Saturday, June 27, 2026
You are always here, and the time is always now. We erroneously believe that we are where our minds go. And often, our minds go into the gutter or down the crapper. A “stray” down memory lane or a “wild ride” into the future never really takes place. THE place is here.
Brother Lawrence wrote a booklet called Practicing the Presence of God. Mindfulness masters always sing the virtues of presence or simply being here. What I like to consider is absence, absent-mindedness, and being “out of it, or “not being here.”
Absence is being “out of it.” If you’re out of time, out of money, etc., you are “out of it.” You are dreaming. You figured out a clever way to get lost in an excursive realm that doesn’t exist. Absence is “off” and presence is “on.” We sense this on-off duality of our attentiveness. However, something is always aware, even if in the background, never sleeping.
When you go into the future or stray into the past, you seem to be “out of it.” But this “vacancy” is faulty. Who is present when I am “out of it.” Who’s driving when I get lost in thought? Who’s reading when I don’t comprehend the words? Who is it that “loses his shit” in an explosive temper, or gets lost in a cesspool of depression? In the background; however, something persists without slumber.
Absence is less of myself and presence is more of myself. More or less, I am and will always be myself. Is presence like a dimmer switch, but one that can’t be totally snuffed? There seems to be a sliding scale with no limit.
More or less, in and out, absent or present, on or off…
Who is dimming it?
Totally “out of it?” Doubtful. Something, even if dimly detected, is always “in on it.”