Charles Styron – The Boundless Universe of Presence

From the point of view of Tibetan Buddhist psychology, presence can be seen as a gateway into the virtual entirety of the dharma teachings. Understanding and cultivating mindfulness practice within this understanding is a pathway to deepened therapeutic presence and clinical impact with clients. As with similar constructs, it is useful to think of presence in stages. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end–a ground, a path, and a fruition. The ground is comprised principally of four groups of qualities:

1. Kindness, gentleness, and straightforwardness
2. Discipline and joy
3. Freedom from hope and fear
4. Unpredictability or inscrutability

The ground alone, while vast, is not enough. In psychotherapy, it exists as a vehicle for very personal communication. This is where the path comes in. The path becomes operative through the content of what is being communicated or taught-in this case, some aspect of the psychotherapeutic process. Finally, with the passage of time, one often forgets a great deal of what one has heard. What one remembers instead is how one felt at the time of the communication and how the other person seemed to be–the element of connection. This is the fruitional element of presence, which is a kind of transmission, and it goes far beyond the written or the spoken word.

Objectives

1. Determine how presence represents a gateway into the discipline of mindfulness meditation altogether.

Outline

1. From Tibetan Point of View, Presence provides a holographic view of the Dharma.
2. There is a Ground, a Path, and a Fruition.
   1. Ground:
      1. kindness, gentleness, straightforwardness
      2. discipline and joy
      3. freedom from hope and fear
      4. unpredictability or inscrutability
   2. Path: What is being communicated or taught
   3. Fruition: Transmission, which goes beyond the written or the spoken word.

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