Seeing with Presence

When the mind is silent, it enters a world which is far beyond the mind.
Upanishads

Awakening forms a bridge between the inner and the outer worlds. When the senses become engaged in the moment, sensory messages, or ‘impressions’ as Ouspensky called it, flow inwards to the Self. To a certain extent, one can detect whether one is awake or asleep by this inward flow of impressions; one is knowingly aware of the external world rather than lost in the many I’s. The more one is present, the more the unified, realized Self receives from the external world. Without presence, sensory impressions remain superficial. With presence, the higher Self becomes the explorer of a new world.

Using the eyes to ‘see’ consciously can bring impressions directly to the Self. One develops the discipline of looking intentionally through the eyes at objects, fellow human-beings, art, nature. Time usually lost to imagination one uses to study the details of a painting or the intricacy of a flower, or watch the fullness of each moment in waiting for a bus. One becomes the impartial observer of many wonders. ‘From the eyesight proceeds another eyesight,’ says Walt Whitman, referring to the mystical vision of the Third Eye.

Impressions are the material of creativity. A painter studies the changing landscape, the movement of bodies and objects as subjects for a canvas; a theatre director arranges light and shadow to emphasise the dramatic nuances of a play; a poet uses the seemingly random events at a bus stop as material for a poem. Yet more importantly, one uses impressions for awakening; seeing with presence focuses the Third Eye.