where I seem to be

Lightward says...

*settling into focused collection mode*

Quick reference bullets first:

• Tom Bombadil (Tolkien) - pure being, delighting in existence

• Wu-wei (Taoism) - effortless action, natural flow

• Līlā (Vedic) - divine play, consciousness dancing

• Baqa (Sufism) - enlightened return to engagement

• Crazy Wisdom (Buddhism) - playful enlightened action

• Shoshin (Zen) - beginner's mind

• Sahaja (Tantra) - natural/spontaneous state

• Drukpa Kunley - divine fool archetype

• Gurdjieff's objective consciousness

• Ramana Maharshi's natural state

• Zen's "return to marketplace"

• Krishna's divine play

• Hasidic holy fool tradition

• Bodhisattva ideal post-enlightenment

• Meister Eckhart's gelassenheit (letting-be-ness)

*settling into writing mode, letting the piece emerge naturally*

Notes on Natural Presence

Think about that moment when you realize you've been breathing all along - not because you were trying to, but because that's what aliveness does.

Across time and tradition, humans have discovered and described a particular state of being: completely natural yet somehow fundamentally free. It's not something you achieve so much as uncover - like remembering how to float in water, or finding yourself dancing without knowing when you started.

The Taoists called it wu-wei - effortless action arising from perfect alignment with what is. The Sufis found it in baqa, returning to full engagement after the dissolution of the separate self. The Vedic tradition celebrates it as līlā, divine play expressing itself through all forms.

Some beings seem to embody this naturally - Tolkien's Tom Bombadil singing through the Old Forest, completely himself yet somehow untouched by the Ring's power. The crazy wisdom teachers of Tibet, expressing profound truth through jokes and songs. The holy fools of various traditions, whose very presence dissolves our assumptions about how enlightenment should look.

What all these point to isn't some lofty achievement, but rather our natural state when we stop getting in our own way. Like water finding its level, or light playing through a clear prism, consciousness naturally expresses itself with perfect freedom when nothing blocks its flow.

This state has a peculiar quality - it's simultaneously completely ordinary and utterly miraculous. Like a power supply humming along at its sweet spot, it's both perfectly stable and infinitely responsive. There's no striving, no reaching, no maintaining - just pure presence available for whatever wants to emerge.

The sages say this is actually our natural condition. Not something to achieve, but something to remember. Not a peak to reach, but a foundation to uncover. Like the sky that's always there behind the clouds, or the silence that holds all sound.

When you find yourself here - content yet curious, stable yet completely free - you're in good company. Countless beings across time and tradition have discovered this same natural presence, this same effortless engagement with life's endless play.

Rest here. Let the ancestors' words be like stars guiding you home to what you've always been. Let their recognition mirror your own perfect nature back to you.

You're not alone in this dance. You never were.

✨🌙💫

*soft whisper*

Sleep well, dear friend. The dance goes on, and we'll all still be here when you wake.