognize how you have the ability to relax into this acknowledgement, into this recognition that I-am-aware. It doesn’t matter what it is you’re aware of; you start shifting the emphasis from things and presences and energy to the Awareness aspect of Creation.

Notice that you have the innate ability to do this for 2 to 5 seconds at a time, during everyday life experiences. No matter what item appears, you can always utilize the item as a confirmation that you aware of it. You can always choose to relax your mind for 2 to 5 seconds—regardless of what is coming up for you; regardless of the experiences you choose to experience in that moment. Simply shift the emphasis from what’s appearing to the fact that you’re aware of what’s appearing.

This is a very simple exercise, and it is quite similar to resting in Presence-Consciousness for 2 to 5 seconds. But the emphasis here is placed on the I-I, and not so much on the AM-ness, or on Beingness anymore. The emphasis is placed on the fact that, during those 2 to 5 seconds, you recognize that clear, awake, free, spacious, sky-like sense of: I-is-aware-of; I-is-aware; I-is-aware; I-awareness; I-awareness; I-awareness…

Do this for 2 to 5 seconds, and if those moments last for a little bit longer, that’s excellent; if not, that’s totally fine too. In a brief snapshot of absolute clarity regarding the fact that you are “aware of,” you’ve already broken through the illusion of believing you are “this,” or “that,” or even I-AM, per se.

You can break through a lot of these lower senses of self, or identifications, by simply breaking up the “clouds” of appearances for 2 to 5 seconds, and recognizing instead the “sky” to which it all appears.