Jul 19, 2015

Ponderings

Now

I discussed briefly in the previous posting the concept of “Now” as being the key to being able to live in Joy and Happiness; to have that “faith of a mustard seed” that Jesus spoke about, to “Have no doubt” that Jesus said was a requisite to achieve our desires in life. I believe it is time to look at this concept that I have hinted here and there about.

Now. A simple word. We all believe we understand what it means. It means ‘right now’, or ‘this very instant’, or some other explanation that we try to grasp at to explain this simple word. Wikipedia simply says: “’Now’ commonly refers to the present time”. Simple enough. So what is the problem? Eckhart Tolle wrote a definitive book, “The Power of Now” that has described in far better depth than I can use in these discussions, the unique perception on life that arises when we view all of life from that singular perspective of “Now”. But what I am attempting to do is give a perspective that can be used to live a life of Abundance, or a life filled with Joy and Happiness. I heartily recommend that you read that marvelous book, “The Power of Now” to grasp the breathtaking possibilities that exist when one lives in the constant “Now” that is every moment.

But I am going to simplify it a bit, and just concentrate on the task at hand, that of living a Life of Abundance. To find Joy and Happiness in every moment means that we have to live in “That kingdom of Heaven” that exists within, as Jesus stated. In order to live in that kingdom of heaven, we have to live in the presence of God, for that is the definition of heaven. Heaven is the bliss of God, nothing less and nothing more. Living in the bliss of God is, by definition, living a life of Joy and Happiness.

All the previous discussions about living the 12 Steps of Abundance are nothing more than a road map for living in the Now, allowing us to let the past go into the past, and accept the future as it unfolds as just a series of events, not aimed at us personally in any form, to be accepted and worked with as we must.

“Normal” thought processing

For most of humanity, the thought process rarely leads from the concept of ‘now’. Usually we are immersed in the past or are concerned about the future, or both at the same time. We seldom take the time to enjoy the moment, but our thoughts are racing ahead. Watch your next conversation. Do you listen, really listen, to the other person? Or are you racing ahead, framing your answer, while the other person is still talking? When we meet someone who actually listens to us, most of us become flustered and find our own thoughts breaking up: “I am actually being heard!” I know of only a very few persons who listens to a conversation, and I am guilty of that crime way too often. Ok, most of the time.

How many times have we planned a day’s outing, packed a wonderful meal, then when we arrive we worry about bugs, the possibility of rain or too much sun, don’t spill the ketchup on your dress, did I leave the water running, —- then the day is over, and we discover we remember very little about the actual event. We have missed it! We discover we spent the afternoon worrying about a potential future (which seldom happened) or the past and missed the joys of time with family and friends. We seldom pause to enjoy the moment, and let everything else go out of our mind just to enjoy the Now.

Our failure to see the Now in each moment is the reason that when something catches us off-guard, like a beautiful sunset that grabs us and makes us speechless with its beauty, we are stunned by the event. It becomes an event that we remember long after the occurrence, while the picnic with family and friends becomes a blur in our memory and is forgotten, except for perhaps a photo or two to remind us.

Life is only in this very moment. Our life does not exist outside of this moment. When we spend our time worrying about the future and mulling over the past, we miss the moment of Life that is going on right now. Too many of us dwell on past slights or damages that were done to us in the past, or worrying at 3 in the morning about some future event, that we find we have missed the present.

The Past

Ahh the past. All that we have seen and we thought impacted on us in our lives that we insist needs worrying about like a dog chewing on an old bone, hoping to find something new. Somebody said or did something to or about us, and we proceed to chew on it, turning it into a monster that eats us alive. Now it is perhaps true that something was done to us, perhaps something truly terrible, but does constantly thinking about it change anything? Now it is true that something that occurs in our life can have far reaching effects and can change our life significantly, but what has happened, has happened. Nothing we say or think about will change the event. It is finished, already written in the sands of the past. Think of the worst thing that can happen to you. Your spouse left you. An accident left you paralyzed. A fire destroyed everything you own. Events like these require a strict discipline on the mind to control the screaming thoughts that occur, but none of these thoughts help with the situation. Only a careful sitting down and putting the present position, perhaps on paper or at least in the mind, recognizing that so-and-so occurred, yes it did, and accept the fact as real, then begin to take the next step to recover.

But usually the event that has occurred is not so catastrophic, but is just something we find irritating at the very least. Once more, what has happened, has happened, and all the chewing on the event will not change what occurred. Quite often, when we are irritated over something that someone else did, that person has no idea that what they did offended you. They have forgotten about it as soon as it happened, and continue on their way oblivious to the anger that you feel. (Yes, it is anger, no matter what it is called.) So all the fuming you do accomplishes nothing except to cause you to waste time in this world of physicality, and we each have only our allotted time and no more. When we waste time in this fashion, we fail to meet our objective in our life for this period of our existence. In fact, this type of fuming not only causes us to stop growing, but sets up a retrograde of events that take us back from where we were, forcing us to recover in the future just to be back where we were, in the metaphysical realm.

When we spend time in the past, we miss the Now, the present event, the only place where we can find the Love of God. It is true that the universe that we see ourselves existing within is a product of our past, as things make sense only based on the events that have occurred in our past. As this fact is always true, we have to be especially prudent to limit our use of the past to only that portion that permits us to understand our world we are in. We know what a tree is because we have been told that these objects with thick brown things rising into the air from the ground, with smaller versions of the thick thing going off to the sides, with perhaps these ‘green’ soft things attached, is called a tree. We have been told often enough, and we see it is accepted by others, that we have acquiesced to also call it a tree. Using this form of prior knowledge is the correct way to use the past.

Any other use of the Past will not find the Joy and Happiness of God, for God does not live in the past. God is the very essence of Now. If you want to join in that essence of Joy, you have to keep your awareness on the Now, as it unfolds in your life, moment to moment.

Eckhart Tolle said: “Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?”

The Future

To use the past to grow fearful scenarios about the future is the wrong way to use the past. Our imagination, especially when we are under some stress, reverts back to using our ‘reptilian’ brain, or the ‘flee or fight’ brain. Then we encourage our brain in that mode of existence, feeding it more imaginative thoughts that amplify the potential horrors that crowd our mind, freeze our consciousness, lock out our souls, raise our blood pressure, and take over our bodies. We become truly caught up in the Chicken Little expression “The world is ending, the world is ending” refrain and we reach some level of panic. I know too many that are seemingly in a panic over the present day whipping boy of ‘illegal immigrants’, even though they do not know any illegal immigrants, and usually have never had any contact with any illegal immigrants that they know about. Now they have eaten the lettuce that they picked, and other results of these hidden and unwanted jobs that the illegal immigrants obtain, but pointing out all the effort and work that these people do, and they too are the image of God, makes no dent in their barrage of fear and anxiety. They imagine that all the illegal immigrants want is to rape and pillage, fed by Fox News and its inherents, and are buried in their fears.

Now imagination is a wonderful gift from God, and is the basis of all our wonder advances we have made in medicine and technology and all areas of our life, but too often we use this wonder gift from God to hide from the present moment. We spend so much of our time worrying about the ‘what ifs’ that we forget to see the wonders of God handed to us each day. We worry that our income will vanish. The question is, did it vanish today? If not, accept that fact and move on with life.

There is a basic question to ask every time a worry comes up: is there anything we can do at this moment, in this Now, to ease that situation should it arise. If the answer is yes, then do it. If the answer is no, then let it go. In either case, further worrying will not change the situation. If it happens, you have done all you could to ease the situation, and if it doesn’t happen, and over 95% of the time it won’t, then all that worrying did was to reduce your health and shorten your life span.

One of the secrets to finding Joy and Happiness in this life is to live with each moment, taste each moment, sense each moment where you are and let it just be. God is present in everything and everywhere in the universe, including that time and space where you are right Now. The 12 steps I have talked about operate to open you up to the presence of God in the Here and Now, right NOW! Not yesterday and not tomorrow, but Now. God is present in each and every now, no matter what the circumstances, wonderful or horrifying. God is present everywhere and in everything, and God IS everything and fills everywhere. There is no location where God is not, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, from the quantum wave to the universe and beyond.

Now is all there is, the only time that is real. Cherish it.

Meditation

My Wondrous One, I am grateful for the Life you have granted me, for the beauty of this marvelous moment, the song of Now. I understand that You are only Now, and that I create my present situation by my perception of Now, each and every moment. I marvel at the beauty of life that surrounds me at every moment. The song of the birds, the glitter of snow, the glory of the night sky, the smell of new mown grass, the beauty of the flower; all are gifts from Your bounty to fill our days with glory. You have shown me by all these glories that I can fill my awareness only in the Now, that glorious Now. Only in this Now can I see Your glory and taste Your wonder of Life, knowing that only by seeing it Now can I see it more gloriously in the next Now.