Much can occur in the hustle-bustle of our days, and to each experience, as humans, we tend to assign value to that which grabs us. How it feels to us. What we thought of it. Our subjective experience as it were. And in the course of our lives, much of what we want to happen doesn’t occur that way, does it? Or at least in the way we thought it would. Good or bad though, when did it ever go as planned?
I have a question. If our lives were movies, would you watch yours? What would it look like? Wouldn’t those experiences of anxiety, fear, longing, and pain be obligatory oppositesto the joy, love, and fulfillment required to discern one from the other? Black is not the enemy of white. They are like the opposite poles of a magnet - one and the same - and you couldn’t have one without the other. Put another way, if it weren’t for the black night sky how would you know the stars existed?
There is much that we can be anxious about in our modern times. The only thing that is unique about this time is its modernity. The here and now. War, pain, famine, disease, corruption, greed, constipation, and male-pattern balding. These are the 10,000 things and as long as there has been a mind, there have been 10,000 things. Same story, new faces.
10,000 things to distract you, to consume your time, to consume your thoughts to consume your attention. The laundry needs to be done. The dishes need to be washed. The fire tended to. And then there are these other needs. I need to be loved. I need that love to look a certain way. I need friends and family and community and communion.
And we do…
But I need to be in charge of that you see, for I need to be the commander of my own ship, right? And this is all supposed to find its way to the top of a pyramid, wherein self-actualization occurs. What if I get hung up along the way on “the way it should be?” What happens when my thoughts of how I want it to be intrude on the present reality of how it is?
Can anything ever truly be good enough in this way?
Live in the present moment. Action only occurs in the present moment. You cannot make something happen by thinking about the way it used to be. Likewise, nothing happens when thoughts are geared towards the future. Nothing in reality, in the present moment.
Do you know what happens? With most people, the future generates anxiety and the past depression. Not always. It can be fun to fantasize about the future, and it can be useful to build those worlds into existence before bringing them into reality. Likewise, it can be heartwarming to reminisce about the past. That can light our internal fires and remind us of qualities and experiences that extend beyond one human life. Regardless, nothing occurs in reality during those extrapolations of the mind.
I have heard it said that the mind is like a calculator, though it can only add and multiply, not subtract nor divide. That is what the present moment does. Time and the way we show up in the present moment provide that winnowing effect and the resulting culmination balances our abstractions in that way.
Where are you now? How do you feel now? What are you thinking? What do you see? What can you smell? What does touch look like for you at this very moment? Are any of these things you?
Now I want you to breathe.
In through your nose…
Out through your mouth...
Just.
Breathe.
Again.
One more time. Stay with the breath.
Good… Now, who are you?