Imagine sitting down to watch TV. You find a programme. Then you switch channels, watch for a bit, then switch again. Now, imagine that you get lost in this. As you flick from channel to channel, seeking gratification from your viewing, trying to avoid unfulfilling and boring content, you gradually forget your own existence. You forget yourself, and your life, becoming ever more deeply immersed in the channel flicking. Days pass. Months. Years. Decades. You're zombified. Your entire existence has become channel flicking. Like an addict, lost in a hopeless and eternal chase, your previous existence has been long forgotten. Left behind. Abandoned. And you have no idea. You don't realise you've forgotten. You're simply caught up in the channel flickery and it's absorbing all your attention, and all of your consciousness. If only there was a power cut, you might quite naturally come back to yourself. But the TV just keeps on.
And then one day, you stumble across a programme that's a bit different. The presenter is explaining, in direct and simple terms, the situation you are in. They starkly point out the truth: that you are watching telly, you've forgotten that you're doing it, and that you should stop, realise what's going on, and remember yourself and your life. All you have to do is press the standby button on the remote control.
The TV is your mind. The programmes are your thoughts. This message is the programme reminding you of what's really going on. And presence is the standby button on the remote control.