Inner Work

For the week of August 22, 2005

Reading Presence

In our continuing work toward living in presence, we look for the underutilized areas of our life. Time spent reading affords one such opportunity. When we read we tend to collapse into our thinking brain, with little or no awareness of the rest of our being. By grounding ourselves in our body, in physical sensations, we can expand our presence while we read, without interfering with the reading process. Indeed, extending our awareness to include both our thoughts and our body actually enhances our experience of reading by raising our awareness of our thoughts. No longer do the words read us, moving our passive thought processes. Instead, we become inwardly more active in reading, aware of the words and thoughts, ideas and images, better able to analyze, critique, and understand non-fiction, better able to enter and enjoy a fictional world, and better able to find inspiration in words of the spirit.

At the same time, we do not leave aside our spiritual practice while we read. By sensing our body and becoming aware of our thoughts as we read, we step into the world of presence. Another step and we enter the act as the one who is reading, as the one who is choosing to read, the one moving our eyes across the words, seeing our thoughts echo the words on the page or screen, thinking or feeling in response, and sensing our body. We become the one who lives our life, instead of being passively carried along by the river of time.

Whenever you read anything, let that very act remind you to come into presence, to sense your body, to be aware of your thoughts and feelings, to be the one who is reading. If you enter an extended session of reading, your inner effort of presence will almost inevitably wane. When you notice that or remember your intended inner work, simply and gently renew your effort of presence, beginning with being in your body while you read.

For this week, practice reading in a state of presence.

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