This is a linkpost for https://chrislakin.blog/p/being-present-is-not-a-skill
I think it's both true what you say, that removing blocks can give you instant improvements that no amount of practice ever would, and also that one can make progress with practice in the right conditions.
I don't have a strong belief that this experience won't generalize, but, I want to flag the jump between "this worked for me" and an implied "this'll work for everyone/most-people." (I expect most people would benefit from hearing this suggestion, just generally have a yellow-flag about some of the phrasings you have here)
What would it mean for this advice to not generalize? Like what cases are you thinking of where what someone needs to do to be more present isn't some version of resolving automatic predictions of bad outcomes?
I ask because this feels like a place where disagreeing with the broad form of the claim suggests you disagree with the model of what it means to be present rather than that you disagree with the operationalization of the theory, which is something that might not generalize.
One way I parse this is "the skill of being present (may be) about untangling emotional blocks that prevent you from being present, more than some active action you take."
It's not like entangling emotional blocks isn't tricky!
I think you still have it wrong, because being present isn't a skill. It's more like an anti-skill: you have stop doing all the stuff you're doing that keeps you from just being.
There is, instead, a different skill that's needed to make progress towards being present. It's a compound skill around noticing what you do out of habit rather than in response to present conditions, figuring out why you have those habits, practice not engaging in those habits when you otherwise would, and thereby developing trust that you can safely drop those habits, thus retraining yourself to do less out of habit and be closer to just being and responding.
Some meditation advice has a vibe like... “To become more present, all you need to do is practice! It's just a skill, like learning to ride a bike 😊”
This never worked for me. When I tried to force presence through practice, I made little progress.
Being present isn't a skill to build — it's the natural state! What blocks presence is unconscious predictions of bad outcomes. Remove these blocks to make presence automatic.
Now, you might wonder: if presence isn't a skill, why do some people seem to benefit from meditation practice? In my experience, meditation can help with noticing blocks and creating space to work with them. But the practice itself isn't building presence so much as creating opportunities to identify and release blocks that prevent presence. This is what I believe explains why some people can meditate for years without becoming much more present, and others grow quickly once they find and integrate their core blocks.
Most of what I’ve done to develop more presence is ask my system: “What bad thing happens if I'm fully present right now?”
One last thing: Once you become fully present, you may be tempted to think “Oh, I get it now! Being present is so simple! Just be present!” But that will overlook all the little blocks you untangled along the way. (Once blocks are untangled, they are forgotten!)
Natural presence is already there, waiting to be uncovered. Find the blocks.
See how I put this into practice.
Thanks to Stag Lynn and Shailen for help editing. Thanks to CFAR, Anna Salamon and my clients for support.