Dolf's Blog
Integral thoughts about development, humanity, spirituality
What gets in the way of being fully present?
17
Attitude. The wrong one, that is...
A good attitude create open space: space that enables you or an
other to express your or his experience.
“Presence” is the most intangible element of this good attitude but
can be explained as the combination of a few elements. I base these
elements on the work the A.H. Almaas has called “The Diamond
Approach”. This is a method of self-inquiry and growth in which
someone evaluates his experience in a certain situation – thoughts,
feelings, behaviour, and reactions – and subsequently uses a method
of asking the right questions to go deeper into those. This process
leads to personal development. Important elements of this attitude
are the following:
1. Openness – being open and sensitive to change, to new things, to
the truth that shows itself in the process of working with yourself
and others.
2. Observation – the direct and unprejudiced observation of your own
experience and the experience of the other in a certain situation.
3. Intelligence – sharpness and mindfulness for what is expressed,
paired with an analytical ability to distil the essence from this.
4. Concentration – aiming oneself at the observation of everything
and the experience thereof without letting oneself be distracted by
irrelevant things.
5. Interest – departing from a point of not-knowing, therefore being
unprejudiced, to find the truth about his experience.
6. Love for the Truth – a state of wondering where a certain state
or emotion comes from without necessarily wanting to go to a
solution. The Truth is in this case the reality of the moment, that
what really happened, without being veiled by layers of beliefs,
fears, blockades of emotions, etc.
The shortest way to being present is just being there, being
yourself, just experiencing what is at this very moment.
(This is an excerpt from an article I wrote which you can find
here).
