Presence Technique

I have started practising a technique I unashamedly lifted from David Abram .


Whenever I find myself with some time on my hands, I start by considering the full depth and weight of my personal past. I see it as a huge inflated balloon emerging from my back. Next, I imagine the length and breadth of my future, and see it too as an inflated balloon, this time bulging out before me. The balloons meet in my centre, around my heart chakra.

Slowly at first, I collapse the balloons. Their contents inflate the space all around me - the environment I am now inhabiting, the space and the time. The deflation of the past and future balloons speeds up as the here-and-now expands, with me at its centre.Past and future eventually disappear, leaving me in perfect Presence.

 The room around me, or better yet the landscape, takes on a vivid texture which it doesn't possess in normal waking consciousness. All becomes sharper, clearer. Any life within my perception stands out as though limned with a razor. Birds' songs become almost intelligible. Insects appear to have communicative powers. The grass and the soil rumbles, rustles and...speaks.

This is such a powerful way of feeling your true embeddedness in the world. The feeling of being really alive, truly flesh and spirit and animal and cosmic mind all at the same time is a great method for giving that extra bit of understanding as to Who and What you really are.

Breathe the land. Breath the birdsong, the rustle of moths' wings, the slow pulsing of the Cape Ash. Breathe yourSelf, once again, into Being.