Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself
Tracy Cochran
Boulder, Colo.: Shambhala, 2024. 256 pp., paper, $18.95.
Longtime meditator, spiritual practitioner, and writer Tracy Cochran offers insights into mindfulness and self-discovery in Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself, a warm and welcoming book that is rooted in the author’s own experiences and the many discoveries she has made along the way.
Cochran, the editorial director of the spiritual quarterly Parabola and founder of the Hudson River Sangha, presents mindfulness not as a practice to be penciled in on our busy schedules but as a way of existence—a path to be walked, embraced, and lived fully. Cochran urges readers to embark on an inner pilgrimage where the end result is a state of being present, aware, and deeply connected to the essence of life.
Cochran draws contrasts between the pilgrim seeking a spiritual quick fix or a Hollywood-style vision of enlightenment and the true mindfulness that can sneak up on the seeker in the least expected ways. With wise self-deprecation, she recounts a postcollege trip across the Midwest in a disturbingly rickety VW bus to sit at the feet of a Tibetan Buddhist lama in the Rocky Mountain foothills. It took the vehicle’s breakdown on a nondescript highway for Cochran to clear her head of these visions of what enlightenment “should” look like and allow herself to truly exist in the moment.
This contrast between the sacred and the profane recurs throughout the reflective and often humorous tales that account for much of the twenty chapters of Presence. In one anecdote, Cochran’s daughter, brought along on a retreat with Thich Nhat Hạnh, interrupts a silent meal to ask if the pumpkin on the table is a fruit or a vegetable. In another, that same daughter, told by Cochran that “what you put out into the world is what you get back,” gives away her bicycle and is disappointed that no material award appears in its place.
Cochran also introduces her parents as her spiritual instructors in Presence. The destruction of their home by a hurricane becomes a lesson in nonattachment and a sanguine Stoic understanding of our lack of control of many matters in our lives. Her father, whose struggles with his memories of World War II are explored with sensitivity, teaches her that only love is lasting.
But Presence is not simply a personal spiritual memoir. Cochran includes stories from the life of Siddhartha Gautama as well as quotes and insights from a wide range of teachers and writers including Annie Dillard, Meister Eckhart, Robert Pirsig, Rainer Maria Rilke, and the current Dalai Lama.
The reader of Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself comes away with the feeling of having engaged in a wide-ranging and intimate conversation with a friend. Cochran reminds us that no matter where we are or what challenges we may face, we always have the power to come home to ourselves, to find solace in the present moment, and to live our lives with grace, authenticity, and joy.
Peter Orvetti
Peter Orvetti is a writer and former divinity student residing in Washington, D.C.