Below is an edited, improved, and structured transcript of the video for those who prefer reading.
Written Version
Introduction
Hi there.
This is the next installment of the Dries Cronje YouTube channel.
Today — or this week — I want to speak about presence.
If I had to choose one core topic for this channel and for my blog, it would be presence. Or awakened presence.
So let’s try to define what that actually means.
What Is Presence?
If you’re familiar with the work of Eckhart Tolle, you’ll already have a good sense of what presence is. It also goes by different names:
- Mindfulness
- Stillness
- Inner stillness
- Inner peace
But if we think about it very concretely, what is it really?
Presence is the consciousness at the core of your identity.
For example, if I asked you to take a deep breath in —
you’re aware that you’re taking that breath, right?
That awareness — the consciousness that knows you’re breathing —
that is presence.
Living From Presence
One of the great “secrets” of life — if you want to call it that — and of the spiritual life (although I believe all of life is spiritual) is learning to live from this state.
Or at least to live with an awareness of this state, so that it infuses the rest of your life with a deeper or higher degree of consciousness — however you prefer to describe it.
That’s a very brief description of what presence is.
Eckhart Tolle teaches that even one conscious breath already constitutes presence.
Presence is also:
- What you practice during meditation
- What you practice during conscious breathing
- What you touch when you become aware of your inner energy body, or life energy
There are many words for these things, but the important thing is not the word —
it’s what the word points to.
Presence and Mindfulness
Let’s talk about mindfulness for a moment.
I’ve often felt that mindfulness is a slightly strange word, at least in how it’s commonly used. If anything, presence could almost be described as no-mind — or at least less identification with thought.
Not thoughtlessness in a negative sense, but something subtler.
One way I understand mindfulness is this:
- Your thoughts arise in a space
- That space is awareness
- That awareness is the “mind” in the deepest sense
So mindfulness is less about the thoughts themselves, and more about becoming aware of the container in which thoughts appear.
In that sense, you start to see that the thoughts themselves are not the truth —
but the consciousness in which they appear is.
Presence, Surrender, and Gratitude
Presence, surrender, and gratitude — which I’ve spoken about in previous videos — are all practices designed to help us return to this state.
They help us access and stabilize a higher or deeper state of consciousness —
which, in my view, is what life is really about.
In a future video, I’ll talk more about the benefits of living this way.
But as many mystics and spiritual teachers throughout history have pointed out, awakening or enlightenment is really about this:
Becoming present — and staying present — for more of your waking life than not.
That’s what awakening points to.
The Core Theme of My Work
So the point of this channel, the point of my work online, the point of the books and other projects I’m working on — all of it points back to presence.
My intention is to be a role model for presence and mindfulness — whatever term you prefer. They all point to the same thing.
And that also means not being a hypocrite.
I’m not interested in speaking about things I’m not actively living or practicing myself. I want to experiment in my own life, honestly, and then share what I’m learning in a way that can help and serve others.
Closing
I think that’s a good start in defining presence and in stating the core theme of this channel and the blog.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.
I’ll chat to you soon.
Cheers.