Meditation for Thursday 16th February 2023
Being in the present moment is satisfying, calming and a joyful way of living; but it’s not easy. The obstacle to living in the present is that we experience time linearly; we keep moving forward, doing and accomplishing things, rather than just being in the present moment. If we cultivate simplicity and detachment we can live still and calm amid the torrent of commitments, no longer allowing our over-scheduled lives to rob us of the time we need to recalibrate and connect with the natural world, with ourselves, with each other.
We see time as a commodity, something to grasp, possess and exploit.
The great spiritual traditions teach about reaching nirvana; enlightenment; the kingdom of God; bliss and so forth. These states richly taught, promoted and aspired to mean that we have become awakened to the knowledge that we are more than time. We let go of the future, let go of the past, transcending the things of time. We aspire to be in the present moment, in the now.
When we are in touch with the ‘now’, ‘the present moment’, only with what is, instead of what we regret, fear or anticipate, our sense of limits in time will no longer have a negative power over our lives.
To those who claim that such thinking is antithetical to modern life we proclaim that being in the present allows us to live sanely and joyfully. With a ‘nowness-awareness’ in our lives we are better able to negotiate problems, rough patches. The fear that ‘life-is-passing-you-by’ evaporates.
When in the present moment if we plan ahead or remember the past we plan and remember without fretting or obsessing.
MEDITATION
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Some of the above is paraphrased from the book ‘Buddha Standard Time’ Auth: Suyra Das. Pub: Harper One, 2012.
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