Lesson 4 – What has never changed?

(Always
Present)
I have gone through many personal transformations over the years:
physical, mental, emotional, circumstantial, and spiritual. Yet, when I
look in the mirror today, I feel the same underlying Self I’ve always felt
myself to be. The same truth that underlies everything has always been
with me, changelessly so. I know this is true for all beings.Bentinho
Massaro
In Lesson Four, you will discover that Presence is never missing from
your experience; it is always there.
You as a person-consciousness—the sense “I am this person”—will
wake up to something “greater than you” and experience that
Greater Self as the permanent basis of your existence.
Person wakes up to Presence.
Table of Contents [hide]
 1 Realizing the Changelessness of Being: A Two-Step Exercise
 1.1 Step 1 – Feel the Presence of Being
 1.2 Step 2 – Realize the Changelessness of Being
 2 Things change, but Presence never does
 3 Explanation/Philosophy – You are Waking Up!
 3.1 Homework
 3.2 Got a question, or just want to share? Discuss this lesson in the forums!
Realizing the Changelessness of Being: A Two-Step Exercise
I ask you now to look at your direct experience of life, and locate
that sense of being, which has never changed throughout the
entirety of your life.
Step 1 – Feel the Presence of Being
First, recognize the presence of Being here and now, using the
techniques you learned in previous lessons.
For example: Relax your thoughts for 2 to 5 seconds, and recognize
that there is a sense of being-here that remains effortlessly.
Even in moments when you don’t think at all (not necessary, but
possible!), Presence-Consciousness, or Beingness, remains clearly
present as the basic energy of your existence itself. Presence
remains undisturbed, indestructible, unwaveringly here and now…
Feel the sense that you exist, that sense that you are here, now.
Feel I AM.
Feel I Exist.
Feel Presence.
Feel Beingness.
When you feel tuned in to the actual recognition and experience of
the Here-and-Now, proceed to Step 2.
Step 2 – Realize the Changelessness of Being
Now that you’re tuned into the sense of Beingness, take a minute or
two to pull up a memory from when you were a kid, perhaps 7 or 8
years old. Actually recall being there again, seeing through your own
eyes as you were when you were a kid.
Do you see/feel it?
Now, notice how this same sense of Presence that you recognized in
the here-and-now was unmistakably there when you were 8 years
old as well…
It may not have been conscious to you at the time (or maybe it was!),
but it was definitely there: that underlying sense of “there is
something that never changes.” The sense of I-AM was fully present
and intact, whether recognized at the time or not.
Next, pull up a memory of when you were around 16 to 18 years old
and see that there was a sense of being present in that memory as
well. Really go back to that memory as clearly as you can in your
imagination and confirm that the sense of presence was right there,
again, whether or not the personality you wore on top of your
Beingness at that time was aware of this sense of presence. You are
aware of it now, in retrospect.
Even if the personality you used to pretend to be was distracted at
the time of your memory (for example, if the experience was
intense), notice how presence was still fully there, pervading the
whole experience. If Beingness-Consciousness had not been there,
you would have had no memory of this experience.
After you’ve done that for a minute or two, pull up a vivid memory
from yesterday, and tune into that experience again. Imagine it in as
much detail as you can…
Feel how the same sense of beingness was present in your
experience yesterday as well. Even if you did not notice it at the
time, it was still there.
In a sense, we can say that, even when we were not present to
Beingness-Consciousness at varying (most) times during our
life, Beingness-Consciousness was nevertheless present to us.
Now, tune into the memory of a few minutes ago, when you went to
open up this lesson and were just about to start reading this text.
Notice how Presence-Consciousness was also there, underlying your
every experience. Every detail you noticed on your computer screen
in your memory of a few minutes ago was being witnessed by
Consciousness, and there was a Presence enabling the entirety of
your experience.
And finally, back to now. Experience that same sense of presence
right here in your immediate circumstance.
Do you see now, how the sense of I-AM never changes? It is like the
water in the waves of the ocean. You have moved your
consciousness through different moments of time, but the Presence
that is the Eternal Now is always present. No matter what shape or
size a wave takes on, it will always be water.
Take a minute now to consider what this exercise has confirmed for
you. For example, realize that all your mind’s stories about how
difficult it is to maintain presence—how you sometimes attain
presence, but then you lose it—none of this is true.
If you’re a typical “seeker” who stresses about “losing” presence,
right now you may be inclined to smile and laugh at the absurdity of
believing you could ever lose Beingness. Go ahead! ?
Presence always feels the same: present, here, now, alive, available,
easeful. It comes infused with a consciousness, a cognizance; it has a
sense of self-intelligence and an awareness-of-being.
Things change, but Presence never does
“Existence doesn’t have anoff switch; you cannot stop existing. Notice
this repeatedly.”Bentinho Massaro
Thoughts and emotions at these different times of your life may have
changed dramatically; even who you believed yourself to be may
have changed significantly, but that underlying, most essential sense
of “I Exist”has never changed.
This sense of eternal presence is what most people tune into when
they say, at 70 years old, “I feel the same inside as I felt when I was 24
years old. I don’t feel like I ever truly aged.”
The form of things changes, but the presence that these forms
appear within, and are made out of, never changes; presence never
leaves your experience and you never leave its experience.
You and Presence, are the same one, changeless and unalterable
experience. No one and nothing can take beingness away from you.
Recognize this truth as clearly as you can in your direct experience with
everyday-life experiences. Confirm this truth over and over again,
tirelessly so, until you feel it naturally, automatically. Until your sense of
being shifts from the person to Presence.
The more memories you pull up into your consciousness to
investigate whether that same sense of present-beingness was there,
the more obvious it will become that Presence is the ever-noticeable
and reliable experience of Existence itself.
Explanation/Philosophy – You are Waking Up!
If Presence-Consciousness starts to become more (easily) noticeable
to you, this signifies that your sense of self-awareness (where you
place your perceived identity, your ”self”) is moving up the ladder of
Self-Realization into a continually deeper seeing and knowing of
yourself.
Your true being, your awareness, is unlocking itself from being so
tightly wound around the idea of being a person and starts to
instead identify more with changeless Presence-Energy, felt as the
sense of I-AM or Being here, now, always.
Presence becoming more obvious to you indicates that your self-
awareness is naturally (through recognition and interest) shifting
from Person-World-Consciousness (the “I-AM-This” feeling) to
Presence-Consciousness (the “I-AM” feeling), and is no longer rigidly
identified with the personality.
Congratulations! You are waking up.
Don’t worry: This does not mean you will become unable to interact
as a human being in the world, or that you will lose consciousness of
the person and the world you have created for yourself. It simply
means you are expanding into a greater awareness of the truth of
Existence—and of your True Self—because, after all, Existence and
your True Self are the exact same being. You’ll still be perfectly able
to interact with your loved ones and enjoy relationships.
Presence-Consciousness and Person-World-Consciousness
simultaneously co-exist right alongside/within one another. As do all
four levels of Reality.* One level does not interfere or conflict with
the existence of another.
1.Person-World-Consciousness
2.Presence-Consciousness
3.Awareness
4.The Absolute
* These four levels reflect: I-AM-This, I-AM, I, and Beyond-I.
Presence-Consciousness is always already present, has never
changed, and will never change. You can recognize this. When you
recognize it repeatedly, your self-awareness (where you place your
identity, what you perceive yourself to be) organically stops
projecting itself full-time into the personality that you’ve been
taught to identify with, and rests more effortlessly and naturally into
the vibrancy of the true here-and-now.
In other words, you’re getting free from automatic pilot mode, and
you’re becoming more alive, more spontaneous, freer, wiser, more
loving! It’s good to know you are becoming more of your original,
authentic, spontaneous, bold, highly-intelligent, and giddy Self. Isn’t
it?
Overall, this shift results in a greater sense of everyday ease and
liberation from a big chunk of your self-imposed mental and
emotional suffering. It also results in a generally clearer
consciousness of what is fundamentally true, compared to what is
mind-created, imitated, contrived, unnecessary (suffering), or illusory.
Wisdom is arising from within you, thanks to your choice to wake up
to truth. I thank you, on behalf of all of Creation, who is rejoicing at
the sight of your expansion!
Homework
1.Read Lesson Four at least once more, or as often as you need
to, to get a clear understanding of the text, so that you feel
comfortable and excited to move on to the next lesson.
2.Practice the “Realizing the Changelessness of Being” 2-step
exercise a few times, where you pick different times in your life
to remember and then recognize that in each memory, there
was the same sense of “being you”—that fundamental sense of
existence itself—present in your experience. Also, throughout
your everyday experiences, notice it present in and as the Here-
and-Now.
3.Practice the same memory exercise, but apply it to your
imagined future. Just pick a handful of probable or desirable
future experiences (future “memories”), and imagine that same
exact sense of Beingness you’re now familiar with, present
there in that experience as well.
Remember: When performing the “Realizing the Changelessness of
Being” exercise, whether or not you were fully aware of this
Presence at the time of the memory is not important. What is
important is that you become aware of it now, and understand that it
has nothing to do with whether or not you recognized it consciously,
because it recognizes you. It’s similar to how you know you had a
good, deep sleep; you know it because that underlying Existence
was still present, registering every moment.