Presence and Coachness

Silence is not the absence of presence 🧘‍♂️

It is often the fullest expression of it 🪷

While reflecting on the mastery session delivered on Cultivating Presence at the ICF India Conclave, I found myself returning to one of the most profound symbols in the Indic tradition: Bhagavān Dakṣiṇāmūrti.

Seated beneath a banyan tree. Facing south. Surrounded by four elderly sages.

Yet He Himself appears ever youthful.

This imagery is intentionally paradoxical ie the students are older than the teacher.

The teacher speaks no words, and yet knowledge unfolds.

The Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotram describes Him as:

मौनव्याख्या प्रकटित परब्रह्मतत्त्वं युवानम्

maunavyākhyā prakaṭita parabrahmatattvaṃ yuvānam

“The ever-youthful teacher who reveals the highest truth through silence.”

This challenges many modern assumptions.

We often assume that influence comes through speaking.

That leadership comes through visibility.

That expertise comes through explanation.

That coaching comes through questioning.

That knowledge comes only through us.

Dakṣiṇāmūrti invites a different possibility:

The deepest transformation may occur not through words, but through presence.

Not through speaking, but through being.

Not through information, but through insight.

Now, this gets more interesting… Beneath His feet lies Apasmāra - the symbol of forgetfulness, distraction, and unconscious living.

Significantly, kindly note, Apasmāra is not destroyed, but it is simply kept beneath the feet.

Perhaps that is the journey of the self.

Not eliminating distraction but no longer being governed by it.

Hope you recall the statement that emerged at the conclave where i said that let’s neither be unsettled by distractions nor annoyed by noises around, as learning to deal with them as a witness makes us stronger and better.

Over the years, this insight led me to explore what I call the evolution of the self:

• Fragmented self

• Observing self

• Regulated self

• Integrated self

• Instrumental self

The journey is not about becoming someone else but it is about becoming a clearer instrument through which wisdom, awareness, and understanding can express themselves.

The banyan tree under which Dakṣiṇāmūrti sits appears once again as the symbol of the ICF India Conclave.

Perhaps not by accident…

Its roots descend from its branches and reconnect to the earth.

What appears separate returns to its source.

Perhaps presence is similar.

Not something we create.

Something we recognise. 🗓️ Check https://www.coachness.org/coaching-with-indic-wisdom for upcoming program dates