The Direction of Intention

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Last night Michael told me that he used to run because of the head-space that he entered. He said, “I haven’t found that kind of meditative place in any other form of exercise or sport. It’s like the crap just fell off and I was clear and present and alive.” That’s why I used to run, too. The exercise was great but the presence was holy.

On the radio this morning I heard a surfer say that presence was the reason people surfed. He said, “Surfing requires a relationship with the present moment.” He added, “On the board is when you are most alive.”

It is in the present that you are most alive. I think this experience of presence (aliveness) is the meaning behind every religious symbol. It is the place beyond the-story-that-you-tell-yourself or as Michael said, the place where “the crap falls off.” It is the middle place, the middle way. It is the space between the pair of opposites like male/female, good/bad, right/wrong, heaven/hell: story is only possible when dualities (separations) are known. Presence is a kind of unity; it is the middle way, not past or future, not this or that, it is the place beyond story.

Parcival attains the grail (presence) when he sets aside his role and sees what is in front of him instead of what he thinks should be there. He is no longer striving to become, he is no longer invested in the past.

Many religious symbols are made of the intersection of two elements: the Star of David is the meeting place of two triangles, the cross is the intersection of a horizontal and vertical axis: at the place where striving meets becoming is a sweet spot called now. The bodhi tree has branches that reach to the heavens and roots that stretch to touch the center of the earth; the sitting place of illumination (presence) is between the two.

In the Garden of Eden there is a second tree, the tree of everlasting life (unity, presence). The first tree is, as we know, the tree of knowledge (duality, separation) and having been booted from the garden (birth) we spend our lives trying to find our way back to that place that knows no separation: life is what we do between this pair of opposites.

There are many paths to this state called presence. No amount of doctrine will get you there (doctrine requires separation). It is available to all people, all of the time. It is not a place of arrival. It is your natural state and is available when the crap falls off. Some people catch glimpses of it on a surfboard. Michael caught sight of it while running. Where do you find your middle way?

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