Intensity of longing or divine grace leads to presence

Awareness is not something to be achieved. It is something into which you fall. It happens in a moment of surrender, a collapse of striving, after dissolution of control. This fall is a gift, it is a grace. And like all grace, it comes in silence, often when least expected. You fall into awareness as if the veil of distraction dissolves, and the real blassts through.

This state can come to you by devotion (bhakti), through the open heart that longs only to merge with the Beloved. It can arise through grace itself, unearned, inexplicable. Or it may arrive by the fire of willpower, the sheer intensity of longing that cuts through illusion and awakens Presence.

Presence is Essence.

To be present is to be fully in the field of your own consciousness. It is not a mood, not a thought, not a trance. It is the awakened ground of being. In presence, you are not chasing anything, not resisting anything. You are simply there.

From this state, true action arises. Words spoken from this ground carry truth. Gestures made from this center are pure. It is only from Presence that responsible action is born—action that reflects the essence of who you are. This is what it means to walk your talk.

As you deepen in awareness, something begins to crystallize in the center of your being. You begin to know yourself not as the thoughts or the personality, but as that which is always aware. That which watches. That which acts from clarity. This crystallization is not rigidity, it is the silent solidity of being rooted in truth.

From here, you begin to see: each time you fall out of awareness into identification, it can be watched. And the very act of watching is already the return. It is already Presence remembering itself. The moment you are aware that you forgot, you are no longer lost.

But even this watching is not “you”. The true recognition of Presence is only possible when the Divine recognizes itself through you. This is the secret of enlightenment. You do not achieve it. You are not the doer of it. It is the Divine that acts through you, breathes through you, speaks truth through you.

This is the essence of illumination.

And so, we return to the mystery: you can simply fall into this state. Fall by softening, by giving up resistance, by longing with your whole being. Fall by grace. Fall by fire. And in this falling, Presence rises. Shunyam Adhibhu