Presence: A Handbook for Enlightened Living

By Sa Silvano

In Presence, Sa Silvano takes the reader on a journey of awakening to the present moment. She reveals effortless ways to fully experience and enjoy the richness and beauty that is always here. She guides the reader into states of self-awareness and presence in order to release outmoded conditioning and patterns of absence, and shows - clearly an

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ganesha Imprints
• Release date: Nov 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9780648709923

Sa Silvano

Sa Silvano is a spiritual teacher, mentor and healer whose private consultations and workshops in meditation, shamanism, mindfulness and energy-healing modalities has been uplifting and inspiring people in Perth for the past 25 years. She lived in Adelaide for a period of four years, forging deep connections and still returns regularly to teach.She is loved for her compassion and respected for the direct truthfulness of her approach.For the past 3 years she has also been working with indigenous university students at St Catherine’s College in Perth, assisting them in their personal growth and teaching them effective ways to navigate their sometimes highly stressful academic environment.Her deepest joy comes from assisting people to discover their own intrinsic value and to embrace the gift of life fully.Her published book, “Pearls from the Heart: a Guide to Living Consciously”, is a precious manual to remind the reader that the truth is simple and completely accessible, at any given moment. Her second book “Presence – a Handbook for Enlightened Living,” is a comprehensive map of the awakened state and acts as a powerful guide for aspirants everywhere.

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Presence - A Handbook for Enlightened Living

Copyright © 2017 Sa Silvano

All rights reserved

The right of Sa Silvano to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First Published in Australia in 2017 by

Ganesha Imprints

[e-mail]

63 First Avenue, Claremont, Western Australia 6110

[e-mail]

www.sacredradiance.net

ISBN: -13 978-0-9923393-3-3 (paperback)

I dedicate this book to my beloved sons

Michael and Steven

and my granddaughter

Lily Rose

I love you

Other works by Sa Silvano

Pearls from the Heart - A Guide to Living Consciously

Acknowledgements

Jan, my editor and friend, thank you so very much for the incredible commitment of time, energy and heart you invested in Presence. Your honest and excellent editing and refining has resulted in this book feeling truly finished. What’s more, the journey we embarked on at the beginning of the book has led to a friendship I am delighted to explore and deepen.

Claudio Silvano, thank you my beloved partner, even though you were deep in the midst of completing the last book of your wonderful trilogy, you still found time to go through my book and help me iron out the glitches.

Thank you to Monica Gagliano who was the first to read a very clunky version of my book and help to sort out the grist from the chaff.

Evalee Smith, once again your generosity with your time and energy with this, my second book, is deeply appreciated.

Carrie Broun, regardless of all the difficulties and challenges that were manifesting in your life, you still made time to read through Presence and offer some wonderful suggestions that I took on board.

Nada Orlic, you are a truly sensitive and talented designer. I sent you some of my writings and you sent me a most beautiful cover for my book. I am deeply grateful and very happy to be working with you.

Rifai, I thank you for typesetting both my books. You always do such excellent and professional work, and I love the soft touches you add which enhance presentation.

Note from the Author

Four months after I published my first book, Pearls from the Heart, I awoke on the morning of February 4th 2014 with a completely quiet mind. No thought. I was fully present, utterly at peace. I spent a couple of weeks in that state, deeply experiencing my intrinsic connection to the trees, the sky, the birds, the water, and all else that was there with me. I was one with the natural world, not separate from anything. I saw that everything was alive and conscious.

It has now been over three years and although thoughts come and go, I know that I am not those thoughts and ­neither am I who I thought I was. I just am. I am free and I am life.

When things happen they do not happen to a personal me, they just happen. When feelings arise I experience them in the moment and soon they are gone. Just as a breeze blows, and then is no more. Just like that.

I see that I am the aliveness that is here in this moment.

I am not separate from anyone or anything. I am just a different expression of the one consciousness.

Although life is much the same as always - I work and play and the weeks are sometimes busy, sometimes quiet – I still feel the same about it all.

Life is a dance, a movement that is happening in the stillness of the moment. It feels spacious, silent and peaceful. Even when there is chaos, noise and drama, I can always feel the quiet beneath it all.

Dear reader, the pages in this book are an invitation to you to discover and anchor the same beautiful experience of spaciousness within you.

You may notice some repetition as themes recur throughout this book. Repetitions help to anchor. When I point to Presence, to the truth of us, I express this in many ways. Different words are used to point to the same thing so we don’t attach to and identify with any particular word. Some of the other words I use as pointers are consciousness, awareness, spaciousness, love, isness, grace, and softness.

One of these words will speak directly to your heart and offer you a true experience of yourself.

Ultimately the truth is simple. All that is here in this moment is the truth of this moment. This is inclusive of you and any thoughts and feelings that may also be present. There is nothing else outside of this.

All that is present, inclusive of you, is the Presence that is here.

Sa Silvano

Perth, November 2017

Note from the Editor

I had only ever edited fiction before and, from an editor’s perspective, didn’t really understand what Sa meant by Presence. Of course I knew what the word meant, but realised there was obviously more to it than just a word.

At the time I was editing Sa’s book I was going through a tough few weeks personally. Then I realised that I was actually drawing on what I had read to help me not only cope, but sail through that time and come out feeling refreshed.

Soon after I finished editing, I had the opportunity to share what I had learned from Sa’s book with a dear friend. As I spoke with her I actually got goose bumps as the words from the book flowed from me and my friend’s face lit up. She understood.

I now understand what Presence means.

Jan Bayly

Adelaide, November 2017

Contents

Presence

Life is beautiful

The wonder of life

We are free

The experience of emotions and feelings

Life creating unhindered

About needing a purpose

Serenading the moment

Sanctuary of Presence

True heart

Aliveness

All one

Being comfortable

The body

Choose this moment

Identifications

Listen to your heart

Lost in thought or present to here, now

Relationship & liberation

Sensitivity

Liberation from fear

We are the essence of love

The joy of work

The trees I Am

Naturally free and responsive

Unique but not separate

Waking up

Personalizing rejection

Dealing with projections

This life experience

Encouragement not criticism

Expectations limit life

What keeps us separated?

What is attraction?

About thoughts and thinking

Making decisions

Allowing is the key!

The movement of creation

What is important?

What is enlightenment?

Unconditional love

Beliefs

Subconscious influences

Awareness and thinking

Safe

Letting go, letting be

Discovering the truth of you

Authentic living

Suffering or experiencing

Your true face

You are perfect just as you are

You are already that

You are not separate

You are not your story

Courage, trust and love

Coming up for release

About story and Presence

Be here and everything is open

Be without opinion

Discomfort

You are all life

What should you be doing?

You are already whole

Unfolding story

To believe is to hold on

Come to your senses

The suffering shadow

The softness of the love that you are

The silence at the heart of you

Sleeplessness, a portal to liberation

Where are you looking from?

The nourishment of Presence

The beauty of everything

Synchronicity is grace in action

The heart of us is love

No substance in the story

Story meeting story

Nothing is broken here

Stop the story

Showing another their truth

Reasonless joy

Dealing with anger and sadness

Present to each other

Mind is like a child

Overcoming boredom

Okay not to know

Nature’s comfort

Successful meditation

Movement and stillness, sound and silence

Meeting in the oneness

Love

Living without a recipe

Listening Presence

You are life’s loving availability

Liberating the contractedness

Laughter is life enjoying itself

Knowing who you are

I can love everyone

I am you and we are one

No struggle here

The wisdom you are

Gratitude

Indescribable love

Comfortable to be you

A story about the perfect relationship

Free from the noise of thoughts

All is happening in the One

From avoidance to acceptance

Be your natural self

A letter from One to another One

Listen to the Silence

Foreword

Through the following pages, offered with Lightness and Grace, Sa offers us the opportunity to peer through the eyes of Awakening by showing portals that lead back into our own true identity, to the one that peers through the eyes of all that lives and breathes.

By investigating first, what holds us captive and then offering a way back into our own innate freedom, every page invites the reader to contemplate and explore just how very close and immediate Awakening actually is. Whether it be asking the Trees how to be, through to recognising the perfection that is already right here, her reflections constantly and consistently gently nudge the reader back into their own true nature as Presence Itself.

Sa has the ability to pick a moment and investigate through a keen mind and awakened heart, just what it is offering. She knows that every moment is sacred, thus being another unique opportunity to be transported back into who and what we truly are. She takes a normal, everyday activity or situation such as work or suffering and scratches the surface to begin to shine a light on just what makes it tick. And, as we journey through her own encounter with each moment, she awakens something fresh and new within ourselves.

Sa’s ability to access both her Inner Child and her Inner Teacher, makes this book a beautiful celebration of all things that open the heart and bring us right to the very doorway of pure presence in the realization that each moment always offers its own wisdom and its own blessing. Each page offers a rare and precious insight, leading us always back to the One that is always present, always vast, always clear – that One that is looking out and in, forever at peace and without limits.

Through her words, we are visited by a loving heart, always offering a view that uplifts and awakens. And through her loving heart we are given direct access to our own. This is Sa’s gift.

This book is a joy to read, a gift to be savoured as you too awaken to the Presence that is always right here, right now. In her own words: Be still and weave yourself deeply into where you stand. This moment holds all the nourishment you need.

May you discover your ever-present freedom.

Enza Vita

Author of Instant Presence – allowing natural meditation to happen

It is your complete Presence

that makes an ordinary moment extraordinary

Presence

Even as you read these words, be aware of that which is seeing through your eyes.

For just a few moments, be still and savour…

We seldom perceive the present as it is. Most of the time, the tendency is to meet the present moment influenced by the thoughts and opinions we carry from our past.

We base our judgements of all that we see in the present on how we have been conditioned to perceive them. Our judgements result not only from our personal experiences but also from those cautionary tales passed on by our parents and other important people in our young lives.

What would it be like if you were to look at something without opinion and without interpretation?

To see without opinion would mean that we could look upon something without reference to the past. We would simply see it as it is in the here and now.

When we see like this, there is no judgement of what we are seeing. We see that whether we have an opinion about it or not, it is as it is.

I invite you to look now at something in your environment.