Defining Presence
Topics:
“Defining Presence”
”Benefits of Presence”
”Ways to Maintain a State of Presence”
Sunday, August 9, 2015 (Group/Webinar)
Participants: Mary (Michael), Axel (Ricarro), Jeff, John (Rrussell), Lexa, Lynda (Ruther), Michael, Paul (Paneus), Rodney (Zacharie), Wendy (Myiisha)
ELIAS: Good day!
JOHN: Hi, Elias. Can you hear me?
ELIAS: Yes.
JOHN: Very good. So, we have everybody here for a webinar, and for the sake of the recording and the sake of the transcript, I am going to read the topic that we’ve come up with, if that’s all right with you.
ELIAS: Very well.
JOHN: It is “defining presence, benefits of presence and ways to maintain a state of presence.” I think with that we can begin.
ELIAS: Very well. Defining presence: Presence is a state of being, of being aware of your existence, that you exist in the moment. Not that you are aware of only your thinking or your feeling, but that you are aware of your complete existence in the moment.
When you are present, you will automatically also be now. That is not to say that the now is exclusive. You may be engaging ideas or thoughts in relation to past or future but in relation to what is occurring now, for that is an automatic by-product of being present. But in that, it is that genuine awareness of the entirety of yourself and that you are actually participating in each moment. I have offered several examples of being in the now and not being present, and they are not synonymous. You can be now and not be being present.
In this, a very simple example is an example of watering a plant. You can be aware of watering the plant. You can be being now and being aware of the action of watering the plant and perhaps even be aware of your mind while you are watering the plant. But generally speaking, you will likely be merely engaging the action and aware of the plant and aware of the action of watering it, but not necessarily aware of your existence, your being and how that is participating in that action of watering the plant.
Now; the most common example of not being present is when you are interacting with another individual, for that is a time framework where you automatically are projecting your attention to the other individual.
Now; that aspect is not bad, and we have spoken many times of listening genuinely and paying attention when you are interacting with another individual, and in that, it is not that being present is also exclusive in which you are only paying attention to yourself, or that if you are genuinely listening to another individual that your attention is only projected to them. It is a matter of generating both, in which you are aware of your participation through the awareness of your existence in that time framework, in those moments in which you are engaging any situation or a conversation with another individual.
Now; presence, by being aware of your existence, that is not necessarily the same as thinking. That is what the automatic association is or the automatic idea is, that you would be thinking. That contradicts the statement that if you are genuinely listening to another individual in a conversation that you are not thinking while you are listening.
Being aware of your existence and your participation in that existence is not necessarily thinking. It is an awareness, just as you can be aware of your surroundings and not necessarily be thinking about them. Each of you is physically in a physical place in this very moment, and in that, you are aware of the environment around you but you are not necessarily thinking about the environment around you, for you are listening and participating in this interaction. But are you aware of yourself in your existence in that participation – which includes the whole of you, not merely your mind.
Your mind is not necessarily your brain. Your mind is that aspect of you that, in a manner of speaking, directs your attention. Therefore, that is a very significant piece of you, but it is not the whole of you. There is much more to each of you than merely your mind.
In this, if you are not aware of yourself while you are engaging anything, anything in your life, in your existence, then you are missing pieces in your awareness, for you are also missing information and limiting choices, for you are not being aware of you as a whole while you are engaging whatever it is that you are engaging – and you are engaging every moment of your existence in physical reality.
This is the next step, so to speak, in your movement in this shift, in your evolution in this shift, is now becoming genuinely aware of yourselves to the point in which you are always present. I am very aware that none of you are always present yet, but you are moving in that direction. Initially, it may be somewhat challenging to remind yourself to be present.
That leads into your second question, what would be some methods that you could engage that would aid you in being present. Use your senses. Your senses are your strongest avenues of communication. You automatically pay attention to them, and you have developed your technology and your devices to be engaging your senses. Therefore, in that, you can use many different avenues, anything that alerts you through your senses to remind yourself to be present.
I have expressed recently with some individuals that you can very simply offer yourself one question, which can become a mantra: where am I? And it matters not how you answer that question, whether you answer that question philosophically, whether you answer that question emotionally, intellectually or physically. It matters not, for however you answer the question in any moment it prompts you to be more present.
In this, it can be helpful to aid you in remembering that question by giving yourself visual aids. Offer yourself notes in areas of your home or your work that you frequent, and therefore you will see the notes and remind yourself. You can program your devices to vibrate or to generate sounds that are specific to remind you of that particular question: where am I?
The reason this is so important is that the greatest contributant to miscommunications between individuals is not being present. You focus your attention upon outside sources and you react to them, and in that, in not being present, you are not always actually aware of what you yourself are doing or how you are communicating with other individuals. Thusly you are surprised by the reflections that you generate to yourselves. You interact with other individuals, and the manner in which they present themselves or they interact with you is surprising to you at times. For in that, it may be unexpected, or you may feel or think that you are misunderstood or that individuals are misinterpreting you, or you may be misinterpreting them. In this, there are other aspects of this that create situations in which there is miscommunication between individuals.
Now; I have offered tremendous information in relation to essence families, orientations, focus types – all of these what you have dawned to be “cosmic statistics.” All of these avenues of information give you more information about yourselves. But in some capacities you have interpreted them also to create limitations between you or obstacles between you, and in that, you also incorporate a tendency at times to express justifications for misunderstandings or miscommunications, for you express that you are speaking different languages. In one capacity you are, but not to the capacity that you cannot understand each other. That occurs because individuals are not being present, and therefore are not aware of what you yourselves are doing and therefore why you are reflecting what you are reflecting through other individuals.
As an example, we incorporated a discussion previously in this forum in which one of the participants was expressing concern that it is difficult to interact with other individuals if they are not expressing the same awareness as yourself. Many individuals also incorporate similar responses if they are interacting with other individuals that do not incorporate the same intelligence as themself or the same life experiences as themself or different interests than themselves. There are many different reasons, all of which stem from differences, that individuals incorporate difficulty in communicating and interacting with each other, which in many situations leads into impatience and irritation, and that can lead into conflicts. The conflicts may even be within family units, with your own children or with your own parents or with your own siblings. It matters not.
What occurs is when you are not present, you are not aware of what you are doing. You are not paying attention to what you are doing in a genuine capacity and evaluating whether what you are doing is actually what you want to be communicating or what you want to be projecting in energy. You are not aware of what you are projecting in energy.
We speak of energy considerably, but actually being aware of how you are directing your energy, what you are doing with it and how you are projecting it in relation to other individuals or any situation, you are not genuinely aware, for the most part, of what you are doing in that, and that is because you are not being present. If you are being present, then you are paying attention to what you are doing.
In this, I expressed a time framework ago, which many of you will remember, that your ultimate first responsibility is to self, and that if you are being responsible to you and for you, you will automatically generate a by-product in being responsible with other individuals. What does that actually mean? When you are being responsible to you, you are genuinely aware of what you are doing and being responsible to you. You are, in a manner of speaking, ensuring that the energy that you are projecting matches your intention.
We also, a significant time framework ago, engaged a group interaction in which we engaged the subject of being intrusive and what constitutes being intrusive or not being intrusive. In that conversation that we engaged, I expressed an analogy about a pool and fishes.(1) Most of you are familiar with that analogy, in which I expressed that there are many, many time frameworks in which you may be expressing yourselves and you may be projecting energy, not incorporating an intention to be disturbing or harmful or judgmental in relation to another individual, and one of those fishes may be swimming to the surface of your pond and may move in that direction and may be expressed. Why does that happen? That is directly associated with being present or not being present.
For in being present, in being aware of you, you are also aware of what you are doing, which includes what type of energy you are projecting. I have expressed many times, the most accurate manner in which you can determine what type of energy you are projecting is not through your thinking and not through your feeling, but in relation to what you are DOING, and what you are doing in many situations may not match what you intend. For you are doing what is familiar and automatic and not being present, and in not being present and expressing that automatic pilot, it becomes easy to be projecting energy that is generating communications that you do not intend. This is tremendously all encompassing. It is not merely in relation to your interactions with other individuals. This is affecting of everything you do and the most common expression with most individuals in relation to what you want, and therefore… One moment. (Pause while a technical glitch is corrected)
Continuing. (Chuckles) And an example of not being present, and not being aware of what you are doing!
Now; in that, as I expressed, offering yourselves reminders is an excellent beginning, for it is a very unfamiliar action, to be being present. Let me also express to you, it does not require a tremendous amount of thinking or energy. I would express that you engage and use more energy concentrating upon outside sources than you will ever require to be present with yourself. It is not a difficult action to engage. It is merely unfamiliar, and therefore, it is easy to forget, and it is easy to not be aware of continuously, for that is what you are accustomed to. You are accustomed to paying attention to everything outside of you and all of the stimulation that is inputted to you through all of your avenues of communication. Therefore, in the midst of all of those communications, it is easy to forget that you are actually a being that is actually projecting energy every moment of your existence. Therefore, what type of energy is it that you want to be projecting, and what is to your greatest benefit?
As I was expressing, one of your greatest questions and directions is about creating what you want and how to do that, and what are the tricks or what is the magic key to creating what you want. One of the most important factors is that factor of being present, for in that, then you are aware of what type of energy you are projecting. In that, you would be aware when your energy shifts or changes, and you are no longer projecting an energy in relation to what you want and the creating of it.
Now; do you incorporate other questions in relation to that subject? Are there aspects of that that remain unclear or that you are confused about and we can discuss that? (Pause)
WENDY: I have a question, Elias. This is Wendy, Myiisha.
ELIAS: Very well.
WENDY: What you’re describing I once in a while manage to do. But it seems really difficult to me. And I know that actually it’s very easy, but I’m wondering what it is that makes it seem so hard.
ELIAS: First of all, the reason that it seems so hard – which seems very elementary, but it is a significant piece – is that it is so unfamiliar. And when I say that, that it is unfamiliar, what I am expressing is that you very frequently think that you are being present if you are paying attention to now. That is the reason that it seems difficult, for it seems that there is some large other action that you should be doing in addition to paying attention to what is occurring now.
Moving in the direction of merely being aware of now has been a difficult piece for many if not most individuals, but you have moved in that direction and it has become more and more familiar to most of you. Therefore, you do know what that experience is, being aware of now and not projecting futurely or pastly and generating somewhat of a centeredness – not necessarily balance, but a centeredness in relation to that expression of being now.
In this, what becomes confusing or what seems difficult in adding that piece of being present is that you become confused in viewing yourself as paying attention to now: Therefore, what more can I be paying attention to? I am already paying attention to now. Isn’t that the same as being present? No, it is not the same as being present. It is an excellent step in the direction of being present, and that is the reason that I engaged so much conversation and information to this point about being now and paying attention to the now, to aid you to move in this direction of becoming more present.
In this, what creates the difficulty or what generates the idea that it seems so difficult to be present is the confusion in relation to “what am I supposed to be paying attention to?” I am supposed to be paying attention to me, myself – what part of myself am I supposed to be paying attention to? That is how it becomes complicated, and that is the reason that it seems so difficult to do it.
You are very accustomed to compartmentalizing. You section everything, including yourselves. You compartmentalize yourselves tremendously. What part of me am I supposed to pay attention to? What part of me am I supposed to be aware of? My body, my thoughts, my feelings, my actions, my senses? There are so many parts of me, I’m not quite sure which part of me I am supposed to be aware of and therefore be present. But it is not a matter of compartmentalizing. It is not a matter of pieces of you. It is not a matter of being aware of your body or being aware of your feelings or being aware of what you are thinking. It is merely and simply the action of being aware that you exist. As ridiculously simple that seems, it is actually considerably challenging, for you are not accustomed to experiencing yourselves as a whole, as a being – that you are a being.
In that, you see another individual as a being, at times. You see another individual as a whole; you see other things as a whole. But you do not necessarily see yourselves as a whole. You are not aware of yourselves as a whole. You do this continuously, even in the attempt to be a whole, in separating yourselves and essence. You are fascinated with the idea of essence but as something other than you, separate from you, larger than you, wiser than you, bigger than you, different from you. But it IS you! Even that factor, to this point individuals have not integrated that yet, in which you are not separating the idea of yourself and essence as two entities but that you are one. There is no separation in that. There is no higher self or greater self. It all is you, and you are a being, and you exist. In that, it is not a matter of thinking. It is a matter of merely being aware that you exist.
Let me ask you, in a very genuine manner how many of you can actually think about a scenario in which you are sitting in front of your television in your home and you are engaging the action of watching a program or watching a movie on your television, and you are actually aware that you exist while you are watching that program or that movie? I would venture to say none of you. Perhaps you may incorporate a brief moment in which you identify that you may be having some unusual spiritual moments in which you may be momentarily aware of your presence while you are watching a program on your television, and you will remember that moment, and it will be surprising to you, and you will subsequently ask yourself and perhaps even engage a conversation with myself and ask myself how you can recapture that, for it was profound. It was merely a moment of being present.
There is so much more to all of you than you are aware of, and there is so much more to what you do than you are aware of. This is the key to so many of your questions in relation to the whys: Why does this occur? Why does this happen? Why do other individuals do this in relation to me? Why can I not generate what I want? Why can I not create what I want? Why can I not generate as much money as I want? Why can I not generate the relationship that I want? Why do other individuals interact with me in the manner that they do? Why does my dog behave in the manner that it does? Why does my bird generate this particular sound at a particular time of the day and become so annoying? Why, why, why.
All of those whys can be answered in being present, for all of those whys are directly connected with whatever energy you are projecting in any particular moment, and all of those questions can be answered in being aware of what energy you are projecting in any particular moment merely by being present – not thinking about paying attention to your body or what you are thinking or what you are feeling, but merely knowing that you exist and therefore paying attention to what you are doing.
And let me express to all of you, you are NEVER doing nothing. There is never a moment in your existence that you are doing nothing. You are always engaging something. You are always projecting energy, always, every moment of every hour of every day, of every night of your existence. Even when you are sleeping, you are always projecting energy. But you are only momentarily and very infrequently aware of what type of energy you are projecting or what you are actually doing.
In many, many, many situations you think you are aware of what you are doing; you are not aware of what energy you are projecting. Therefore, you are not actually aware of what you are doing, for the energy that you are projecting may not match what you think you are doing or what you want to be doing or what you intend to be doing, and that is what creates most, almost all of the discrepancies between what you intend and what you see, what you want and what you see. Are you understanding?
WENDY: Yes, I am.
ELIAS: And in that, let me express to you, if you allow yourselves to let go of the idea that being present is thinking about and rather merely answering that question “where am I?” that is enough.
As I expressed, it matters not how you answer that question. You can answer that question “I am daydreaming” or “I am feeling” or “I am standing in my kitchen.” It matters not. Regardless of how you answer the question, whether it seems to be a surface answer or a deep answer, it matters not. It is all the same. It reminds you that you exist, and it reminds you of your beingness, however you answer the question.
The more you are aware of you, the more effective and the more efficient you are in whatever you do and in relation to how you interact with everyone you encounter. For in that, you become less concerned with what other individuals are doing or how they are expressing themselves. For remember, they are always reflecting you. Therefore, you become less concerned with what other individuals are doing or how they are expressing themselves. Not that you are not paying attention to that, not that that is not important to you – you are less concerned with it because you know that what you are projecting does match what you intend, and therefore, what you reflect is what you intend, not confusion.
JOHN: Elias?
ELIAS: Yes.
JOHN: I was wondering, are there activities that lend themselves to being especially present? For example, certain activities where we naturally are more present and therefore that allows us to sort of get used to that feeling, if you will, of being present and therefore it becomes a good thing to practice and become accustomed to?
Several of us came up with a list of examples – not that you may or may not want to address each one – but for example mountain climbing, saying our essence name daily, yoga, meditation, simply being in a zone, playing an instrument, engaging a very important conversation with someone you love very much and wondering if what you are saying is being understood as it is intended to be understood, a kind of deep conversation, or usage of certain substances.
Going back to the question, are there specific activities that lend themselves or require us to be more present and therefore may be good starting points for practice in getting used to that sensation or feeling?
ELIAS: What I would express to you is there are actions that individuals can engage that will automatically lead them in that direction momentarily, but once again, this moves to the previous question. Why it is so difficult or seems so difficult to be present is that even in those actions that would lead an individual in that direction or aid them in practicing being more present, they do not necessarily know how to translate that into other situations.
Now; in all of those expressions that were offered of examples that might lead an individual in that direction of being more present, the only one that I would express would be one that moves closely in that direction would be the mountain climbing. For in that physical action, an individual generally would experience a point or a time framework in which they would experience very similar to a runner – which most individuals that do not engage the action of running will not understand this statement for they have not generated this experience – but an individual that has engaged that action of running, or mountain climbing to a degree, will understand.
A runner will at some points move into a rhythm in the action of running in which their body is in a type of complete harmony, in which they will experience a brief time framework in which the action of that running appears to be effortless. They are not breathless. They are not exerting themselves. It seems that the action of running itself is effortless and flows, and the individual is entirely aware of their existence in that moment of running. There is a moment or a brief time framework for the runner in which there is what they identify as a completeness. Many, many, many runners identify that experience, that state of being as “the zone.”
Individuals have experienced that throughout history, but generally most individuals experience that when they are generating some type of physical action that in a manner of speaking initially requires some degree of concentration. But if they are engaging it correctly, to achieve that presence and that entire centered experience – for although it may be expressed by many individuals as a feeling, it is not actually a feeling; it is an experience, it is a state of being, and in that, that state of being is a harmony of self, in which the individual is present – they are in harmony with every aspect of themself. How they achieve that is by being aware of what they are doing but not concentrating on it any longer. Therefore, it becomes easy and effortless.
That is the attraction, is that it is so easy and so effortless, and in that, the experience is pleasurable for it is an experience of presence in a complete centeredness. You are aware of your surroundings, you are aware of what you are doing in a completeness, and you are in harmony with yourself and everything around you, all of your environment and yourself. In that, your energy is in a manner of speaking perfectly projecting what you intend. Generally, individuals will achieve that by engaging some type of physical action that to move into that experience they must be being it, not concentrating on it.
Therefore, what I would express to you is that in all of these other examples, there remains an element of separation – in music, in yoga, in any of these examples. At times, an individual that is a biker, a cyclist, can also achieve that state of presence by concentrating upon their action and then not concentrating upon it, being it.
In this, all of these other actions, painting, dancing, music, yoga, tai chi, any of these actions, even meditation, there is a factor with that – although you could achieve it or practice it more similarly to a runner or a cyclist through meditation. The reason I do not always encourage that or advocate that is that many of you are so unfamiliar with meditation. You have not been practicing that action from the time you were a small one. Therefore, that in itself is difficult for you to achieve and does require significant practice. But it is a method that would lead you in that direction also, that you could practice with that experience.
But in this, all of these other actions are actions that would encourage you to pay more attention to you and what you are thinking or what you are feeling, not necessarily what you are doing, or they may be an action that encourages you to pay attention to what you are doing but not what you are thinking or feeling.
Being present is being aware of your beingness, which means the whole of you, not pieces of you – not your thoughts, not your feelings, not physical actions, not your body – ALL of it, which is not a matter of necessarily generating moving your attention from one aspect of yourself to another. No, that is not the point. That is compartmentalizing, and that is not presence. That is the reason that I used the example of a runner or perhaps a cyclist or perhaps a mountain climber, for they will move into an experience of stopping their concentration upon what they are doing and they will BE. They will BE the action that they are doing. In that, they are aware of everything around them and what they are doing.
In that, if you engage an individual that is a mountain climber or a cyclist or a runner and you ask them once they move into that experience, they will generally express to you that it is not difficult to maintain it. It is not difficult to maintain it, for it is natural.
PAUL: Hey, Elias, I have a question about your example on running. Is listening to music while you’re running going to be counter-productive to getting into that zone?
ELIAS: Not necessarily, no. It would not necessarily be counter-productive. As I expressed, if you are a runner, you have that experience in which you are aware of everything in your environment. You can be listening to music, engaging that. You are already engaging all of your senses – your sight, your sense of touch, you feel the ground, you are aware of your body – and in that, no, listening to music is not necessarily a distraction at all. It may even, for some individuals, be an additional aid, for it may aid them in not thinking as much.
PAUL: Thanks, Elias.
ELIAS: You are very welcome.
I am not expressing to any or all of you the suggestion that you all become runners or cyclists or mountain climbers. I am merely expressing to you that of all of these examples that you have offered, thinking about what would be a method that would allow you to practice moving into that presence, all of those examples are not actually helpful to you. They may be helpful to you in being more now but not necessarily in relation to being more present.
That is the reason that I offered you that very simple exercise. Program your devices, your telephones. All of you incorporate your cellular phones, and in that, they vibrate; they generate different tones. You can program them to remind you. You can even program them to speak to you and ask you the question “where am I?” Or you can move in the direction of what you may term to be old-fashioned paper (laughs) and place notes to yourself, expressing that question, those three words: “where am I?” That is an easy direction, an easy expression to engage to practice and to remind yourself.
In that, remember, it is not a matter of becoming philosophical when you ask the question. Merely ask the question, and whatever your answer is is enough. It is merely a reminder to be aware of YOU, that you exist. In that, if you are so choosing, you could express perhaps other reminders also that remind you occasionally “I exist.”
PAUL: Hey, Elias, there’s a question I thought you talked about years ago, about when you stub your toe, there’s a momentary awareness of self.
ELIAS: Which is also a physical action.
PAUL: Is that like being present for a split moment?
ELIAS: For an instant, yes. There is an instant in that in which you will be present. It is very brief, but yes. That encourages you to definitely be more now. For whenever you engage some type of physical expression, it does encourage you to be much more now.
But as I expressed, I do not use those terms interchangeably. They are not synonymous. I do not express that being in the now or being present are the same, for they are not. They move hand in glove with each other, but they are not the same. (Pause)
JOHN: We have about fifteen minutes left. If anybody’s having microphone difficulties, let me know. You can type your question in the box, and I’m happy to ask it on your behalf. (Long pause) If you have a question, and you’re having difficulty with your microphone, you can type your question into the box and I can ask your question on your behalf – or you can do it yourself. Feel free to jump in.
PAUL: Elias, I have a question. So, being present is more or easily more accessible when we’re by ourselves than when we’re with other individuals? Is that what I understood correctly?
ELIAS: Yes, I would agree. The more outside stimulation you engage, the easier it is for you to be distracted and not be present.
PAUL: Those isolation chambers where people have no light, sound, and they lay in that thing of salt water, would that be a tool to be more present with the self?
ELIAS: No, not necessarily, for it is a matter of your participation. Remember, that is what we began with, the definition of being present. It is being aware of your existence and how you are participating.
Therefore, if you were engaging an isolation chamber, you would not necessarily be participating with anything except for your immediate environment but not necessarily any other outside sources. Therefore, that would not necessarily automatically encourage you to be more present. It may encourage you to think more or think less, it may encourage you to feel more or to feel less, but it would not necessarily encourage you to be more present, for that is the point with presence.
This is what I have been expressing with you this day, is that it is a matter of you are existing within a physical reality. You are not alone; you are not isolated; you are engaging continuously. Even if you are alone with yourself at times, there are countless other energies around you, and in that, you are never actually alone. You are never actually doing nothing or not interacting, unless you are in that type of controlled situation, but even in that, you would be engaging other energies. You merely would not necessarily be aware of what they are or have the ability to identify how you are interacting with them and therefore not necessarily generate an understanding or an ability to quantify what you are doing.
In this, it is not about paying attention to yourself to the exclusion of all outside sources. That is tremendously a significant point in all of this, is that this is what you automatically to this point have been thinking and have been attempting to engage. This is also related to Myiisha’s question in relation to why is it so difficult. For in that, it seems difficult for this is what you are doing: You are categorizing, and you are separating, and you are compartmentalizing.
If I am paying attention to me, I must not be paying attention to anything else; or if I am paying attention to an outside source, I am not paying attention to me; or how can I be paying attention to me if I am paying attention to an outside source? It is not either/or. It is not pay attention to an outside source, listen to another individual and not be thinking, and therefore you are not being aware of yourself. Your thinking is not the only aspect of you. It is not a matter of paying attention to you and excluding everything outside of you, or paying attention to what is outside of you and excluding you – both of which are familiar to you. You either pay attention to you or you pay attention to an outside source. You do not pay attention to both simultaneously. For, you equate paying attention with thinking. It is not a matter of thinking about.
Very similar to what I have expressed to all of you in relation to listening to another individual, when you are genuinely listening, you are not thinking. You are listening. You are paying attention, but paying attention does not mean thinking. That is another action.
Thinking is, once again, an excellent tool, an important tool and a valuable tool. But its function is to translate. You do not always require translation. There are many expressions you already know or you have a knowing about. Therefore, thinking is not necessary. It is not a requirement.
A runner is no longer thinking about running or how they are doing it when they achieve that point in which they are present. But they are aware of their environment; they are aware of what they are doing. They are no longer thinking. And it is not merely a matter of not thinking. You are not blank. You are not empty. It is a matter of being aware. Being aware and thinking are not the same, just as being now and being present are not the same. (Pause)
JOHN: If nobody has a question, I’ll ask a question we’ve been talking about in the chat box. Basically, Elias, you’ve been talking about paying attention to multiple things at once, as well as yourself and another individual. You talked about interactions being sort of like difficult situations, where being present would be more challenging. (Inaudible) We analyze at the same time. (Inaudible) In getting used to interactions, being present during interactions, are there certain types of interactions that are better suited to beginning to experience a certain sense of presence?
ELIAS: Yes. I would express that types of interactions that would be, as you expressed, better suited to practicing presence would be interactions in which individuals are sharing an activity, not necessarily engaging a conversation, not engaging a discussion or a conversation, for that is more challenging. You incorporate much more likelihood of projecting your attention back and forth during a conversation. You project it to the other individual, and then you attempt to pay attention to yourself, and then you attempt to pay attention to the other individual, and then you attempt to pay attention to yourself. Therefore, when you are engaging a conversation and you are aware of this information, generally the stage that you are engaging now is the tennis game, in which you are back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
But if you are engaging some type of activity with another individual, some type of physical interaction, you may be more inclined. It may be easier to practice being more present, being aware of your existence, your beingness, in that interaction in that activity together. For individuals do incorporate more of an ease in holding their attention in more than one direction in relation to interaction if you are not incorporating words. Words complicate, and therefore, you automatically generate more concentration, and you direct your attention more singularly when you are engaging words than when you are engaging actions. There is, in your perceptions, much less to interpret when you are not engaging words.
JOHN: Hopefully everyone can hear me. We’re going to end in about four or five minutes. Anybody else have any questions?
PAUL: Elias, I’ve got a question. I don’t know if it relates to being present, but in my dream about three nights ago I was walking along and you kept saying, “You’ll feel nauseous for about three days,” or “In three days you’ll feel nauseous.” Was that some type of preparation theme for this discussion today? Or it meant something else?
ELIAS: (Laughs) Metaphorically, in relation to this day.
PAUL: Ah! Thanks.
ELIAS: (Laughs) I would express that this is likely a subject that many of you could interpret as nauseating (laughs), that it could be dizzying. This is a challenging subject. It is a challenging subject to assimilate, merely in relation to the concept, and it is challenging to attempt to implement. For you automatically want to think, and in thinking you automatically begin to generate the subject being more difficult than it actually is.
JOHN: We are going to conclude in a couple of minutes, Elias. There is a question here from Axel. I’m going to read it: “If we continue practicing presence, will we at some point be in the zone, sort of like during running?”
ELIAS: Yes.
JOHN: Continuously.
ELIAS: Yes, and that is the point. For what is the point of shifting, but to be ultimately self-directing? And that is it.
JOHN: Unless there’s any final question, I’d say we’re out of time. Elias, maybe you have some final words before we conclude?
ELIAS: (Laughs) What I will express to all of you is a tremendous encouragement not to be discouraged, not to be confused and weighed by too many words and the interpretation of too many words, but the encouragement of three words: where am I? And in that, a projection of my energy in tremendous aid to each and all of you, for what I will express to you is you are ready or I would not be offering this information. Therefore, if you are ready, you can do it.
I express tremendous lovingness to each and every one of you, and I shall be anticipating our next meeting. To you all, my dear friends, au revoir.
GROUP: Au revoir, Elias. Thank you.
(Elias departs after 1 hour 32 minutes.)
(1) From Session #1532, 3/20/04: Therefore, regardless of your intention, you may be expressing an interaction with another individual in an amiable manner in your perception. But energy is received and it is recognized much more clearly than any other type of communication. As the other individual receives it, they may be configuring it in the manner in which it is projected; but you are unaware of that other energy that has been projected in the interaction. Therefore you are confused why the individual is now perceiving that you have been expressing a hurtfulness to them.
I offered an example to an individual yesterday of a visualization to emphasize this concept and this expression of energy. I expressed to the individual to imagine themselves to be a pool, and within this pool, which is you, there are many, many, many fish and all of these fish are swimming. Some of these fish are swimming together and other fish are swimming in other directions, but they are all moving and they are all your energies, not merely one — many, many, many energies.
Now; in one area of the pool there are energies swimming and they are agitated. They are incorporating experiences that are irritating and challenging. In another area of the pool, the fish are swimming in a calm manner.
Now; the pool meets another pool and is interacting with the other pool. The attention is directed and focused in the interaction with the other pool. But the other pool incorporates many fish that are swimming also.
Now; as the first pool begins the interaction with the second pool, it is expressing in what it perceives to be an amiable manner, and the calm fish are swimming close to the surface of the pool in interaction with the other pool. But the irritated fish are becoming curious also, and therefore those energies move to be interactive also. Those energies are not concerned with the interaction with the other pool, but they are present.
If you are not aware of all of your fish, you shall not be aware of which fish are being expressed to the other individual and which fish they are catching. Your intention may be to offer them the calm fish, but some of the agitated fish are being caught also.
The point is to be aware of what you are expressing. Not to discount yourself if some of your agitated fish are being caught by the other individual, but to recognize that in that moment you incorporate the opportunity to re-net your fish and to contain the agitated fish and express within your intention.
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