Sharing Presence with Each Other

Sharing Presence with Each Other

All the awake ones travel with Mira, singing the name. She says with them: get up stop sleeping. The days of a life are short. − Mirabai

As frequently as I am alone and must muster the Work by myself at such times, I am so grateful for being in the Work with other people at the other times of my day. P.D. Ouspensky says that I must value the people with whom I work as much as the Work itself.

The journey of self-remembering is not a solo journey. ‘No man is an island’ is not just a lovely poetic thought. Sharing presence with other people with whom I share a common aim is one of the gifts of self-work.

I share Presence with others when I am externally considering them. To be present to another person is the highest praise and gift I can share with another person. Active listening is an amazing act but that assumes that I am also listening to myself, that is, that I am observing and conjuring up presence within myself. And being responsive to the needs of my friends is another powerful act of love. Helping others to escape sleep is the utmost goal of working with other people, of sharing Presence with each other.

I used to think that my primary goal was to be the highest in the room with the added purpose of raising each other, but now I see a fallacy in that. There is no competition for presence. There is no selfless act unless the lower self is in its right place, subservient to the Higher Self. Instead, I want to rise together with others in unison because the light shines equally on all of us.

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. − Galileo

Our teacher often says that love and presence are the same thing. Love and presence exist outside of time, outside of our biological existence. Never doubt that love does indeed triumph over everything. It triumphs because it is from a Higher World.

It is hard to get this essential understanding of working with others across social media, but it is what I have now to reach you, dear reader. Please know that I hold your hand, clasp it, and release my consciousness to you as best I can virtually.

Whoever you are holding me now in hand, Without one thing all will be useless, I give you fair warning before you attempt me further, I am not what you supposed, but far different.

Who is he that would become my follower?

−Walt Whitman

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Effects of Good Government in the City (detail), Ambrogio Lorenzetti