Presence as Power

There is no power without speed. And to mobilize energy smoothly, efficiently, we need to recognize the nature and depth of resistances.

Surface tensions are felt as stiffness in body and repetitive/narrow perspective of mind. They often feel like our strengths: we take them on as our personal patterns, our identity, our habitual way of doing and seeing.

But places of tension are indications of weakness rather than strength, a sort of armoring that we need to work open to not only liberate the energy that closes us from being open mind/body, but also to empower the places that are deeper within.

Current requires clarity for circulation, a feeling of permeability, of our subtle ability to witness the ripples and reflections of our outer life as sourced from the very core of our inner lives. Looking at the places of surface tension is an invitation to work through those pools of stagnant energy, and liberate a stronger, clearer current of inner energy. Then we feel power flowing throughout the smallest of actions, clarity in the briefest of thoughts.

It is exceedingly difficult to maintain broad awareness with precise action when we are in quick movements: this is why so much magic and efficacy is lost when we speed through, run by, skim and scroll our way through the days. We think one or a million things while doing two other things. We become accustomed to seeing what is around through the veil of thinking of what is not around.

To come into a fuller sense of power, which is amplified by speed, we need to first train clear sight and presence of mind. We need the energy to take care of what we do see, because the reason we gloss through much of life is that the careful looking often requires deeper work, a fuller immersion. We need space in the mind to perceive that we have time to do things deeply, and well, because there is no sense in busy-living the surfaces.

We need to begin the training of precision, at first, in stillness. There we see what does and does not move, and how to enhance the inner clarity and circulation that will give rise to future speed.

What moves in stillness? The breath. To bring greater awareness to the daily life we live requires that we keep a closer eye and ear within ourselves, attending to what we once took for granted to be stillness. Then we see that there is great potential for movement within.

Attending to the sound of the breath naturally clarifies the mind: thoughts become clearer in relationship to the tone of the breath. Our movements will flow more naturally as a result: we do not have to think so much about what we do. We can easily enter the flow state, where we are not just moving in rote reactions but flowing with finesse.

In that state, we are simultaneously witnessing and receiving, living in dialogue with what is present within and around us. The mind is connected with the body through the breath. The breath is the conduit of our energy.

All energy flows as a current. When we are deeply immersed in what is now, what is currently around and within, then we feel our energy flow with power, as current.