Living in the present moment is probably one of the most challenging attitudes for human beings to learn. Why is it so? Well, because we just don’t know how to! We live so conditioned by our past experiences and attached to our future hopes that the present moment is something that most of us simply don’t think about. There is always something else to think about: our job, the person I just had an argument with and all the things I could have said and didn’t, tonight’s dinner, family members, the news, and all the opinions I have about every one of these things and so, so much more…And so, we live infested by feelings of anxiety, worry, and longing.
I recently heard an inspiring story from a friend. He and a friend were keeping company with Swami Kriyananda, founder of the Ananda Church of Self Realization. They were sitting together in Swami’s apartment, while my friend was massaging Swami’s knee with a new device that was supposed to help soothe his pain. (Swami Kriyananda from a young age almost always had a physical ailment.) On this tranquil occasion, as my friend rubbed Swami’s knee to soothe his pain, he felt as if he had always been performing this action and as though that was the only thing there was ever to do for eternity. At that moment, the other gentleman sitting with them quietly put my friend’s feelings into words, expressing exactly that awareness of having always been there together in this present moment for eternity. Swami felt it too.
Now, how can we tap into this eternal now and stop postponing our happiness and inner peace for the future?
Here are a few tips that I find very helpful, if not essential:
- You guessed it! Meditate! This practice is vital to help us develop a focused mind and learn to calm the energetic currents in the spine and brain that keep us ever engaged with the events of our lives and the world around us. Even if you are new to meditation, don’t give up! Concentrating and stopping our minds from thinking is not an easy task for most of us but if you persevere, you will eventually find a deeper sense of peace and fulfillment in yourself.
- Cultivate the habit of being aware of your breath during the day, especially when you are faced with a challenging situation.
- Find joy in everything you do. It takes courage and enthusiasm to sincerely enjoy everything you do, everyone you meet, being alone, or whatever it is that tests your patience and pushes your boundaries. However, if you start enjoying just one aspect or one person in your life who is difficult to enjoy spending time with, you will find it easier to bear the rest of them.
Don’t delay your happiness one more day. If you postpone it, it will never come. Happiness depends solely upon us. It depends on the attitudes of our minds to help us grow and to do so joyfully.
Wishing you Eternal Happiness in the now!
Original Post: July 2021 / meditationbench.com
2 Comments
Nandadevi,
Gentle, kind and loving explanation of the importance of being in the ever present now. Great suggestions for achieving that place of peace and calmness during our daily lives. Your writing style is like a beautiful melody….it flows so sweetly and gently.
Yes, living in the present moment is very challenging. From living our lives identified with thought, the present moment is not something we are really aware of. We are always in another moment, mentally somewhere else in time. It is only difficult to live in the present moment while we believe the thoughts in our heads to be us. In fact, until you have a clear experience of the silent presence of your own consciousness, living in the present is not only difficult, it is impossible. This is why meditation is important. It very quickly allows you to see the thoughts as separate from you, and then to discover the witnessing Presence, the Infinite Existence shining as Consciousness within – your true essential nature. When is it now? Can there be ever a time other than Now? We can only live in the present moment – think, feel, remember, plan – Now. It is outside of time and so cannot even be called eternal. The mind has created time in order to organize thought, and invent an illusory succession of events, seemingly to prevent everything from happening at once (which it actually does – wonderfully, spontaneously!). The reality is that the world appears in us, at this very moment; it is unfolding to the awareness that we are – right here and now.