Monday, November 28, 2011

Being present in the moment


I had a sort of epiphany. Maybe each moment is perfect, and we are always in the right place at the right time.

In yoga, we are always reminded to “be present to the moment” which in itself is a task because it requires thinking about the past, how you’ve been ‘present’ before, and the future about how we can create that feeling again. Our minds race like high speed freight trains on tracks, always going one way or another, but never stopping at one station.

I think being present in the moment is really living in what the experience of it is, physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. When we experience bad or negative emotions, we desperately try to dissipate them, and when we experience positive emotions, we desperately cling onto them for dear life, hoping to hold onto the feeling forever.

Forever. There is only present, really. I like the saying that “it is the darkest before the dawn”. You must see through the darkest hour to reach the lightest one. There can be no selectivity. So I think a person has to really deeply experience the emotion, the state, the present they are in, to be able to progress to the next moment. The key to remember is to be present to the moment, but have no attachment to it, as the next moment will come. Maybe this is what Buddhism teaches. That we cannot cling to the good or bad memories too long. I think this is looking with kindness on yourself – that you are not the sum of your good or your bad, but just a free being, being the best in a moment of time.



SoulSurfer © 28 November 2011 at 10.36pm

1 comments:

mark said...

one of my favorite quotes.. "if your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete." (buddha)...

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