The Practice of Presence: Five Paths for Daily Life
THE PRACTICE OF PRESENCE Reviewed by Jeff Zaleski, editor of Parabola.Sincere spiritual search depends on both opennness and critical thinking. Teachers from the Buddha to G.I. Gurdjieff have recommended that seekers question everything but at the same time reject nothing out of hand that might help their search. To do this may demand a difficult balance but, as Patty de Llosa shows in this splendid contribution to the literature of search, that balance is attainable.The Practice of Presence reports on Llosa s exploration of five paths for spiritual growth: T ai Chi and Taoism, Jungian studies, prayer and meditation, the Alexander Technique, and the Gurdjieff Work. How did she how do we know, in this world of a thousand offered ways, which path(s) to follow and which not? For that one needs a compass, a way that serves as a starting place and also as an orientation for all that will follow. For Llosa, that way is the Gurdjieff Work, into which she was born. It s her experience within that teaching that begins the book, and that informs all that follows.Openness and critical thinking flourish best in an atmosphere of rigorous honesty. One of this book s admirable qualities is de Llosa's courageous and emotionally true reporting of her messy, fitful (that is, human) progress through the five ways (a courage and faithfulness to truth perhaps not surprising in someone who worked as a reporter for both Time and Fortune). I felt as if I d embarked on a three-year venture into frustration at not being able to give up my way of doing things, she write of her apprenticeship in the Alexander Technique.This frankness makes de Llosa s words of value on a daily, practical level. Anyone who has explored any of these paths will recognize in the author s experiences common touchstones on the way toward understanding; and will take heart from her willingness to stumble, and to learn from her stumbles. At the same time, de Llosa s coverage of each path, while necessarily brief, offers an impressively comprehensive sketch of that path s principles and principal methods, always enlivened through the author s many anecdotes; those interested in the Gurdjieff Work, for instance, will benefit from her presentation of this enigmatic teaching and also from her accounts of meeting Gurdjieff and working with Madame de Salzmann, his most prominent student.The Practice of Presence is a warm, welcoming, and wise testament to a life of search well lived, and an invaluable source of advice to those who would wish to live equally well. --Parabola Magazine, Winter 2008THE PRACTICE OF PRESENCEWhenever we practice presence, writes Patty de Llosa, we begin again. We come alive right where we are. It s in the present that we discover the meaning of our life and healing for our wounds. But, like the inward and outward flow of our breathing, our attention to this inner life comes and goes...We can t solve the riddle of presence once and for all and have done with it...Rather, our challenge in this life is to practice consciously, again and again, the return to...the whole of ourselves.De Llosa writes eloquently on five different paths that she has explored in her lifelong search to return to the whole of herself. Her book, The Practice of Presence, is an inspiring introduction to these five paths.The first path, to which de Llosa was introduced during childhood through her parents, is the philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff. Not many of us in the United States have even heard of this powerful Russian thinker of the 20th century. Often expressed in parables, his notions include putting assumptions into practice and learning through hands-on experience. He challenged his students to practice close self-examination, without judgment or condemnation. He invited us to get out of the basement where we are caught up in desires and creature comforts, writes de Llosa, and occupy a different sort of intelligence of the heart.The second path explored in the book is T ai Chi Ch uan, which de Llosa calls investing in loss. This discipline became important to de Llosa as a way of coming in touch with her vital physical energy called chi and harnessing her overly busy nature by learning to yield rather than conquer. T ai Chi, she writes, is especially valuable to people who live with a general sense of stress, who feel tense all the time because they are trying sincerely to do all that...is required of them. With its slow movement and principle of non-doing, T ai Chi has physical as well as emotional, mental and spiritual benefits.Next, de Llosa introduces us (surprisingly and wonderfully) to the ideas of Carl Jung. Jung s ideas about the unconscious, archetypes, personas and the shadow self afforded de Llosa a way to continue looking at parts of herself she condemned, denied or shut off. Her book invites the reader to engage in a similar search to integrate and embrace those parts of ourselves, revealed through dreams and other methods, that we learned early on were unacceptable and even dangerous.The fourth path is the Alexander Technique, developed by a young Australian actor who was having trouble with his voice on stage. The idea is to become aware of the ways our bodies have been shaped by habits, illness, injury or experience. Changing habitual ways of moving can lead to a new freedom and assist in relieving chronic pain and disease. De Llosa was so taken with the technique that she spent three years becoming a certified teacher.Finally, de Llosa invites us to explore the pathways of prayer and meditation, which begin, she says, as a search for connection and meaning. Prayer can be used as petition, for courage, for praise, for guidance and as a centering device, to integrate the human mind, body and spirit. The book discusses Christian ideas of prayer as well as those belonging to Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Islam and others.De Llosa weaves her own story through the book, using it as a living example of the search for the authentic self. A high-powered journalist who worked for both Time and Fortune magazines, a mother who lived in Peru and New York trying to balance the needs of family, career, money, health and self, she knows from the ground up what it is to struggle with these matters. Her writing is fluid and clear, illuminating complicated concepts in language that engages and inspires.Mary Greene --The River Reporter September 2007FIVE WAYS TO PRACTICE LIVINGWith most spiritual and even physical practices one often gets the warning, Just stick with this way to make progress. The advice usually comes from someone who has committed their life to the practice of a particular method and has nothing good to say about other approaches to the spiritual life...Patty de Llosa s book provides five approaches to being present in one s life. They are Gurdjieff s, Tai Chi s, Jung s, the Alexander Technique s, and that of Prayer and Meditation. In serial fashion Llosa explores each of them as they impacted her own life. Each brought much needed solace to this single mother holding down a full time job at Fortune magazine. She eventually left Fortune to study the Alexander Technique full time and became a certified teacher.This is a wonderful book for those who want to examine each of the above approaches to life. They are so authentically related because Llosa lived them intensely for various periods of time. Usually such guides to different approaches to life are more academic and head oriented. She applies each approach to spirituality to her own person struggles and emerges from them a different person. She takes each to heart, their common focus being on practicing the presence in the present moment. The theme brought happy memories of reading Brother Lawerence s The Practice of the Presence of God.... Gurdjieff emphasized the importance of bringing the heart, head and body into harmonious relationship with each other...rather than being isolated in each one at a time. Llosa informs us, A moment of balance between the centers is a moment of presence.Llosa s transition to Tai Chi was spurred by the Gurdjieffian penchant for uniting the head and the body. Tai Chi practice focuses on chi energy flow and conservation. It is a kind of relaxation different from the typical one of releasing all muscle tension. It is a combination of meditation and action in which mind, intention and chi are combined. She learned how she had a tendency to push her body through the day rather than letting herself ..be propelled by the chi energy. As Llosa experienced Tai Chi, When the chi circulates freely throughout the body, one s feelings, perceptions and touch become very sensitive and one s mind clear.Common to all the disciplines practiced by Llosa is the focus on conscious self-observation, often referred to as The Witness in various traditions. Llosa s insights into the other three disciplines are informative and personal, which makes this well-written book a stimulating read...though in its emphasis on practicing the presence, stimulation is not its intent.Jim Ward --Echo Special issue, VA. Festival of the Book