About The Spirit Behind The Presence Garden Website
Artwork above is entitled "Elysium" (used with permission from the artist) Click Image to go to: Artist Gallery ~ Featuring the fantasy art of Jeffrey K. Bedrick
"If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can't be a place where Spirit is not, or it wouldn't be infinite. Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.
Furthermore, it is not that Spirit is present but you need to be enlightened in order to see it. It is not that you are one with Spirit but just don't know it yet. Because that would also imply that there is some place Spirit is not. No, according to Dzogchen, you are always already one with Spirit, and that awareness is always already fully present, right now. You are looking directly at Spirit, with Spirit, in every act of awareness. There is nowhere Spirit is not.
Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.
Rather, Spirit, and enlightenment, has to be something that you are fully aware of right now. Something you are already looking at right now... We are all already looking directly at Spirit, we just don't recognize it. We have all the necessary cognition, but not the recognition." ~ Ken Wilber
"The Self doesn't live forever in time; it lives in the timeless present prior to time, prior to history, change, succession. The Self is present as Pure Presence, not as everlasting duration, a rather horrible notion." ~ Ken Wilber
In my own words:
This website represents a synthesis of a life-long spiritual journey and an ongoing passion for metaphysical education and exploration of conscious awareness, personal growth and self-healing, and equally important, creative self-expression and purposeful, meaningful and productive life work. My chosen paths have lead me into a diverse range of interests, explorations, perspectives, applied studies and experiences, many of which have proven most beneficial to both my own process of self-discovery & personal growth, and as well as to others with whom I have worked in the course of the past 25 years.
Some of the greatest rewards of such efforts have been an ever-deepening sense of my own inner spiritual freedom, conscious expansion, a sense of greater wholeness, integrity, peace and well-being, a stronger sense of my own inner "knowing" and the ability to both trust it and to act upon it when called upon to do so.
Moreover, through it all, I have gradually become more of who I AM and have always been, not less...and the so-called "changes" that I have encountered along the way really always had more to do with simply learning HOW to let go of who I am not, in favor of who I truly am as a integral soul being, than they did about becoming someone "else" entirely. Thus, my personal journey has not been one so much of change, as it has been one of simply learning how to LET GO of all that is not of the Essence itself, to this Life....this is to imply.
It sounds so simple really, doesn't it? Yet it is one of the most difficult lessons I have encountered in this lifetime, over and over and over again. And the greatest irony of all is that the more I let go of all of that which is not of me...I become even more of who I truly am, and not less, as the idea of "letting go" of some temporal image of ourselves might at times have us believe! And yes, the more I can let go of all that is not of me, the more present I become, the more Pure Presence that can then move, manifest and do it's work through me and through my entire life!
This is precisely how The Presence Garden's time has now come....step by step, breath by breath, exhale by exhale, moment by precious moment, taking just one of each at a time!
About The Presence Garden Peacock Animal Totem
Presence
~ (defined) • noun
1. the state or fact of being present 2.an impressive manner or appearance 3. a person or thing that is present but not seen — PHRASES: make one’s presence felt, have a strong influence on a situation; presence of mind the ability to remain calm and take quick, sensible action in the face of sudden difficulty. -- ORIGIN: Latin praesentia ‘being at hand’
Guardian of the Gates to Paradise
Connection with the astral plane
Vision and accute powers of observation
Associated with feet & foundations
Related to Phoenix rising from the ashes
Inward immersion & insight
Outward expression of integration
Purification & transmutation
Harmony, joy & celebration
Presence, confidence & royality
Alchemical transformation
Synthesis & Inculcation
Sacred bird of India
CLICK HERE to read more about PEACOCK LORE & SYMBOLIZISM
Copyright October 2007 ~ Terri Claire Benning ~ All Rights Reserved
