Full Presence

reflecting presence

It was the reality of existing things,
It was the consciousness of all that lived
And felt and saw; it was Timelessness and Time,
It was the Bliss of formlessness and form.
It was all Love and the one Beloved’s arms,
It was sight and thought in one all-seeing Mind.

Sri Aurobindo, Savitri; The Book of Yoga; Canto VII The Cosmic Spirit and Cosmic Consciousness

The Reality of Existing Things
There are moments where I sit most fully in the realization and recognition that all of reality is possible in this moment, all of Reality is present in this moment. Right where we are, exactly what we are doing, just as we are, exactly as we are being, Everything is present.

It is always fascinating to me when the fullness of this realization opens up the most clearly for me – it is very natural and also still surprises me with its simple clarity. I am coaching third base in a little league game and thin silver clouds swirl in a vast blue ceiling overhead, hundreds of tiny white locust blossoms suddenly fall like light snow over the green grass, and the scents of new roses and honeysuckle drift through the air, and suddenly, there it All is. First graders gather on our school stage to stand before the Upper School students and speak about Hindu gods and goddesses while brightly colored drawings they have created are projected on the screen behind them – they invoke the names of Ganesha, Indra and Sarasvati and speak with such poise and stature, then dance together to the enthusiastic appreciation of the audience, and all time and age disappears, nothing is separate. Or watching the students I have taught in their instrumental concert performance: flutes, cellos, drums, trumpet, I find myself so totally fallen into the sparkling, glowing, crashing waves of just this – the simple spring music of awakening again and again to that which is Real and True and ever present, incomparable, ineffable and unsurpassable, shining blindingly bright and unseeable in finer colors than any mind’s eye could ever conceive, every light, darkness, joy, sorrow, elated broken heart sewn up in a pinecone and dropped into the sun, and then It is everywhere, all over again of course, vibrating on every string, breathed in with every essence, reflected off every surface ringing out and striking the very core so that nothing remains, absolutely nothing but everything that ever was, is, or shall be. So let there be no doubt that we can teach from that place, where inspiration and insight are the other side of discipline and dedication.

What does it look like when we are teaching from this place of one all-seeing Mind? What is the history of one all-seeing Mind, the language of one all-seeing Mind, the literature of one all-seeing Mind, the genetics of one all-seeing Mind? Yesterday, I was enjoying one of my last classes of the year with a group of ninth grade students I have been with since September. We were exploring the inheritance of blood types and colorblindness as examples of sex-linked traits and multiple alleles. And right there in the room with us was every class we had ever had together, every conversation that had taken place between us, all the possibility and all that was to be. I paused for a moment and told them how much I appreciated the work we have done together this year and the ways we have been present for each other. Every teacher on the planet is inhabiting this most precious of roles in the human family, the chance to be with others in the shared space of sight and thought. May we all continue to take up this role with realization and gratitude.