New World

Feel the wind in your hair.

Smell the salt of the sea.

Hear the lapping of waves on the hull.

Watch the new shapes emerge on the horizon.

Taste the freedom of moving forward.

Beautiful future lies ahead. 

It's not real

Your feelings are not real. Your feelings matter and they are certainly meaningful! They contribute insight into our interactions with others and our act of presencing, our experiences in the moment. Yet they ebb and flow. Like the tides, ever-changing, always moving, similar, never quite the same. You may sink into that horrible feeling because it is what you know, not because it is 'good' or helpful to you. Is the burning barn good? The horse's home is on fire, yet the horse runs home... the barn is the comfort it knows. Your feelings may be true, but they aren't the only truth. 

Becoming Free

Attain complete emptiness,

Hold fast to stillness. 

Tao Te Ching, #16

When I was young, I dreamed about becoming enlightened, liberated, like Buddha. It seemed that if I “worked hard enough” I would become free. But it was not clear what one would “become free of”. So there was a deep problem. Perhaps, doing more meditation, or living through all the binding non-liberating possibilities, or finding the right teacher, or reading the right book – something would liberate me, then I would be happy and not suffer at all.

The years passed, it become apparent that becoming enlightened is not an event. Some people have spontaneous enlightenment experiences, glimpses that soon fade away. Enlightenment is not an experience. Call it wisdom. Not the wisdom found in books; but, a wisdom that slowly grows within the heart-mind until one day we awaken to a new way of being, living. We discover we where already free – but did not know it!

Greetings, I am so proud of you.

I am the Frederika of which Americ speaks. Yes, not spoke, speaks - due to his method of philosophy he lives on presently in sound. I go by Freda now (Frederika means peaceful ruler; Freda simply means peace.) 

I make up words all the time for fun. One day I was emailing Americ, he asked me how I was - I responded that I was doing fine... moving along... presencing more and more. We bonded over our study of philosophy, we knew how rare it was to find a true living philosopher. Now I see this word used by his students and it makes me happy.

We write on this blog in his honor. We sit in his honor. We are not lost in grief, for we know he is near. You can never lose yourself. We wash our dishes and we think of him, we remember. The veil feels thin! All I can do is grow and keep presencing more and more...  

remember who you are

take the form of the boddhisattva of compassion and help find shelter for the homeless.

you’ll make it

when I lived through the darkest night of the soul

I sought truth

now I only value what is sacred

☽

Presencing

Engaged in endless desires 

mind darting place to place
forgetful of true deep nature
looking for jewels of enjoyment
within illusions and flickering desires
water passing through our fingers 

Living is showing up for our own lives. No one else can do it for you! Where would you “be” if you don’t know you’re here?  “Presencing[1]” is the process of coming to full presence. Real presence is quiet and still.

An old friend asked, "What happens after you die?" Without thought, I said, "Nothing". They looked stunned.  Either way it is nothing. If you really don't die – nothing changed. You die – nothing changed. Consider this deeply.

It is not so much about being alive or dead; it’s being awake to this moment that is life. The intensity of wakefulness is how alive you are. Good sleep, paradoxically, is a sound basis for stable wakefulness. Waking up requires going to sleep. Remember to exercise, eat good food and keep good company. Attend to the general environment all around – the air, the ambient sounds, the tone of the times, and so forth. That means to adjust your distance closer or further away as needed.  Enhance your inner resolve to be alive, to be awake.

Modern civilization’s great “dis-ease” is intentional distraction. Our everyday world is built on distractions. Technology, new products, advertising, sales people – all of them want our attention – their livelihoods depend on your attention

Your real livelihood is your real life which depends on bringing your attention back to the present here and now. Every morning, our place on earth turns toward our local star – the sun. And, we, over and over, need to turn toward the life experienced – this very present, ever present moment here and now. This is active intention called “presencing”. 

Feel with the whole being, be present to the rich textures of body, mind, and heart! Face life. Live life. Live today.

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[1] The word “presencing” was introduced to me by Frederika Kreitzer, who was a graduating Philosophy student at UC Berkeley. Thereby turning the noun (present), into a process, a verb (presencing).

Life Well Lived - Virtue

What's a life well lived? There's the ancient Greek ideal of virtue -- an ethical standard derived as a ratio between aspects of life. We have life and we have the "goods" of life. How we use those goods determines our virtue.