What is Being?

What is Being?

Our being is the index of our ability to ‘be’. To be means to be present – aware of oneself and one’s surroundings simultaneously. Our degree of presence changes every moment, so our being is constantly fluctuating. My average level of being is that of a man number four, although every day it fluctuates in a given moment between a man who is completely asleep and a man who is in a state of self-consciousness.

Ouspensky says in the Fourth Way, “Generally, state of being means a greater or lesser consecutiveness of actions. When one thing contradicts another too much, it means weak being. We do not realize that if a man is very inconsistent it makes his knowledge unreliable.”

My teacher gave a simple formula to work on being. “Try to remain the same person in different circumstances.” If we observe ourselves, we see we are one person with our friends, another at the shop or in a company meeting. If we feel under pressure, we are a different person than in our holiday good mood.

Being is also the degree that our four centers are working on the same thing at the same time. We have this kind of being in a mechanical way if we have developed a trade or profession to a high degree. However, this is only in one specific situation. To have it consciously means that the centers are always working in a unified way, focused on whatever is in the present moment.

Jeanne de Salzmann writes, “I begin to see that I have to be in contact with all my centers at the same time. Sometimes in one part, sometimes in another, the flow of energy is too strong or too weak. If I am too much in my head, the movement (toward a certain Presence) does not take place. Too much in my feeling or too much in my body, it is the same. There must be a corresponding intensity everywhere.” This correspondence combined with self-awareness is being.

Our being could also be defined as the ability to respond with the work to unexpected events.

It consists of how frequently, how long and to what depth we are present every day.

It is also the ability to sustain presence, once it arises.

David Tuttle

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Image: Rembrandt, 'Scribe With Paper and Feather'