Stay In The Moment
I've developed the habit of going into my head and living out ideas/fantasies of what I'd like my life to be rather than living the life that I own at this very moment. The habit resulted from years worth of having to create pretty pictures to look forward to in order to cope with a reality that wasn't always very pleasant. While I appreciate the tool it created for me to work with, it's turned into a dangerous guilty pleasure.
If I stay in my head, the real world continues to move as normal. And then I run the risk of waking up out of my dreams months or years down the road and realizing that real life has passed me by. There will never be the ideal time to begin doing something. Lives are filled with random events that impact the basic to-do list you started with. If I can't get from the classroom to the office without some random event adding yet one more thing for me to do that day or altering my route completely, one certainly can't expect life to breathe a sigh of relief and say, "OK, Virg, now's the time to get Project X done."
That isn't to say I don't value planning. Those closest to me will tell you I'm the Queen of the 5 Year Plan.
But as Thich Nhat Han said, "the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth." If I am in control of my thoughts and concious of the moment and that moment only, I cannot be slapped about like a bottle on the waves. One can be slapped about by mundane activities like all the house errands one runs in a day or by bigger philisophical matters that impact the decisions one makes in life. Either way, I am not concious. If I'm not concious, I'm living life in a coma.
To quote Thich Nhat Han again:
"If you cannot find joy and peace in these very moments of sitting, then the future itself will only flow by as a river flows by, you will not be able to hold it back, you will be incapable of living the future when it becomes the present. Joy and peace are the joy and peace possible in this very hour of sitting. If you cannot find it here, you won't find it anywhere. Don't chase after your thoughts as a shadow follows its object. Don't run after your thoughts. Find joy and peace in this very moment."
The Miracle of Mindfulness
posted by contemplator at Tuesday, August 29, 2006
6 Comments:
Yes, I know how it is, I run into this trouble myself. I feel like my dreams are a scatterbrained collection of insanity sometimes. BTW, do you look at private messages at a certain religious website?
Hi Everybody!
Your friendly MD from Springfield, is just checking up on your faithful M.D. to see if the new meds are working.
Hmmmm, "Happy Cat". Uh oh...
Dubble Evreefing!
beautiful. i'm going to copy and link. thank you. it was a timely reminder for me this evening. feeling completely scattered and, well you said it perfectly here "Lives are filled with random events that impact the basic to-do list you started with."
<<Hi Everybody!
Your friendly MD from Springfield, is just checking up on your faithful M.D. to see if the new meds are working.
Hmmmm, "Happy Cat". Uh oh...
Dubble Evreefing!>> Who the fuck are YOU?
Okay, this is twice now in one week that I've seen a quote by Thich Nhat Hanh that I have **really** liked.
Last was a WTM post: a quote from "A Pebble for Your Pocket" by Thich Nhat Hanh: "When her baby is crying, a mother takes the baby in her arms and lets him cry, while at the same time she embraces him with love and tenderness. Little by little, the baby becomes calmer, until finally he stops crying altogether. She does not force the baby to stop crying, she envelops him with tenderness and calm.
I think it's time for me to do some investigating...I'm liking what I'm reading.
Very true!! I believe most of us create fantasies in order to cope with unpleasant realities until we learn the merits of being in the now. Thanks for this powerful and inspirational reminder. One love.
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