I always wonder if this is a talk or a meditation and it's really both.
So,
You know,
Get into a meditative state while I'm just chatting.
I want to chat about two things in particular,
Love and presence.
Okay,
Here's what I'm thinking.
It pretty much all comes down to that.
So when I'm here on Insight Timer and I'm enjoying the teachers that are offering their just gorgeous selves and gorgeous offerings and all the things and I know that I'm in the right place when I click on a teacher and they're doing something I'm like oh I feel it and I feel there and I was like what is that?
What is it that I'm feeling?
It's two things.
I feel their presence and I feel their love and those are the folks I'm drawn to.
It's when I can feel it and then I'm like yes I'm in and why is that?
It's because it's a mirror.
It's a mirror.
If I'm feeling their love and presence,
It's bringing forward mine.
It's reflecting mine back to me and that's what I want.
That's why I'm going to Insight Timer because I want an experience where I'm connecting in with the presence that is always there inside of me.
The light of consciousness,
The spark of aliveness,
The yes no matter what is happening in my life,
In my relationships,
In my experience,
My life situation as Eckhart Tolle likes to say,
No matter what's happening in my life situation,
I have the light of presence within me.
That's glorious.
There is a glory in that even in the challenge,
Even in the hard,
Even in the suffering of the moment,
Whatever that holds,
I have presence and when I'm experiencing someone else and I feel their presence,
It sparks mine.
It inspires mine.
I feel mine and I feel like that's what every experience of being with a teacher is about.
I mean every experience of being with anyone is about essentially feeling into them,
Feeling into their energy and energy is contagious.
And so we gravitate towards people that we like their energy.
We like how they feel.
We like how they live.
We like something about it even if we don't like everything and that's perfectly fine.
But there's something in it for us.
It's on our growing edge and that's super cool.
That's super cool and that's why we're attracted to them.
So that's the presence piece.
But then here's the rub for me too.
I got to feel the love.
I got to feel the love and this is what my experience,
You know,
I'm 45,
46.
I just had my birthday two days ago.
But you know,
The rub for me is that 46 years on the planet,
There's a lot of different ways to take in teachings.
But I know this for myself.
I got to feel it comes from a place of love.
And I got to feel that love.
And this is what I was saying about the 46 years.
It's like I get love doesn't always feel soft,
Right?
Of course,
Love doesn't always feel like,
Oh,
Like,
Like that,
Right?
It's not always the like,
Gushy,
Sweet love.
It often is and I love it.
But it doesn't have to be fierce love,
Right?
Fierce love is love,
Right?
Generosity is love,
Right?
When I feel that generosity coming from someone willing to like,
Listen,
And share and be truthful.
There's love in that.
But here's the thing.
It's like,
And this is the other thing,
They go together.
Because for me,
Presence brings about love.
When I feel present,
I have access to my love.
Not even access.
Love rushes forth.
Presence and love are like,
Those little those little,
You know,
Intertwined trees when you're walking through the woods,
And you see those trees that like,
You know,
Like they got intertwined with each other.
They're like,
They're with each other,
Right?
They walk this path together.
To me,
Love and presence walk the path together.
All right,
So that was my ditty.
What do you think?
Love and presence,
Love and presence.
So as I walk through my day to day,
And I want to invite you to do it too.
Walking through the day to day,
Love and presence,
Love and presence.
So you're asking that to yourself.
I mean,
Now I'm trying to make a practice of this.
Is this working?
I don't know.
What do we think?
Do we want to do an experiment?
And I mean,
We could riff for days on this,
Right?
Like,
Okay,
So let me calm down for a second.
I'm taking your breath because I'm excited about this.
Love and presence.
Love and presence.
Love and presence.
Okay,
So when I start to do that,
I'm just breathing,
I'm feeling my feet on the ground,
Actually,
My knees are like on the ground,
I'm kneeling and speaking into the mic.
Love and presence.
I feel my belly release.
I feel myself calm because I'm asking myself,
What could we do with this,
Like tangible,
You know?
There are like,
Questions we could ask ourselves through the day.
What does my presence feel like right now?
So when I do that,
I noticed my belly gets soft.
I first do a question like,
I don't know.
I literally have no idea,
Right?
And that's good.
When we're in the I don't know,
We're actually curious.
We're actually open.
And for me,
I've had to get past that thing that says,
Oh,
If I don't know,
It means like,
You know,
I shouldn't teach it or I shouldn't,
You know,
Or like,
What,
What have I been doing all these years if I still don't know when I asked the question?
I think that's actually a really,
Like,
Wondrous thing.
I think it's actually like a really,
Like strong thing about me and you too,
Right?
That like,
The things we don't know,
It's because we're curious about them.
And these things in the mystery,
These things about consciousness,
These things about like,
How like life works.
I mean,
Sure,
Scientifically,
We can point to like DNA and breath and oxygen and water and you know,
All those amazing things.
But like life is still a mystery.
So the first go to the I don't know is like,
It's I feel like it's almost like a tip up to God.
Like if you could see me right now,
I'd be like,
Like kissing up to God like,
Or the universe kissing up to the universe kissing up to the cosmos kissing up to that which made us to say like,
It's still we're still in the mystery.
We're still like just this like beautiful one part,
Like we're one drop of the ocean of creation.
And one drop the holographic universe,
We have the whole thing in it,
Right?
Like in one cell is the DNA to make the entire being.
Right?
So that's all true.
And also,
Okay,
How do I get on the tangent?
Because what I was talking about,
Let me take it back.
So talking about how when I first asked about presence and love in as any situation,
The first thing I get to is I don't know.
And I used to think of that I still you know,
Still working out at this moment,
I would think of that like,
Well,
If I don't know,
I think that means I have more to learn.
And if I have more to learn,
Does that mean I like,
I have like more to learn before I can talk and share and like make this recording?
And I'm saying no.
No,
That's silly.
That's silliness.
Being in the curiosity,
Being in the unknown being in the mystery with some confidence versus self consciousness,
But with some confidence is actually a really powerful thing.
So many cool things move forward from there.
So let's be in the you know,
Let's embrace our I don't know.
And then go deeper.
In this moment,
What does presence look like?
It means talking to you recording this.
It means feeling my belly.
It means looking at the bouquet of flowers I have next to me and the candle that I lit and the dog that's sleeping next to me,
Being right here and taking a breath and appreciating that I'm in this moment.
That's presence.
And then it's like,
For me,
What I just noticed was like,
The presence felt like it was like,
Like,
Buoyant,
Like it was like rising inside of me kind of like,
From like the middle of my chest,
It was like rising.
And then I because I've been saying like presence and love presence and love.
There was like this little bit of like a pattern going on of like presence than love.
And I like didn't even realize it.
But I was asking the question,
Where's the love and it was right underneath it.
It was almost like one of those cakes that has the in the middle part where the frosted they do another layer of frosting.
It's like there's frosting but then there's jam right underneath.
It was like that.
It's like presence was that frosting and then the jam was right underneath that was the love.
And the jam for me looked like almost like magenta pink clouds kind of like light and fluffy,
Or like cotton candy kind.
But it was more substantive actually more like a meringue right underneath the presence.
And it just kind of like envelops it but not suffocating more like loving or like loving.
All right,
What if we practice that today?
Just going through your situations and just asking where's the presence?
Where's the presence and maybe the presence looks or feels like a light maybe it was like how it was for me where it's just this rising kind of feeling.
Give your give your feelings like metaphor right like give them pictures let it be a symbol let it be a like let your visualization your imagination abilities come up with pictures and affirm those pictures they're yours.
Okay,
They matter.
They matter.
All right,
This was really fun.
Thanks for being here with me.
I talk to you soon.
Bye
