Quote from The Presence Process. -- living in time vs being present

 

"When we live in time, we spend our days seeking the meaning of life. In contrast, when we are present, we enjoy a life saturated with meaning."
- Michael Brown, The Presence Process.

Being 'present' is talked about a lot by various spiritual teachers. Keep in mind it's more of a non-doing than a doing that takes effort. Michael Brown's "The Presence Process" is one way to take a 10-week self-led training in becoming more familiar with being present. I recommend this book.

Leonard Jacobson and his teachings and approach to being present, presence, and present moment awareness.

 Leonard Jacobson and related teachings and themes

I am summarizing some points, themes, and keywords from some recent research on Leonard Jacobson's teachings. LJ kept appearing on some of my information feeds over the last few years, and it was time to examine what he was saying and the approaches he used to achieve the teaching's aims.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Leonard Jacobson and his approach to spirituality and awakening. It's a very relevant message- the power and very important need to be here now, to show up and be present in one's daily activities and life experience. I was impressed with how LJ constantly delivers this message as the first thing in all of his talks, writings, and teachings-- the simple need to be present, and importantly, that this can be done with minimal fuss by stopping and noticing what is present and here now (via the senses).

The teaching is fairly simple- wake up from the dream of the mind, out of imagination, discursive thinking, self stories, etc., and into the reality of the present moment, beingness, and what's happening now. 

This is actually an "I am" type of teaching, with some mindfulness involved in the initial stages, then settling on the "I am" presence. Some shadow-work is also involved in Step (2), which deals with the 'ego' or individual / programmed 'self' on a psychological level with practices such as forgiveness, acceptance, and relating.

This message isn't new or unusual. It is a common aim in spiritual circles and is wide enough to encompass any number of other schools and teachers, from Buddhism to contemporaries like Eckhart Tolle, Barry Long, and many many others. In fact, while listening to LJ, I kept being reminded of ET and Barry Long repeatedly. I had to work out if LJ was somehow tapping into ET and BL or if he had something new to bring to the table in his teaching or approach. I am sure there's no overt connection, as LJ seems to describe his own awakening experience in detail in a few podcasts, and doesn't mention much about his own teacher(s) apart from that awakening, however, one can't help but notice the uncanny resemblance to a few other western teachers who also founded their teaching on the 'present moment' approach.

Some history I gathered from various sources:

- LJ got into J Krishnamurti at some point in the 80s or before

- had a series of non-traditional awakenings, mostly in nature and on retreat, and highly personal and mystical in content (religious, etc)

- began his career as a spiritual teacher, writing books, running retreats, etc., and is pretty much a full-time task at present, noted that LJ is in his 80s now.

Some key points in LJ's teachings:

- There is a 2 step process that LJ uses for awakening (although this is not the way that LJ himself 'woke up'). Step one involves becoming present both in the senses, and then in beingness or "I am"ness. Step two involves becoming aware of how and when one is removed from the above state of presence, and how to resolve such obstacles.

- Our natural state is to be awake, present, undistracted by the personal story, and connected to one's ever-present state of being

There is more emphasis on relaxing tension and effort rather than striving for any future state. Meditation and pathways are mostly discouraged.

These teachings accommodate both ordinary reality via the senses and metaphysical reality through religious and spiritual concepts (e.g., soul, incarnations, other realities and planes of existence, God, etc.).

- There's a community effect or a social effect related to presence, and the invitation to become 'present'

- LJ repeatedly comes back to the basics of being physically and mentally present, via the senses and physical environment as a way to disengage from the mind, habitual thinking, mental distractions, and obstacles to being grounded in the present moment. This is probably the core point in the teaching. The instructions around this are basic and minimal, and there is only one type of meditation that is used (which is related to being aware of the body and breathing and moving to an awareness of one's conscious existence or being)

- There's nothing special about awakening, enlightenment, or being present (ie in this definition of the word(s))

- Just by being present, one's personal story is transformed 

- LJ's teachings have evolved from the start of his teaching career to the present.

The good:

- Uses simple, easy-to-understand language, while avoiding most spiritual jargon and concepts

- Approachable directly, LJ is directly communicating with people and his students via various communications media

- Easy to follow teachings and approach, appeals to a large variety of people

- The teachings and practices cover a large amount of territory but are logically arranged so that they deliver on the goals that LJ sets forth, which is a good thing and points to the consistency of his message (being present in the now and understanding one's true nature)

- Speaks plainly about his own awakening experiences in various talks and interviews

- Great intro into awareness, awakening, and present moment awareness for beginners and those starting off on the journey of awakening

- Has a good deal of material that students can delve into to get the gist of his teachings and approach. A large amount of this is freely available.

- Is constant in his message and emphasizes the simple approach to being present and showing up for life without being lost in the world of the mind, distraction, thought, concepts, and much of what defines humanity now. This is even more important now that most people are completely consumed by electronic and digital devices and media channels (ie. by design by billion-dollar companies who want to take 24x7 control of people's attention to boost revenue and achieve their own corporate aims).

Some small concerns:

- At various points, LJ seems dismissive of meditation and practices in general and gives reasoning related to meditation being a focus on the future, an obstacle to being present, an effort and a journey, etc., etc. -- most of these reasons are common in the neo-advaita type schools. He seems to miss the point that meditation can also be a way to efficiently train the mind to actually be present more frequently and more deeply. OTOH, he does make use of various mini-meditations and contemplations such as "the ego meditation", "the anger meditation", and "the presence meditation" etc., which are done during retreats or at different times. His own 'presence meditation', which he conducts at the start of some sessions is, in fact, a mindfulness-type meditation (breath awareness). It's possible to acknowledge that meditation can have pitfalls, but also serve as an essential tool on the path. Personally, I can't think of any more effective means than structured forms of mindfulness meditation for training the mind to recognize when it is lost in thought, stories, emotion, etc., and return to the experience of just being in the present. Further, even small sessions can build up the required mental muscles of concentration, equanimity, and clarity of sense experience.. the very things that these sorts of teachings require.

- Overly simplistic approach, with little long-term development of meditation skills needed to deeply penetrate one's experience. The approach of 'just being physically present' within one's environment with the senses is fine. However, this alone rarely leads to awakening or a permanent shift in one's way of being due to much stronger habits of thought, tendencies, mental triggers, emotional events, etc. (in Sanskrit- vasanas and samskaras). This is the same issue that others such as Eckhart Tolle have with advising simplistic methods of being present and the carrot of 'awakening' following these simplistic methods, that doesn't eventuate for the vast number of people following these types of teachings that appeal to the mass audience. Why? Because they're just not precise enough, structured enough, or done over long enough periods with frequency to really embed themselves into one's life experience and overcome deeply ingrained habits of mind movement away from the present. Hence why successful spiritual aspirants DO meditate frequently, build skill in concentration/attention in a structured way, go on occasional retreats, and have massive amounts of motivation for the path and liberation of LONG periods.. rather than just casually trying to remember to 'be present' for a few minutes here and there randomly done when remembered.

- LJ doesn't seem to have the best grasp of some Eastern teachings (e.g. emptiness in Buddhism, or not-self, or consciousness, etc.), and seems to misunderstand some of these concepts when they do surface at various times in talks, thus not really doing justice to the teaching. This is fair enough, but just something to be aware of, when asking such questions from teachers who are not familiar with the territory of Eastern teachings proper.

- Following on from this, many of the talks contain sweeping statements about 'all the great masters' essentially saying the 'same thing', which equates to being 'present in the moment'. People like 'the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Ramana Maharshi' are all mentioned in one sentence as essentially saying the same thing (and this being presented of course in the talk). I have an issue with this-- because all of these teachers were saying vastly different things and offering vastly different approaches at different times. Yes, perhaps the distant end goal was similar, but the approaches are so obviously different, that comparing these teachers in one sweeping sentence is doing them a disservice, and watering down the teachings that each presented in their own way.

- One has to either believe or disbelieve when the LJ's teachings start speculating on ideas like human evolution, spiritual evolution, what Jesus really meant or represented, past lives, and other dimensions, etc. Are these real or just part of LJ's imagination and own 'stuff'? Belief comes in here. These concepts that get presented at various points in the talks and teachings distract and run counter to the goal of just being present with one's reality as it is now. This could be a selling point for some to jump into the teachings and find some helpful transformation, but for others, they will likely become distractions and rabbit holes away from the task at hand. Granted, LJ does hammer home his main point about being present and disidentified with the mind and imagination.

Other notes:

For those who've been around the block with spiritual teachings, especially those related to these themes of being present, awake, aware, etc., the Leonard Jacobson won't appear to be saying anything new or extraordinary. Sure, there's a lot of metaphysical stuff thrown in such as other dimensions, past lives, human evolution etc., but 90% of the pointers and approaches presented have been done by others or well-known contemporaries who have jumped onto the 'be-here now' 'power of now' bandwagon. That said, LJ should be applauded for keeping his overall teaching grounded in easy-to-understand basics to be more present and available in life, and more aware of when we're totally absorbed in our constructed personal story or mind-constructed 'reality'. LJ's message is the most simple to understand and most practical to implement when compared to most other 'present moment awareness' type teachers out there.

For some there's likely to be a certain amount of attraction for this type of simple teaching, grounded in helpful practices or philosophy with some metaphysical content thrown in. LJ does speak to those coming from a Western, Christian-type background who are searching for more than the usual conceptual orthodox teachings they've grown up with and are looking for practical ways to improve their spiritual life, without having to take up a new tradition. For some, there might be some 'father figure' or 'wise old man' transference going on, and that would also be a motivating factor for some. His use of plain English without any spiritual jargon is excellent as well, and his ability to hammer home points repeatedly, while also keeping his talks and sessions interesting is great.

If LJ appeals to you, then I'd say 'go for it'. These teachings present few issues, and they feel very helpful and benign. The good outweighs the bad here.

There's heaps of content available online both free (podcasts, YT) and paid (on the author's website below).

Here are some links below for further information and talks:

https://www.youtube.com/@LeonardJacobsonTeachings

https://www.leonardjacobson.com/

https://leonardjacobsonbooks.com/

https://batgap.com/leonard-jacobson/

This introduction course (online course) is excellent and covers all the essential points in Leonard's teachings:

https://www.leonardjacobson.com/thekeystoawakening

🌍🌌🌊✨🌟

Keywords and links to other teachings:

ACIM, A Course in Miracles, teachings of Jesus, mysticism, present moment awareness, beingness, mindfulness, breath awareness, shadow work, Eckhart Tolle, Barry Long, spirituality, "I am", beingness.

Eckhart Tolle - General notes and some practical quotes from The Power of Now.

 

After many years, I've been revisiting "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. This was prompted after seeing some content on YT, and also having quite a few audios from his live events, which I felt like reviewing all at once over the next few weeks/month.

I find 'The Power of Now' to be an excellent introduction into spirituality in general, and something for the more serious seeker starting off. However, as I will go into in future posts, the approach and framework in making the ideas in that book 'come to life' is sort of missing. Try giving the following pointers, detailed in the book, a sincere run through for a few days, and check to see in your experience if any of these pointers or 'tips' work for you (or not), and if they 'stick'.

As you will likey find out, or have intuited, there's such an array of practices or pointers given in that small chapter, and each require their own way of approach or background explanation and practical means of use, that these pointers become challenging (especially for newcomers) to actually put into practice and integrate into experience. There's a massive different in the practice of feeling one's presence (or beingness, or "I am"), which was a key approach of Nisargadatta's for example, and filled multiple books.. vs the approach of present moment awareness of phenomena. Giving out these mini-practices and approaches in a mixed order like this really does them a disservice, and makes it extremely likely a beginner will feel inadequate and some sort of failure because they tried (and failed) in performing any of these for more than a second or two (if that). This is a repeated issue with Eckhart's teachings, and why people keep having to attend again and again, and listen to talks again and again, in order to establish some form of mindfulness in the approach that he is attempting to convey.

Granted, Eckhart Tolle does have some meditation instructions and material available, such as "Gateways into the Now" (which happens to be one of my favourite ET instructional audios, though is hardly known), and various guided meditations (which more more like talks).. though these came well after The Power of Now was published, and likely his followers were asking for a "How" in terms of implementing those ideas. Some of these lessen known sessions and audio teachings are excellent in terms of actually leading the listener/student into exactly what Eckhart is trying to convey. In general, look for the audio recordings or sessions that were NOT done with a live audience. This is because the audio had a set aim, and there's no entertaining banter or live audience chatter to distract from the contemplation and experiential insight that needs to happen outside of thinking or conceptualising.

Chapter Two of PON introduces one of Eckhart's main teaching ideas, which is the 'emotional pain body', which he likens to a separate entity that has been created due to unconsciousness accumulation of pain, and is then identified with by the individual and 'becomes' the individual. His advise (again) is to pretty much become aware of one's inner state, emotional state, emotional feeling tone and energy, and then keep watching until attention or consciousness dissolves this 'pain body' or at least the identification of the individual (ego) with this aspect.

While I have no issues at all with the ideas about the 'pain body', or the proposed way of dealing with it, again, the reader or seeker is left unsatisfied and wanting, because the surface level advice just isn't deep enough. REAL inner emotional work could involve any number of deep work activities, such as somatic experiencing, somatic therapy, TRE, inner child work, or developing skills in sense based mindfulness along with mindfulness of feeling tone and emotion. However, none of these are proposed, and instead Eckhart Tolle just hands out some very basic, surface level advice on just being with the feeling, being present, being in the Now etc.

Again, the experiential teachings that Eckhart does give out ARE there, though buried under thousands of hours of talks and banter, and it can take a while to actually discover what material is essential and what is non-essential. In terms of the books such as the Power of Now, and live talks that were given, the advice is fairly short and surface level. The usual ideas that we've heard again and again, but hasn't penetrated deep enough.. the 'Now', accepting it, accepting the present moment, focusing one's attention on it etc etc.. which, is hardly deep enough or sophisticated enough to penetrate into something as deep seated as the 'pain body' he has just spent pages detailing and analysing for example in Chapter Two in The Power of Now (or A New Earth). Again, without a framework, or practice, this advice would be of little assistance for the beginner. The philosophy is there, but not the means to bring about the promised changes. I should say-- the means is there, but is buried within thousands of hours of content, and it requires someone particularly knowledgable or already familiar with meditative and contemplative approaches to siphon out what is useful and what isn't so useful. 

Some practical quotes from Chapter One (You are not your mind)

Stillness:

"You can only know it when your mind is still."

Presence, present moment awareness:

"When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt.."

"Instead of watching the thinker, you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment."

"You can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself.."

"Pause for a few seconds and observe the flow of your breath.."

"Become aware of a silent but powerful sense of presence.."

Beingness, presence, feeling of "I":

"Nobody can claim exclusive exclusive possession of Being. It is your very essense, and it is immediately accessible to your as the feeling of your own presence.."

Watching the thinker, watching the mind, self-observation:

"The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated."

Witnessing, listening to thoughts, "the voice" in the mind:

"You can take the first step now. Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns.. be there as the witnessing presence"

"You'll soon realize: there is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it."

Practical quotes from Chapter Two (Consciousness: The way out of pain)

"Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation."

"Surrender to what is. Say "yes" to life - and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you."

Pain body:

"So the pain body doesn't want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken."

"Let me summarize the process. Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain body. Accept that it is there. Don't think about it .. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of 'the one who observes', the silent watcher. This is the power of Now, the power of your own conscious presence. Then see what happens."

Rest in awareness, and rest AS awareness.

In or As??

This seems like a big deal over nothing, and such as small point, BUT it needs to be said.. since it can have a huge impact.

Many nonduality and awareness teachers often tell people (in books or otherwise) to just "Rest in awareness", or "Rest in presence", or just relax into the awareness.. etc. etc.

There's nothing wrong with this.. BUT, simply stated, when telling individuals to just do this, it implies that 1) there's an individual to perform the action and 2) there's a separate object/thing called 'awareness', 'presence' etc. and that 1) needs to merge/attend/rest in 2).

The then causes:

a) the individual to try to find 'awareness', 'presence' etc.

b) the individual to hang on to their erroneous belief in a seperate personal self, with volition

c) the individual to keep seeking for (a), and either to give up in frustration or erroneously announce that they're actually managed to 'rest in awareness' or attain some false personal state of nondual awareness etc. (and then go off and teach others how to do the same).

Anyhow, cutting to the chase, the above can be avoided and remedied by replacing "in" with the word "as".

Instead of "resting in presence", one rests AS presence. There is no more individual. There is no one. Just presence.

Instead of "resting in awareness", one rests AS awareness. Again, the individual disappears. Resting AS something is mutually exclusive, in that two things can't be happening at once.

Try it out- rest AS awareness, AS presence, AS your natural self and what you really ARE.

Peace out.