The ENGAGED PRESENCE method

An ENGAGED PRESENCE practice session is a small-group social meditation that exercises our ability to see, hear and respond to the people around us.  The work draws on Improvisational Acting’s YES and PLAY, the deep and prolonged exposure of Meisner chair work, Zen Buddhism’s PRACTICE priority, Yin Yoga’s  SUSTAINED EFFORT method and the neuronal plasticity experimentally proven in mindfulness practice.  Participants often finish the workout with an energized sensation and heightened awareness of their surroundings.

We practice using our eyes, ears, feelings and voice within a group. Each activity lasts for 10-20 minutes. As we become more accustomed to the format our awareness expands, as does our response.

The format provides constant reminders of when we’re not mindful, and reinforcement of mindful attention.

The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull’s-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill, though there is in it something of a quite different order which cannot be attained by any progressive study of the art… Eugen Herrigel in Zen in the Art of Archery