Active Presence

The Taoist Eastern concept of “presence” as the most harmonious form of human existence has, over the past decades, firmly entered the Western esoteric lexicon — but of course in a completely distorted form. Unfortunately, Western civilization, saturated with stress, trauma, and neuroses, is generally characterized by an emphasis on the “therapeutic” aspect of spiritual practices, which most often are seen not as paths of transcending limitations and imperfections, but as ways to “learn to live with them,” numbing dissatisfaction with oneself and with life.

Therefore, by “presence” in being is most often understood an objectified state of mind, lacking a volitional component and aimed only at smoothing out the “corners” and contradictions with the environment of its manifestation. We will not examine why such a view has almost nothing in common with Taoist views and practices, but will discuss what the Western Tradition calls “presence” (praesentia).

The word itself — whether in the Russian or the Latin variant — includes the concept of “essence” (“essentia”), the “with” in which one should be. In other words, “to be present” means to be in proper, “essential” accord with the environment: not to conflict with it, but to find mutual correspondence.

Nevertheless, the very notion of “environment” in the hermetic worldview introduces important additions to such an understanding. We have repeatedly discussed that from this point of view the “environment” is passive and lacks qualities; it acquires properties, becomes knowable through contact with mind only upon contact with mind, and these two poles are always interdependent.

And in exactly the same way, mind as an absolute category acquires a certain subjectness only by localizing itself, only by studying its aspects in their interaction with the environment.

In any case, the point is that in order for the world (whether from the point of view of the environment or from the point of view of mind) to acquire the quality of actuality, a mutual reflection of these poles must occur. At the same time, it is important to understand that “actual” reality in itself is not more important or “perfect” than potential reality; we only mean that both modes must take place, since the absence of either of them would mean a limitation of the totipotent nature of the Great Spirit, absolute supra-real reality, which, of course, is absurd. In other words, actual existence must occur, and what we usually call “mind” is precisely such an actual way of existence (or manifestation) of mind as an absolute category.

And the process of actualizing mind, as we have already understood, begins with localization, with the differentiation in its uniform medium of subjective centers, which in their absolute (abstract, ideal) form are called “monads,” and in the manifested form — “streams of mind.” Thus: by differentiating centers in the medium of mind, it becomes possible to correspondingly differentiate distinct elements in the environment, and then — their interpenetration and reflection, which constitutes the essence of the manifested aspect of reality.

At the same time, each stream of mind maintains and preserves its individuality by centering on successive supports — bodies, replacing one another and thus making it possible to manifest various potencies, various forms of interaction with the environment.

Only when mind is localized and rests upon a body (in one form or another) is it able, in the most complete way, to contact the environment fully, achieving the maximum reflection and actuality available to it.

Since, as we have understood, cognition of reality is identical to its creation, one can say that mind can manifest its creative potential to a greater degree the deeper it is immersed in the environment — that is, the more “dense” conductors and supports it possesses.

Therefore, one can say that by the “manifestation” of mind we mean the form in which it is able to fix probabilities (or, speaking in more physical language, “collapse the wave function”), differentiating from the totipotent environment the qualities with which it is ready to interact. And the very ability for such interaction, as we have also already discussed, is called will, which thus can be defined as the striving toward conscious interaction of mind with the environment. It is precisely in this sense that the Hermetic tradition says that a person acquires full manifestedness, is fully ‘born’ into the world as an active creator, around the age of twenty-one — when his mind gains a support on all levels available to it: physical, energetic, sensory, and mental.

Accordingly, cognition and creativity are two sides of one process, two manifestations of one activity of mind aimed at self-actualization, interdependent with the transformation of the environment. And this, in turn, means that refusal of activity is refusal of subjectivity, the return of mind to a potential form of existence.

When Taoists (or the fae) speak of non-interference in worldly processes, they do not mean a refusal of the active manifestation of mind, but only say that its activities must align with the surrounding universe. When “the ‘observer’ position” is spoken of by Western neurasthenics, they usually mean precisely a rejection of volition, making the mind passive, which leads only to the fact that it stops manifesting its will. Nevertheless, while a given being is manifested, it inevitably continues to be a conduit of will, and, instead of generating impulses, turns out to be only a channel for the manifestation of other tendencies — those influences deposited during childhood and youth, accumulated from external sources. Therefore, the final influence on the world of such “non-interferers” is usually destructive: refusing to identify their own desires and manifest their own will, they most often merely spread the “energetic impurities” that layer themselves upon each being; and if an actively aware practitioner seeks ways to reduce this destruction, then the “enlightened observer” only dissociates from it. In order to manifest the “wisdom of non-interference,” it is first necessary to attain wisdom itself — right guidance (gnosis), which is completely impossible without a clear, developed mind and a strong, trained will. In any other case, “non-interference” means only indulgence in destruction.

Thus, the very nature of manifested mind is such that it implies (and requires) its active interaction with the environment, in which it achieves self-knowledge and (with correct understanding and adequate direction of will) harmonizes the environment. And refusing such interaction is most often in no way a manifestation of “wisdom,” but, on the contrary, an irresponsible “passive destructive behavior,” because as soon as we cease actively opposing entropy, we effectively side with it.