What is Living Presence?
Living Presence is a powerful approach to inner transformation, which can be used both as an inner spiritual practice, as well as a coaching method. It was founded by Kåre Landfald in 2005, and has since then grown into a global spiritual community with hundreds of students. Kåre takes inspiration from many sources, among others Zen Buddhist approach of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Nonviolent Communication as developed by Marshall B Rosenberg, the Diamond Approach as developed by A.H. Almaas, Family Constellations, Trauma Healing, Inner Child work, Osho-inspired teachers, as well as the modern philosophical, leadership and coaching tradition.
At its heart lies a simple, profound realisation: the root of our suffering is a disconnection from our true nature – and the solution is to reconnect with this essential self, which is naturally, always, and already free, peaceful, compassionate, joyful, connected, intuitive, trusting, and loving. The overall purpose of Living Presence is to support us in recognizing this truth, while also revealing how and when we are relating with life from states such as fear, doubt, or other kinds of resistance.
The main Living Presence practice is to keep noticing what’s happening now and simply allow and include the experience as it is, to surrender to it in a friendly way, without trying to change, fix, get rid of, ignore or hold on to our present moment experience. When we allow and include, life can unfold naturally and we become increasingly connected with our deeper self, which is always present. The practice also supports discovering, and living, more and more, our unique contribution to society and to the world, for the benefit of all beings.
Ultimately, we don’t need to look outside ourselves for qualities such as happiness, fulfilment, peace, strength, or love; these are inherent qualities of our essential nature, waiting to be discovered through what we call “the alchemy of the heart”.
The Coaching
In Zen Coaching, our first concern is always to support self-connection. Self-connection happens as the client welcomes their direct experience as it is, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. We especially focus on what is happening in the body; sensations, feelings, energetic intuitions, etc. Once this connection is present, they become more creative, loving, clear-sighted, trusting and curious – which makes us more able to deal with the issue we’re exploring in the coaching session.
We don’t focus on fixing, guiding, changing or even helping – but rather to provide simple presence, a restful and trusting awareness, and a curious, compassionate embrace. We follow life energy as it moves, rather than try to guide life to where we think it should go. This, we call “helping through non-helping”. Our main job as coach is to stay in empathic connection with the client: to stay present to what is alive in the moment, without attachment to ideas, concepts or goals.
If we follow the above principles we can, as a coach, follow our intuition and use any technique that spontaneously occurs to us in the moment. Our intuition will tell us whether we are in line with the above principles or not. So, Zen Coaching is not so much a technique – it is rather an awareness and framework that comes out of deep insights into the nature of what it is to be a human being – both as a psychodynamic, physical being and as a spiritual Being. Because of this, a zen coaching session can look very different in terms of which techniques are being used, but it always rests on the same basic principles.
The Community and Training
The Living Presence/Zen Coaching community is a global network of “friends on the path”. The ethos is one of mutual support rather than hierarchy; we are all fellow travelers walking each other home. There are local “Living Presence Hubs” around the world, where people who have done the Zen Coaching training come together for practice and connection. The hub members also offer workshops to the public in the same spirit – that we all have something that we can give to the world, and we can all support each other a little bit to live a more connected and fulfilling life.
The training is structured around five main modules. Each module focuses on specific life topics and always includes a process of personal development combined with specific coaching principles and skills. Individual coaching and personal practice are carried out between modules. The training environment can be described as a “laboratory of the heart” — a safe space for experimentation where vulnerability is welcomed as a gateway to strength.:
1. Relaxing into Being: Learning the art of deep listening, inquiry, and the shift from “doing” to “being”.
2. Deep Healing: Exploring the shadows, “holes,” and blocked emotions to transform them into resources.
3. Relating from the Heart: Integrating principles from Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to navigate relationships with empathy and truth.
4. Acting from Being: Bringing our essential self into action, creativity, and contribution in the world.
5. Living Our Gifts: Creativity, Contribution and Fulfillment.
Students who complete the basic training can continue the journey through the Advanced Training and other programs.
[Written by: Robin Wallin]
Leaders of Living Presence
These are the people in the Relating Arts network who leads Living Presence and Zen Coaching.
Kåre Landfald
Roger Marklund
Selected videos from Youtube
Here are some videos to get you started with Zen Coaching and the living presence community.
Upcoming Living Presence events
These are the Living Presence and Zen Coaching events that are coming up in the Relating Arts network.
Where to learn
These is only one place to learn Zen Coaching at the moment.
