From Reaction To Presence

In this talk, Master Kambiz Naficy reflects on the shift from reacting to life to meeting each moment with awareness. By learning to witness the mind instead of fighting it, action replaces reaction, and life unfolds with greater clarity and calm.
An invitation to experience presence, mindfulness, and a quieter inner space.

Transcript

You know what feels good to you. You don't need to convince other people. You don't need to argue. You even like the fact that somebody disagrees with you because you like diversity. You start to disbelieve. Mind chatter and negativity coming from the ego side. The side that says me, Me, Me. Me first. Mine, Mine, Mine. I want more, More, More. The ego is essentially an insecure creature. You will start to recognize the voice of ego versus your soul. The soul is like a quiet whisper. It doesn't judge you. It's not fear-based. It's more love-based. And you recognize the whisper of the soul. The soul usually gives you big advice like time to become a mother, Time to start your own business, Or start medical school at the age of 42. Big, Big risks. It's quiet. It whispers. And it doesn't stomp its feet. Ego is very persistent. It's very stubborn. It judges you. It's fear-based. It arouses anger. It's defensive. So in a state of well-being, You can still hear mind chatter. You can hear the ego. You don't try to fight it, But you've learned to witness. Through mindfulness, You learn to witness mind noise, But you don't react to it. So there's a huge difference between acting and reacting. Whenever you act, You're in the present moment. You're with the breath. You're facing the moment, And you're handling the moment through the needs of the moment. When you're reacting, You face this moment, But your buttons are being pushed, And you're being reminded of past traumas that you're still carrying in your subconscious mind. So whenever something pushes your button, You're reacting. Whenever you're breathing, You're right here. You're handling the moment without defensiveness. You're acting. So you're in a state of well-being. You're acting instead of reacting. Also, In a state of well-being, You understand that nature has no responsibility to give you your preferences. Your preferences are irrelevant to natural forces. So if you buy a plane ticket to go to Miami and swim, It turns out to be a week of rain and clouds. Nature is just fine with that. So is the person in a state of well-being. They've gotten over the craziness of superimposing the personal mind on Miami's weather. In a state of well-being, The mindfulness doesn't go away. You're always able to be aware of your words, Your thoughts, And your actions, Even as they're happening. When I listen to a lot of my more experienced students, They say, Kambis, We haven't done our meditation for a week, But it's very interesting because the mindfulness is still there. When we're eating, We're mindful of what we're eating. When we're breathing, We're mindful of the breathing. Mindfulness is a state that will not leave you once you make friends with it. And in a state of well-being, The witness, Mindfulness is constantly there while you speak, While you act, While you eat. And that really helps you because knowing and being mindful that you're angry is very different than just being angry. In a state of non-well-being, You're hijacked by your ego and your subconscious mind and your past conditioning. So if you're conditioned and you get angry, You are just angry. But in mindfulness, When you're angry, You're aware that you're angry. There's a huge difference. In a state of well-being, All the traffic lights turn green. What it means is because you're not fighting nature, Because you're going with nature, You're facing the moment, Gauging what the needs of the moment are, And then you just flow with what the needs of the moment are, Then life is unfolding through you instead of life fighting you. I used to be a banker and I was very unhappy in banking. So anything I wanted to get done was much more difficult because internally, I had an internal civil war going on. In other words, My thoughts, My emotions, My soul, My body, They were at odds with each other. So people pick up on your vibrations. When you make friends with yourself, You know your values, You know who you want to be, You know what direction you want to work in, Then people pick up on that vibe. You're at peace. The center of you, I'm pointing towards my heart. The center of you is the center of your existence. You're going to start to live in a beautiful home. Beautiful home is the center of your existence. All the energies are flowing in a single direction. Think about that. Think about waking one day and your thoughts, Your words, Your actions are fully aligned with your soul and your nature, Your essence. So when there's no war going on internally, All the energies are running in a single direction, And there's huge power to that. You have energy in a state of well-being. You wake up one day, For the first time in your life, You're in love with the day. Being in love with the day is very different from these personal preferences of, If I make this much money, If I have the right kind of girlfriend, If the weather is such and such, Then I'll be happy. That's a preferential life. When you're not at odds with yourself, You just show up, Face the moment, Any weather, Any economy, And for the first time in your life, You wake up and you're in love with the day. In other words, Just because you're alive, Just because you exist, You're happy. That experience has to be had. It's not possible to explain it verbally, Because that means all the chakras, All the nadis are open, Prana, The life force, Is flowing, And the subconscious mind has been cleansed of negativity and past baggage. Once you cleanse your subconscious of self-limiting habits and beliefs, And once kundalini is awakened through Kriya Yoga meditation, Then 72, 000 energy channels in your body are free to conduct spiritual electricity, Prana, The life force. That starts to give you a state of well-being.