The Ups and Downs, Harry Potter and Presence

We need to learn not expect the ups and downs of life to ever stop. 
Why? 
Because they will not; because there will always be goods and there will always be bads. 
Yes, there will be moments when there are more goods, but there will also be moments when there are more bads. And this will never change. 

This idea that many people have, based on wrong thinking, that one day we will be able to beat life and only have goods and never bads is just a fairytale, like Harry Potter. It is a nice story, but that is all, a story. 

If we want peace, and this is the reason why we so desperately want the ups, what we can do is to find the place in ourselves which exists beyond the goods and the bads; this is something we need to find, something we CAN find. 
This is the place I call Presence, although throughout history it has had many different names.  

This Presence is a space-like place where we can stand, and BE; it is a space which is prior, and so it is not affected, by the ups and downs of life. 

If we don’t have Presence, then all we have are the ups and downs of life. Actually life without Presence IS the ups and downs. 
In this case, when we are in the ups, we feel WE ARE THE UPS and tend to feel good, and happy, and exalted, and high and, at least for that moment, we believe that this will never change. But then the downs will come, and when we are in the downs we feel WE ARE THE DOWNS and we feel low, and depressed, and sad, and anxious and, at least for that moment, we believe that that moment will never change. 
And then again, and again, and again…
Yes, sometimes one or the other may stay for longer (longer from our very small and subjective point of view), but sooner or later it will also change.
And like this, our lives pass. 

But there is the possibility to stand in and as this Presence which is aware of the ups and downs. Of course I will still be affected by the ups and downs, but they will not become my identity; my identity will be Presence, that infinite sense of ‘I Am’ in which the ups and downs of life come and go, make their appearance and disappear, arrive and pass…like clouds on the sky. 

– To sum up, there are two things I am saying here.

One is not to expect the ups and downs of life to stop. They will always be there. And the reason why most people never come to Presence is because somewhere in their mind, openly or very hidden, have the hope that one day the bads will stop and the goods will shine forever…or in other words, they hope that one day Harry Potter will become real. 
Look for the ups, of course; try to get away from the downs, of course; but don’t wait or expect them to stop. 

And second, that there is a place to stand which is prior to the ups and downs. 
That place is Presence. 
That place is Being, silent-aware-presence, right here and now. 
This place has to be discovered.

And to me, this discovery, IS the true meaning of our lives.