MIND OVER MATTER THE FUTURE IS NOW
Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there’, or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. It is a split that tears you apart inside.
Does the past take up a great deal of your attention? Do you frequently talk and think about it, either positively or negatively? The great things that you have achieved, your adventures or experiences, or your victim story and the dreadful things that were done to you, or may be what you did to someone else? Are your thought processes creating guilt, pride, resentment, anger, regret, or self-pity?
Then you are not only reinforcing a false sense of self but also helping to accelerate your body’s aging process by creating an accumulation of past in your psyche. Verify this for yourself by observing those around you who have a strong tendency to hold on to the past.
Die to the past every moment: You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being. Feel your presence.
Are you worried? Do you have many ‘what if’ thoughts? You are identified with your mind, which is projecting itself into an imaginary situation and creating fear. There is no way that you can cope with such a situation, because it doesn’t exist. It is mental phantom. You can stop this health and life-corroding insanity simply by acknowledging the present moment.
Become aware of your breathing: Feel the air flowing in and out of your body. Feel your inner energy field. All that you ever have to deal with, cope with, in real life-as opposed to imaginary mind projections – is this moment. Ask yourself what ‘problem’ you have right now, not next year, tomorrow, or five minutes from now. What is wrong with this moment?
You can cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future – nor do you have to. The answer, the strength, the right action, or the resource will be there when you need it. Not before, not after.
Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. It cannot come in the future. Then, in time, that prosperity manifests for you in various ways. If you are dissatisfied with what you have got, or even frustrated or angry about your present lack, that may motivate you to become rich, but even if you do make millions, you will continue to experience the inner condition lack, and deep down you will continue to feel unfulfilled. You may have many exciting experiences that money can buy, but they will come and go and always leave you with an empty feeling and the need for further physical or psychological gratification. You won’t abide in Being. Feel the fullness of life now – that alone is true prosperity.
Give up waiting as a state of mind: When you catch yourself slipping into waiting…. Snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything.
In that state, all your attention is in the Now. There is none left for day-dreaming, thinking, remembering, and anticipating. There is no tension in it, no fear, just alert presence. You are present with your whole Being, with every cell of your body. In that state, the ‘you’ that has a past and a future, the personality. If you like, is hardly there any more. And yet, nothing of value is lost. You are still essentially yourself. In fact, you are more fully yourself than you ever were before, or rather it is only now that you are truly yourself.
Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there’, or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. It is a split that tears you apart inside.
Does the past take up a great deal of your attention? Do you frequently talk and think about it, either positively or negatively? The great things that you have achieved, your adventures or experiences, or your victim story and the dreadful things that were done to you, or may be what you did to someone else? Are your thought processes creating guilt, pride, resentment, anger, regret, or self-pity?
Then you are not only reinforcing a false sense of self but also helping to accelerate your body’s aging process by creating an accumulation of past in your psyche. Verify this for yourself by observing those around you who have a strong tendency to hold on to the past.
Die to the past every moment: You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the fullness of Being. Feel your presence.
Are you worried? Do you have many ‘what if’ thoughts? You are identified with your mind, which is projecting itself into an imaginary situation and creating fear. There is no way that you can cope with such a situation, because it doesn’t exist. It is mental phantom. You can stop this health and life-corroding insanity simply by acknowledging the present moment.
Become aware of your breathing: Feel the air flowing in and out of your body. Feel your inner energy field. All that you ever have to deal with, cope with, in real life-as opposed to imaginary mind projections – is this moment. Ask yourself what ‘problem’ you have right now, not next year, tomorrow, or five minutes from now. What is wrong with this moment?
You can cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future – nor do you have to. The answer, the strength, the right action, or the resource will be there when you need it. Not before, not after.
Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. It cannot come in the future. Then, in time, that prosperity manifests for you in various ways. If you are dissatisfied with what you have got, or even frustrated or angry about your present lack, that may motivate you to become rich, but even if you do make millions, you will continue to experience the inner condition lack, and deep down you will continue to feel unfulfilled. You may have many exciting experiences that money can buy, but they will come and go and always leave you with an empty feeling and the need for further physical or psychological gratification. You won’t abide in Being. Feel the fullness of life now – that alone is true prosperity.
Give up waiting as a state of mind: When you catch yourself slipping into waiting…. Snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything.
In that state, all your attention is in the Now. There is none left for day-dreaming, thinking, remembering, and anticipating. There is no tension in it, no fear, just alert presence. You are present with your whole Being, with every cell of your body. In that state, the ‘you’ that has a past and a future, the personality. If you like, is hardly there any more. And yet, nothing of value is lost. You are still essentially yourself. In fact, you are more fully yourself than you ever were before, or rather it is only now that you are truly yourself.
(Courtesy: The Sunday Times of India, 25-9-2004)
