Presence Is All There Is
It's not a state that comes and goes
Question from P: Do you see a difference between what Peter is describing as presence and the popular understanding of being present? Through practicing the yoga, I’m finding that being present or being completely distracted are both presence appearing as something else.
However, I’m also finding that the texture of being present and being lost in thought as two different experiences unless I catch that they’re both Radiant Presence . Does that make sense? I’m wondering how you see it.
DE: What Peter describes as Presence and the popular understanding of "being present" could not be more different.
The popular understanding assumes there are distinct, definable states—like "being present" vs. "being completely distracted"—and that there's a separate "me" who can shift in and out of them. But this distinction is made from within a conventional and limited perspective.
These temporary states—and the "me" that claims them—are just conceptual overlays that are unfindable in direct experience. "Being present" and "being completely distracted" are simply different ways that Presence appears.
Presence isn't a state that comes and goes. Rather, it's the infinite space of actuality—the entire field of experience itself—within and as which literally everything arises.
In other words, Presence is all there is.
And Presence looks like your life, your history, your cup of tea, your body, humanity, the solar system, birth, death, emotions, elections, butterflies, trees, your cat, and literally everything else.
But Presence is easy to overlook because of how utterly weird and irrational it is. Even though it’s all there is, it continually presents itself in infinitely varied, never-repeating ways. This can’t be grasped conceptually, but it can be directly experienced—as you seem to have discovered.
Your insight is spot on: both "being present" and "being completely distracted" are simply Presence taking on different forms.
The fact that they feel different to you is simply Presence differentiating itself in texture and appearance, while never ceasing to be the fundamental essence of experience itself.
You may find yourself having a preference for one texture of experience over another, but even that preference is simply another appearance in the one miraculous Presence.
To put it another way...
Presence = That which never changes, no matter what it happens to look like. It's the fundamental essence of experience itself.
Radiance = All the ways that Presence appears. It can look like literally anything!
And Presence = Radiance. They are not two!
Thus, Radiant Presence = Experiencing = You.
There is nothing else.
This part was a helpful nuance for me “The fact that they feel different to you is simply Presence differentiating itself in texture and appearance, while never ceasing to be the fundamental essence of experience itself.”
That a not assuming I am human have really taken a load off.
Thank you!