Freedom Lives in the Now
Right before you clicked on this story, you were and thinking something-doing something . As you reflect on that very moment, you have drifted into the past
I remember a story of a Zen Monk who asked the students questions when they arrived in his hut to graduate and he would ask them if they knew where they had placed their shoes of course they would say outside and he would say where outside ? None of them could remember by what? where ? In an attempt to see if their eyes were open - if they could see!
Most of them failed because in the stress of going before the master they had thoughts of the past, the present and the future.
I would often tell my writing students who would come to class they were somewhere else- what they needed to purchase at the grocery store on the way home, what homework they needed to review for their children when they arrived home etc etc etc
The realm of memories and historical interpretations,
weaving all the pieces of your month your week, your day, - all the
years leading up to NOW .
Gaze into the future, you have a
similar experience – attaching to outcomes, projecting what will happen, forecasting what
others will say and do, and guessing .
The practice of staying present and detaching from results is a core
principle in many Eastern wisdom traditions.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna advises Arjuna on the eve of an epic
battle between two warring families, “You have the right to work, but
never to the fruit of work.
You should never engage in action for the
sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this
world, Arjuna, as a man establishes within himself – without selfish
attachments, and alike in success and defeat.”
A few lines later,
Krishna reminds Arjuna, “Yogastha kuru karmani. Established in presence,
perform action.”
The message is clear: When we move forward in life from the present
moment, there are infinite possibilities.
When we come from the past, we
are mired in all the interpretations, translations, and stories we’ve
told ourselves and others.
This makes the next step a product of the
past. It is limited. It is constrained. It carries all the baggage from
the past.
When we are living with our minds in the future, we are attempting to
clairvoyantly define outcomes, and at a certain point we may even
believe those made-up outcomes. When they don’t unfold the way we
predicted, we often respond with disappointment, frustration,
irritation, or sadness – even though they were all the products of our
guesswork to begin with.
Breathe and Let Go . . .
When we are truly living in the present, each thought, word, and action has infinite possibilities.
Our decisions and the steps we take
are fresh, new, rich, exciting – as they are products of the universe’s
boundless unfolding. When we live in the present, our eye is on this
step, not the next one, creating a greater likelihood that the step we
take will unfold more expansively.
Daily meditation allows us to surrender to the present moment for
uninterrupted periods, and that present moment awareness is infused into
the rest of our day.
Focusing on our breath and witnessing can create
the same experience while we are in the midst of activity.
If what we look for in life is unconditional, then we cannot limit
ourselves with constricted conditioned thinking or actions.
If we want
unconditional love, it must come from a space where we surrender all of
our past grievances.
If we desire abundance, we must let go of any lack
consciousness that resides in our past.
This Moment Is Perfect, Pure, and Whole
If we truly are seeking moksha (emotional freedom), we must let go of the shackles of the past and the fears of the future.
By liberating
ourselves from wandering into the past or future to think our next
thought, speak our next word, or take our next action, we come from a
place of sweet possibilities, pregnant with potential and abundant with
opportunity.
The present moment is where all the richness of life
resides because this moment is perfect, pure, and whole. This moment is
exactly as it’s supposed to be.
By simply breathing into this moment, you will connect to the
universe and all it has to offer.
Surrender to the present moment and
you will ride the current of life and all the magnificence it has to
offer.
Shanti
(Peace)
Blessings
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