Fwd: Presence Slips the Net
Jeffrey Angelson
From: Rob Matthews from This Radiant Space <robcma...@substack.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 2, 2026 at 11:29 AM
Subject: Presence Slips the Net
To: <Jeff.A...@gmail.com>
We come looking for something solid. A final answer. A stable realisation. A place to stand. A final resolution. A marker that says we’ve made it. And sometimes something does happen. You find a new teacher. There is a breakthrough. The mind drops back. The body softens. The usual struggle goes quiet. Everything feels simple, spacious, obvious. And then thought says: This is it. Presence. I’ve found it. And in those few words, the old machinery has already begun again. There is someone here who has found something. There is something called presence. There is now a new possession, a new memory, a new standard. And sooner or later, this living moment is compared against it. This isn’t as clear as that. This isn’t as open as that. This isn’t as peaceful as that. So the very thing that seemed to free us becomes the measure by which this moment is judged and found wanting. And once it can be possessed, it can be lost. So the whole movement of preservation begins. I need to keep it. I need to stay close to it. I need to protect it. I mustn’t let ordinary life disturb it. I mustn’t let people shake it. I mustn’t let circumstances get in the way. And now what seemed like freedom has become vigilance. Now I need to stay in presence. Return to presence. Deepen presence. Live from presence. Stop losing presence. Already, the ungraspable has become a thing. A state. A memory. A project. A spiritual possession. But look more closely. What exactly has been found? Is “presence” a thing you can put somewhere? Can you keep it safe through a difficult phone call, a bad night’s sleep, a tax bill, a row in the kitchen, a body that hurts, a mind that starts racing again? If it can be disturbed, protected, deepened, lost, regained, and defended, are we still talking about the living fact of this? Or has thought made an object out of it? The word may be beautiful. It may even be useful. But it does not hold. The moment we try to secure it, this has already moved. Not away. Not elsewhere. It simply refuses to become the thing we can keep. And this is not bleak. It is only disappointing to the part of us that wanted awakening to be a conclusion, or a possession, or something safe under the pillow. The real clarity is not finally knowing what this is. The clarity is seeing that this will not resolve into knowledge. It will not become a position. It will not become something to own. It will not become somewhere to land. And yet here it is. The cup. The hand. The sound in the room. The thought trying to name it. Immediate. Vivid. Unholdable. Not an answer. This, before thought tries to turn it into one. Useful for making tea. And perhaps useful for looking again at the strange little certainty that says: this is it, I’ve found it. More focused writings and live inquiry sessions are available here: https://members.thisradiantspace.com This Radiant Space is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
© 2026 Rob Matthews
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