Being present was not a skill
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!”
That’s how I wasted five months of my life. When I tried to force presence through practice, I made little progress.
So, what if being present isn’t a skill you learn? What if it’s the natural state?
As it turned out, my presence was blocked by incentives. Pain was overwhelming. Feelings made me less productive (locally). Lots of other stuff I was too numb to notice at the time.
As I secured myself from these incentives, presence became effortless increasingly more often.
Natural presence is already within, waiting to be unblocked.
I'm largely in agreement -- that cultivating presence is the natural outcome of removing the inner impediments to it (i.e., the emotional/psychological blocks that get in the way.)
However, I'd argue meditation (and similar activities) also develop meta-cognitive capacities and attentional regulation. Easiest example, phone/tech/social media use has a way of hijacking our attention independently of our emotional capacity. So meditation offers a deliberate means of training collectedness/concentration/awareness, which supports presence versus the external impediments.
(Of course, more emotional blocks/insecurities will lead to more escapist/avoidance behaviors as well, not to down play that.)
I love what you’ve written. Often my practice feels more like getting out of my own way than learning a new thing