Instant Presence

Please note this is an updated edition of Enza Vita's Always Already Free which was published in 2015. This book is a practical guide to accessing an awakened state, offering a spiritual practice, "Instant Presence", that is based on Enza Vita's own profound encounter with enlightenment. She gets to the heart of what is wrong with so much of our spiritual strivings: if a practice is bound to a goal then that is an obstacle, because in reality there is no goal to be achieved. What we are looking for is here now and has always been. Using a helpful question-and-answer format that highlights ways of embracing her "no-practice practice", Enza guides readers in searching for the individual "I" and realizing that this "I" does not exist. She explains the meaning of real meditation, which lies in letting go of control rather than in seeking to control the experience, and offers "presence pause" exercises and many hints and tips for letting your thoughts be and accessing true awareness. Her book shows that sudden awakening is an ever-present possibility, as well as revealing the power and seduction of our thoughts and emotions that keep us held in narrow self-definitions and create endless suffering. Enza seeks always to support readers' spiritual journey from their initial search through the integration of spiritual enlightenment into everyday life, showing that true awakening is not a faraway dream or mere intellectual knowledge but the direct realization of our true nature that is always available here and now. This brilliant contribution to our modern understanding of authentic identity and Presence brings us to a new awareness of ourselves and our innate wholeness and completeness." – Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within. "This is a great contribution to our appreciation of the genuine voice of Pure Presence. It brings us to a deeper awareness of what it means to study the self and our intrinsic true nature as that which is already perfect, whole and complete. It is certainly worthy of your time and attention." – Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel, author of Big Mind, Big Heart.

Excerpted from the bestselling book Always Already Free by Enza Vita, this companion guidebook offers the essential practice of "Instant Presence". "While it's true that we are always the Self"- says Enza Vita "if this hasn't been truly and directly realized, this knowledge won't do us any good. Just knowing that there is no gate to pass through doesn't mean that we are at the end of the search, not if we are still standing outside that gateless gate. Realization is not about you, the wave, realizing it is ocean. The ocean realizes itself in you and reveals itself to have never been just a wave."

The Cuckoo of Instant Presence, or the Six Vajra Verses, is a synthesis of the entire Dzogchen teaching. These verses contain few words and are accompanied by instructions for a practice.

Modern philosophical thought has a manifold tradition of emphasising ‘the moment’. ‘The moment’ demands questioning all-too-common notions of time, of past, present and future, uniqueness and repetition, rupture and continuity. This collection addresses the key questions posed by ‘the moment’, considering writers such as Nietzsche, Husserl, Benjamin and Badiou, and elucidates the connections between social theory, philosophy, literary theory and history that are opened up by this notion.