Lens of Attention: Presence

Presence is about being fully here and now, not lost in thoughts of the past or future. It involves directing your full attention and consciousness to the activities and experiences of the current moment. Cultivating presence is key to living each moment to its fullest.

Lens: Presence
Beacons	Attention
Landmarks	Explore Presence While Walking Notice Your Wandering Mind Use Sounds to be Present

Landmarks

The Realms of Everyday Enlightenment each have some noticeable Landmarks which show the likely alignment someone within that Realm has with each of the Beacons and their various Lenses. These Landmarks are things that need to be noticed and explored in the context of those Lenses and Beacons. And then through working on the Trails and Guides these Landmarks will serve as markers toward the next Realm where new Landmarks await.

Landmarks of Seeking

Landmark - Notice Your Wandering Mind

Landmark: Notice Your Wandering Mind
Beacons	Attention
Realms	Enrollment
Lenses	Presence
Guides	Brushing Your Teeth

The Landmark of Notice Your Wandering Mind asks whether you can notice when your mind tends to wander off in different directions. This Landmark is within the Realm of Enrollment, and is part of the Beacon of Attention, more specifically the Lens of Presence.

Landmark Lookouts:

• Notice Your Wandering Mind: Are you able to notice times when your mind wanders?
  
• A Wandering Mind is Different: Can you feel that a wandering mind is different than a tranquil mind or a focused mind?
  
• It's Possible to Let the Mind Return: When your mind does wander, do you notice the moment when it comes back from that distant thought, and back into The Now?
  

The idea here is to just practice basic Attention and Presence during something you do every day.

• Pick up your toothbrush and squeeze a strip of toothpaste onto it.
• Turn on the tap and wet the brush, your daily dental hygiene routine is now a mindfulness exercise.
• As you start brushing, pay attention to where your thoughts wander off.
• Are you thinking about your meetings? Your grocery list? Or maybe an argument from last night?
• Each time you catch your mind straying, gently guide it back to the sensation of brushing.
• Focus on the taste of the toothpaste, the feel of the bristles against your teeth and gums, the sound of brushing.
• Once you're done brushing, rinse your mouth and your brush.
• Clean up your space, put everything back where it belongs, and stand still for a moment, taking in the quiet.
• Use this small window of time twice a day to practice focusing and reigning in your wandering mind.

Landmarks of Training

Landmarks for this Realm (Training) will be added here when those pages are created.

Landmarks of Mastery

Landmarks for this Realm (Mastery) will be added here when those pages are created.

Shadows

The Beacons of Everyday Enlightenment provide powerful guidance through the Realms. The Lenses represent different facets of those Beacons, which provide further focus or illumination of that Beacon. On the other hand, Lenses are also accompanied by two types of Shadows which tend to obscure our journey to Enlightenment. The first kind of Shadows are the Looming Shadows, which are the obvious opposite of a given Lens, and should hopefully be easy to avoid and train against once we understand them. The second kind are the Flickering Shadows, which could be confused with the associated Lenses, because they are quite similar to the Lens, while actually being a harmful or negative counterpart. Both types of Shadows should be understood in the context of the Lens and Beacon, and reviewed periodically to ensure our view is not obscured.

Within the Lens of Presence, we are reminded to be fully here and now.

• Looming Shadow - Absence, the opposite of Presence, is being mentally lost in thoughts of the past or future, not being grounded in the present moment. As we develop our Presence, we should see our Absence diminish.
• Flickering Shadow - Obsession with the Now, is a misguided approach to Presence. Being in the present is not about ignoring what we call the past and future but is rather about gaining a better understanding of the nature of reality, existence, and time itself. When obsessing about the present prevents us from gaining those insights, it has become a negative pattern that needs to be broken.

Resources

Resources for this topic will be added when they are identified.