Q: In Buddhist breathing meditation there is the recommendation to focus the attention on the breathing; when the mind wanders, the meditator has to acknowledge it and return the attention to the breathing. In your Presence Process there is no recommendation like that. Why?
A: This is all about "intent". The short answer is: I am not a Buddhist and The Presence Process is not Buddhism. Your assumption that is should be, and should align itself with such a religion, is a common mistake made by people who approach this work bringing with them past religious convictions and unresolved religious imprinting. The Presence Process is useful in empowering us to integrate our religious imprinting by revealing the difference between "belief" and "knowing".
Q: Don't you believe this is an important issue?
A: No. Once we become familiar with emotional processing work we realize that "thought is not God". It is not a causal point of the human experience - the vibrational is - and until this vibrational awareness is consciously accomplished - the condition of our imprinted emotional body is.
Our thinking arises out of and is a reflection of our emotional condition - not a cause of it. Many religions still use thought as a means to storm the vibrational without integrating the causal foundation of why we currently have little or no vibrational awareness - our emotional imprinting. Buddha - judging by his appearance and the immense mental gymnastics spurned through his teachings - appeared to have done the same thing. This is why Buddhism is so mental - it has to be one of the most mental religions on the planet. It is obvious to anyone who confronts their own emotional content, and consequentially perceives its role on the the quality of their experience, that Buddha did not appear to completely integrate the emotional. His appearance of physical obesity is evidence of severe emotional suppression. The guy clearly had issues. He most likely did not resolve his immense guilt about being born wealthy amidst poverty. He reacted to this and this reaction is what we today call Buddhism. This is why the majority of Buddhists subsist in self-denial and poverty-mentality. This is simply religious imprinting. One can, through techniques of severe sedation and control [disguised as spiritual practice], enter vibrational awareness without acknowledging the emotional aspect of the journey. However, this leads to a religious philosophy which is overtly mental and requires vasts amount of physical intricacy, mental study, self-denial, and places "understanding" as a necessary step to make any real progress. The proof is that most celebrity Buddhists of the West become and are acknowledges as "great intellectuals". This is way too mental for the heart. This mentality is the invariable fall-out of all male-manifested and mental-body dominated approaches to vibrational awareness. Don't misunderstand me. I am very fond of Buddhism. Of all the manifestations of our unintegrated religious imprinting on this planet - it is one of the more palatable.
Q: Doesn't it matters if the mind wanders?
A: No - not when attending to the breathing practice in The Presence Process. This is because the only thing that really "matter" [materializes] are the projections inspired by our unintegrated emotional imprinting. What matters therefore is our imprinted emotional condition.
When we impact the causal point of the quality of our experience - which is a direct consequence of consciously connected breathing - one of the consequences is the stirring up of our deeply suppressed emotional content. Because we have little to zero felt-perception, this stirring up of the emotional makes itself known to us as increased mental activity. To now attempt to stop this mental activity is to engage with the effect - not the cause. This increased mental activity is a positive barometer that we are indeed impacting our suppressed emotional content. To then fiddle with these arising thought forms is in-effect-you-all.
It is useful to repeat an affirmation like, "I AM HERE NOW" while breathing - to assist our mental alignment with the breathing. However, the focus while breathing is on keeping the breaths connected. This is primary. Once we integrate our emotional signatures, the thinking arising out of them automatically dissolves.
In the revised edition of The Presence Process I am recommending that during all breathing sessions - from Session One to Ten - we repeat "I AM HERE NOW" - regardless of what session we are on. The specific Presence Activation Statement for each week's session is then only mentally repeated while moving about in our daily experience - not during the breathing practice.
Q: Another point: What is the difference between The Presence Process and the current forms of meditation?
A: The Presence Process is not meditation according to my personal perception of meditation. Meditation for me is any practice intended to reawaken and engage directly in vibrational awareness. A better word for meditation is "mediation". Whatever practice empowers us to mediate between our emotional, mental, and physical expressions, and our authentic vibrational essence, is meditation.
Engaging in vibrational awareness is not the primary intent of The Presence Process. The primary intent of The Presence Process is emotional integration. The techniques offered are designed to bring awareness to our imprinted emotional content in a manner empowering us to responsibly integrate them. Once we have made some headway in this part of the journey - we automatically become meditative. We then seek out disciplines whose intent is assisting us to consciously mediate between our outer expressions and our inner point of vibrational causality. Hence, we are naturally drawn to explore meditation. In this light, The Presence Process may be viewed as a preparatory step to meditation.
