Each of us has gifts we can share with the world- gifts of kindness, compassion, understanding, dignity and respect. Authentic presence is the ground of such generosity, the more deeply we can be in the world, the greater the gifts that we can share.
Presence is a channel through which we meet the world and through which creativity and inspiration may flow. Pure presence enlivens our own life, but also serves to wake up and benefit the lives of others. We must learn to deepen our presence in order to carry our gifts into the world and truly bring benefit to others.
The biggest challenge to being deeply present and sustaining our open awareness is a sense of holding back or holding onto something. When we find ourselves hesitating, caught up in uncertainty or fear, those become a weight on us and we end up having a dull presence or not being present at all. When we are in this state of diminished awareness, we often feel stuck or even depressed, as if the very things we are holding onto are holding us back.
When we learn to work with hesitation and fear, recognizing them as a call to deepen our presence and let go of our fixation, we can start to regain the ground of our generosity. As we learn to remain in this ground and gain confidence in it, we will naturally start to share kindness, compassion and insight. When we learn to share these gifts without hope or expectation, we discover that our awareness actually expands and that nothing is lost by being freely given.
Nowadays, everyone tries to capitalize on their gifts, turning them into careers or businesses. This is a slippery slope, because in an effort to commoditize our gifts, we often sell ourselves short and devalue the very thing that is most meaningful in our life- our very presence in the world.
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