Living Presence Book Summary - Living Presence Book explained in key points

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Living Presence summary

Name: Living Presence
Rating: 4.4 (199 reviews)
Author: Kabir Edmund Helminski

Kabir Edmund Helminski

A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self

4.4 (199 ratings)

22 mins

Brief summary

Living Presence by Kabir Edmund Helminski is a spiritual guide for deepening one's connection with the divine. Through mindfulness practices, Sufi teachings, and personal anecdotes, it offers insight and inspiration for living a more meaningful life.

Topics

Meaningful Living Islam The Human Condition Eastern Philosophy Wisdom

Table of Contents

Living Presence
Summary of 7 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Learn how to live at one with the world.

We live in exciting and precarious times. Technology and markets have dissolved the barriers between nations and amplified our impact on the planet. Our fates are converging, and yet our understanding of life’s meaning remains fractured.

As our power grows, so does our neuroticism, shame, and alienation. We’re in dire need of guidance. Fortunately, the ancient tradition of Islamic mysticism known as Sufism can help.

Follow its teaching to live in the here and now and connect to an infinite spirit, and you’ll see how embracing this living presence can break you out of your narrow awareness and tame the discontent that is driven by your ego.

Discover the guide that has been within you all along.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to make the ego the servant of your true, essential self;
why Sufi reality mirrors physics; and
how to find courage in humility.

Sufism is a practice of Islam that strives to experience a reality of divine interconnection.

Picture yourself in a city dense with fog. Its tendrils cling to the streets, spreading darkness everywhere. The people around you move about in shadow.

The inhabitants of this city are constricted by fear. No matter their accomplishments, they carry a deep sense of failure and alienation.

Now travel beyond the city. You find yourself in a village where people strive to be kind yet are haunted by fears of their own insignificance. Journey further away still and you meet the warriors. The warriors have conquered their fears through the realization that life is divine.

Continue yet further and you finally arrive with the saints. The saints have not only realized that life is divine, but they also live every moment with the awareness of this knowledge. They surrender themselves to the all-present divinity.

The key message here is: Sufism is a practice of Islam that strives to experience a reality of divine interconnection.

To a Sufi, this imagined journey from alienation to surrender to the divine isn’t simply a spiritual one. It isn’t just a metaphysical aspiration; it’s a journey to fully embrace physical reality.

In Sufism, all things, and living things in particular, share an essence, or infinite spirit. The spirit creates, connects, and transforms them. So in this way, all things are both individual phenomena and manifestations of the infinite spirit. For a Sufi, reality is oneness.

What’s more, this view of reality sits in harmony with our modern scientific understanding of the world. In physics, reality is an electromagnetic field. Within the field, subatomic particles vibrate with energy, and this energy draws elements together. The elements transform one another, enabling organic life.

Consider a rose, for example. The energy within the rose brings sun, water, and minerals together to make it bloom. It’s the same for humans. The energy within us powers our minds; it allows us to have an awareness of the energy itself.

In contemporary Sufi teaching, this energy, that manifests through all things in the electromagnetic field, is the infinite spirit revealing itself throughout existence.

But this fit with scientifically approved models of reality is beside the point. Sufism isn’t primarily concerned with arguing the truth. Sufism is about experience. And the most important experience a person can have is presence.

Maintaining awareness in the present moment opens you up to the infinite spirit.

In the early days of his spiritual journey, the author studied under a Sufi teacher, or shaikh.

One day, the shaikh instructed him to brush a horse. The author – a kid from New Jersey – had no idea how to groom a horse. But he spent hours on the job. He groomed from the mane to the tail, from the hooves up to the ears. While working he noticed his own body, his arms, his feet, his breath, his heartbeat.

End the tyranny of the compulsive, fearful ego, by surrendering to the love of the infinite spirit.

So far we’ve explored Sufism’s concept of the infinite spirit, an energy more often known as God that connects and manifests through all things, ourselves included. But just as we embody the divine, we also have something of a villain lurking within us: the ego.

In Sufism, the ego is your compulsive self. Seeking only to preserve itself, the ego stokes fear, resentment, judgment, and envy. It can’t sustain mindful attention on any task so it flits about. And, it reads the world as either a threat to extinguish, or an angle to be played.

Suffering is an opportunity to transform yourself and the world around you.

There was once a king who was generous to all people, so long as they could observe a moment’s silence.

One day the king gave to widows, the next he gave to the blind, and on the day after that he gave to poor students. But one poor student couldn’t help but whine as the king approached, and so the student received nothing.

When you’re in love with the infinite spirit, you realize your unity with it.

There was once a poor man who loved God and would spend his days beneath a tree in a park, whispering, “Oh God, God, God . . . ”

One day, a stranger passed and laughed at the poor man. “God’s not answering you,” the stranger said.

When you reflect the spirit in each moment, you’re able to channel its creative energy.

A master of Balinese dance once described his experience of performance. The dancers gather on stage and the audience gives its attention. This attention becomes like a ball of energy held between the audience and the dancers. The dancers then begin to dance.

Through both their skill, which is the result of countless hours of mindful work, and their commitment to the moment, which is a form of presence, the dancers manipulate the ball of energy.

Awareness of the infinite spirit inspires service to others.

Presence for Sufis is a practice of mindfulness that reveals the reality beyond the veil of appearances and the chattering of the ego. That reality is the loving energy of the infinite spirit, or God.

When you join the spirit, you lower the barriers between yourself and the world and your love grows. You become both more sensitive to the needs around you and more eager and able to respond. This includes being able to respond to the needs of other people, other creatures, and the environment.

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What is Living Presence about?

Living Presence (1992) explores how the teachings of the ancient Islamic practice of Sufism can act as a balm against our fractured, ego-driven age. Sufism teaches that an infinite spirit connects all life and that by becoming mindful of the here and now, we can glimpse this spirit in ourselves and others. Ultimately, in connecting to this presence we allow ourselves to become kinder, more intentional, and more alive. In short, more human.

Living Presence Review

Living Presence (2011) by Kabir Edmund Helminski is a book that explores the practice of Sufism as a means of awakening our true selves and living with authenticity. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It offers deep insights into the teachings of Sufism, providing readers with a profound understanding of spirituality and inner transformation.
Through personal stories and anecdotes, the book brings the practice of Sufism to life, making it relatable and applicable to everyday life.
The book's exploration of presence and mindfulness invites readers to cultivate a more meaningful existence, fostering a sense of connection to oneself and the world around us.

Who should read Living Presence?

Curious minds interested in exploring the practice of Sufi Islam
Big thinkers who sense there’s a greater truth beyond the veil of perception
Anyone looking for a guiding light through dark times

About the Author

Kabir Helminski has spent over five decades transmitting the wisdom of the East and Middle East to Western audiences. He’s the author of The Knowing Heart and Holistic Islam, as well as the translator of multiple volumes of poetry of the Sufi mystic Rumi. Helminski is a shaikh, or spiritual teacher, of the Mevlevi Order of Sufi Islam and was named one of “The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre.

Categories with Living Presence

Mindfulness & Happiness Religion & Spirituality Philosophy

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