| The truth of living in the Now is the truth of our lives, | | | | in front of you in your awareness, that's life. Can you |
| nothing else is real for the past and future do not | | | | sense the difference between this and what you |
| actually exist, for when they occur they do not occur | | | | normally do? The difference between being in your |
| as the past or future but as Now. We can NEVER | | | | head, and being present now? |
| experience the past or the future. It is our conditioning | | | | Life is not lived the way you think it's lived. Life is not |
| and beliefs and mind-chatter that prevent us from | | | | how you decide it is. Life....just is. And it does not wait |
| seeing the truth of reality. Mostly we live in made-up | | | | for you to catch up with it. It just goes on showing its |
| assessments, conclusions and evaluations, and in this | | | | glory in every fresh, new, moment of every day. |
| process, life is not lived as it IS, but as we THINK it is, | | | | When will you slow down and quieten your mind to |
| or want to believe it is. And these thoughts and | | | | notice it? |
| assessments are what give rise to our suffering for | | | | How long can you go on living with your inner conflicts, |
| they take us away from reality, which is the gateway | | | | confusions, self-justifications and half-hearted attempts |
| to all that we really want in life - Love, fulfillment, peace, | | | | at love? How long can you continue to live with a |
| forgiveness, kindness. If we can simply live in the | | | | sense of something being wrong, a feeling of |
| present moment, our suffering ends. | | | | inadequacy, a sense of weariness and disillusionment? |
| As we experience the present moment more and | | | | How long can you convince yourself that 'you are |
| more, we learn the art of self mastery, for in that | | | | happy'? |
| process we get to see all that prevents us from living | | | | When the answer to these questions is 'Not much |
| in the Now; and this we must own and transform. This | | | | longer, I'm tired of all that effort!' then you have begun |
| is the tricky bit. For all that prevents us from being in | | | | to travel your real path. |
| the here and now, includes our pain, which has us | | | | Seeking our joy outside of ourselves, as I did for so |
| remain stuck and unable to be present to our life as it | | | | many years, is like trying desperately to see your own |
| is and to people as they really are. Our ego/mind will | | | | eyes through your own eyes, and then one day you |
| persistently try to convince us we are ok because it | | | | see yourself for the first time in a mirror and realize |
| doesn't want to feel pain. But if we can see beyond | | | | they were there all along, and in fact you can never |
| the ego's desperation, we can begin to shed the | | | | get away from them even if you tried (bar, gouging |
| falseness within us, the cunning, the hypocrisy, the | | | | them out of course.....but let's not take the analogy too |
| games we play. | | | | far...). |
| And then we start to experience true peace and joy | | | | Thus spiritual truth leads to ourselves in the present |
| and Love. This is the experience of God...the spark of | | | | moment, and this is why the term 'holistic' and |
| God in us, for we become more loving to ourselves | | | | 'wholeness' is used. We usually think that the partial |
| and to others, we become gentler, wiser. We no | | | | truth we believe in - whatever that may be - is the |
| longer believe something ABOUT God, or 'have faith' in | | | | whole truth, but have you noticed that when we do |
| God, or believe we KNOW God. Rather, we | | | | this there is never any deep fulfillment? In fact this |
| understand God through our own Self, our own Being, | | | | always leads to suffering, whether acknowledged or |
| we experience ourselves as the God spark we | | | | not. This partial truth might be a belief system, our |
| contain. We begin to live the message of unconditional | | | | culture, our beliefs about ourselves and others, and all |
| Love, and we see that we are all One, and this makes | | | | our conditioning. |
| us kinder to others, and more forgiving. | | | | We become fully present to that which simply is - both |
| So we come full circle to ourselves; to our amazing | | | | within us and without us, without seeking the usual |
| potential. This is the wonderful little riddle that life gives | | | | distractions to escape, when we see all the mass of |
| us. It's like a test. We don't come into this life to amass | | | | beliefs we hold on to everyday. Have you noticed |
| riches, status or power; we come to solve this riddle | | | | how children are so much more here than adults are? |
| for ourselves. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have | | | | They do not seek to escape what is. And when we |
| money, or a powerful role in society, but it does mean | | | | don't either, we begin to sense the exquisiteness of |
| that attachment to it, gaining our identity from it, | | | | the Now. |
| worrying about losing it etc is in fact the seat of our | | | | Let me ask you a question. Who or what is it that is |
| suffering. Whereas non-attachment - an allowing - is | | | | always on your mind, always the focus of everything |
| the seat of our soul. | | | | you do or say? If you are totally honest, would not the |
| But how can we, as people who live in such a society | | | | answer have to be that it's you? Not your spouse, not |
| and world, live without attachment? | | | | your children, not your friends, foes, not your hobbies or |
| The answer must be answered for ourselves | | | | passions. It's you! Can you see how everything that |
| individually. The road to the answer lies in Awareness, | | | | happens is somehow always related to the 'me'? And |
| in becoming present to what it is. Have you ever | | | | can you sense how heavy this feels. It's always |
| consciously listened to how you speak and what you | | | | effort-full? The mind is never still, and this saps one's |
| say everyday? Have you ever thought about your | | | | energy. |
| thoughts, how your chatterings and justifications | | | | The mind is like the word tree - it cannot give you the |
| occupy so much of your time? Have you seen | | | | experience of the tree. Awareness of the moment is |
| yourself as you are, not as you would like to think you | | | | like touching the tree itself. |
| are? Such self-observation can first of all show us | | | | And so it is that we experience a moment of |
| what our attachments are. | | | | awakening, it is a moment of satisfying freedom, |
| Do you know that life is never, ever lived in your mind, | | | | because for once in our life this 'me' is no longer this |
| in your thoughts, in the past or in the future? If you | | | | desperate momentum of striving and |
| want to really experience life, just stop for a moment, | | | | mind-preoccupation. |
| right now. Look around you. Sense how your body | | | | Your deeper Self has been waiting patiently for this |
| feels. What are the feelings that are there? Right there | | | | moment! |