If you’re like me then you probably have a bookshelf or two full of new-age and self-help books all telling you to live in the moment. But when life comes crashing down (presents you with an opportunity) and you find out your boyfriend or girlfriend has been unfaithful or you lose your purse or wallet with all your credit cards, info and cash… what the heck does being in the moment mean then?
Being present is a lot easier to talk about or philosophize than it is to actually do, wouldn’t you agree? Although it is seemingly difficult I think we can all agree that actually being present can make life a joy and blessed movement.
In my experience what gets in the way the most of me being present is the past. The past is such a sneaky little devil, he is insidious, clever and very persuasive. The past acts like he’s your best friend, someone you can depend on, he’s always there ready to listen and give suggestions about what to do in the moment and the future but if you examine closely you’ll discover that the past is a false prophet and truly epitomizes the definition of a pharisee (a sanctimonious, self-righteous, or hypocritical person).
Trippin over the past
Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine your walking down the street in your neighborhood heading to a friends house, in order to make it to your friends house safely and unharmed you need to look forward eyes ahead and moving forward. Imagine if you were to walk down this busy street walking forward but your head was turned in the opposite direction. Also imagine that there’s someone you don’t know walking behind you holding a mirror so you can see whats ahead but as you know everything reflected in a mirror is distorted and backwards… an illusion.
To add to the confusion the person holding the mirror is telling you to turn left, turn right, stop, slow down… your right is his left, your left is his right. As you can see this whole scenario is mind boggling and confusing. Wouldn’t it be much simpler and efficient to just turn your head around and walk forward?
The same can be said for living your daily life. Life is so much more enjoyable and easy if you shift your attention from the past to the present moment.
Lessons from the past
Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water… the past does in fact have valuable lessons for us to learn from but let us not cling to the past or let our past mistakes and judgments color the choices we make today. As I have learned from spiritual teacher
J. Krishnamurti the past is full of knowledge and it is quite reasonable to access that past knowledge to drive a car, cook dinner or solve a math problem but it is quite a different thing when you access the past when meeting a new friend for the second or third time or when you meet a new person from a certain nationality or religion. The past has nothing to do with who your friend “actually is”… and your past experiences with someone from a particular religion, culture or nationality shouldn’t distract you from the person standing in front of you. The sad truth however is that all to often it does.
“Learning about yourself is not like learning a language or technology or a science, then you obviously have to accumulate and remember; it would be absurd to begin all over again, but in the psychological field learning about yourself is always in the present and knowledge is always in the past, and as most of us live in the past and are satisfied with the past knowledge becomes extraordinarily important to us. That is why we worship the erudite, the clever, the cunning. But if you are learning all the time, learning every minute, learning by watching and listening, learning by seeing and doing, then you will find that learning is a constant movement without the past.”
~J. Krishnamurti “Freedom From The Known”
When you walk into your place of work and you see the people you work with everyday… do you see them as they are or do you see them through the filter of your past experiences with them? I can tell you with 100% certainty if people I was acquainted with just a few years ago knew me today they would have know idea who I am. In the past I’ve been a partying, clubbing pill popping, irresponsible and immature raving machine but that person isn’t who I am today… as a matter of fact the two people are as different as day and night.
What I can appreciate however is who I am today. If it were not for my past who would I be? In that respect I give my past the reverence it deserves but I also realize that any emotions or feelings that arise from my past are false and only are relevant to my life if I choose to let them have my attention.
I was listening to a podcast of “A Course in Miracles” and they were speaking on this very subject, I found it quite interesting. The topic of discussion was the past and our emotions that are tied to the past. If you think about it, whenever you are feeling guilty, ashamed, envious or anger all of those emotions only have relevance if you access the past. So for example if you’re feeling guilty about some hateful things you said to a friend in drunkenness or just because you got in a fight… the guilt you’re feeling is arising only because you have chosen to give your attention to the past; if your attention were in the present moment there would be no guilt.
Now lets not blow things out of proportion and assume that just not thinking about your past will lead you to live a happy and joyous life. While it is certainly true life will become clearer and you will find manifesting what you really want in life is a million times easier you still have to be able to look at your past… only you must find the ability to not cling to it. The key to doing this is to have your roots in the present moment.
It’s so much easier said than done… I know, but like everything else practice makes perfect (practice helps you see that everything is already perfect). My practice is a daily movement that is tied together moment by moment, opportunity by opportunity. I’m no saint (yet), I still lose my cool when someone says something to upset me or someone cuts me off in traffic or steps on my shoe but nowadays I’m finding that more and more as soon as I get upset or am shook out of the present moment I’m finding my way back faster and faster.
Sometimes it’s not until I go to sleep late at night and I reflect on what my day was like. Lying there in bed looking over my day I can say to myself I could have handled that better or perhaps I didn’t need to raise my voice of give such an attitude about something so small and impermanent. The blessing here is being able to reflect but not judge yourself, cling or dwell on it. See it for what it is, make a mental note and move on; tomorrow is a new day or better yet the next moment is a new moment.
In conclusion
So moving forward, not looking back let us remember who we truly are. Who we truly are is who we are right now, not who we were ten seconds ago or ten years ago but infinitely right now. Like I said before this is so much easier said than done but I have a suggestion that might assist with the revolution (not evolution) of your mind. Evolution implies something to work toward but once you see love and truth there’s no evolution (nothing to work toward) rather instantly you revolutionize the way you think and act… instantly!
We all know up to now we’ve been slaves to our past, letting our past actions filter our decisions and choices in the present moment.
Who’s to say we can’t use this ability to our advantage?
Accessing the past doesn’t have to always be about the negative or bad, as a matter of fact if you make a shift in your perception you can use this conditioned ability to access the positive moments from your past. If you find that you’re “in the dumps”, depressed, angry or otherwise remember that you’re living in the past and you need to be present. One helpful way to get back to the present moment is to build a mental bridge, a bridge of positivity and love.
For example if you find that you’re dwelling on something that and ex-lover said to you that was hateful choose to remember a loving moment you shared rather than the negative. Doing this is to be used as a tool to get back to the present moment, to bring a smile to your face and love back into your immediate frame of mind.
It is important however to realize even when you do build your bridge back to the present moment, when you’re finally back to the moment you will need to let go of the past even though its a loving feeling, a joyous memory we want to be careful not to cling to it otherwise eventually you’ll want to cross back over the bridge to access the past and as we’ve discussed… life is in the moment. Remember, like Ram Dass says… “be here now”.
