Inner Work

For the week of: August 23, 2004

Active Presence

Every day, moments of awakening descend upon us unbidden and unexpected, but are they unwelcome? When they happen to show us one of our own unbecoming manifestations, then we well may wish to fall back into oblivion. At other times we may simply not recognize or not care about our moments of awakening and allow them to slip away as we slip back into autopilot. To properly welcome a moment of awakening means to take the opportunity to enter into presence, to extend our presence in time, and to deepen our presence in the realm of being.

Not all inner work arrives through openness. The path also requires an active approach. For example, we can actively work to be present, whenever the moments of opportunity arise. We extend our awareness of sensation to our whole body, so that we “own” our body. Whatever its posture or movement, we fully occupy that. We embrace our wider awareness that includes our thoughts, emotions, and sensory perceptions. We occupy our deeper consciousness, the context of all experience. And we become the active agent in ourselves, the source of our actions, the decision-maker, the director of attention. To reach the sacred, we must first come into our own, into “I am.” Only our “I am” can truly surrender to the Ineffable Source, the Always-Everywhere. Without this “I am” there is nothing in us capable of making the step toward the sacred, no vehicle for the spirit.

For this week, actively work to be, to be more, more often, more deeply, and more vividly.

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