FINDING THE LIFE UNDERNEATH YOUR LIFE SITUATION

 

I don’t see how I can be free now. As it happens, I am extremely

unhappy with my life at the moment. This is a fact, and I would be

deluding myself if I tried to convince myself that all is well when it

definitely isn’t. To me, the present moment is very unhappy; it is not

liberating at all. What keeps me going is the hope or possibility of

some improvement in the future.

You think that your attention is in the present moment when it’s

actually taken up completely by time. You cannot be both unhappy

and fully present in the Now.

What you refer to as your “life” should more accurately be called your

“life situation.” It is psychological time: past and future. Certain things

in the past didn’t go the way you wanted them to go. You are still

resisting what happened in the past, and now you are resisting what

is. Hope is what keeps you going, but hope keeps you focused on the

future, and this continued focus perpetuates your denial of the Now

and therefore your unhappiness.

It is true that my present life situation is the result of things that

happened in the past, but it is still my present situation, and being

stuck in it is what makes me unhappy.

Forget about your life situation for a while and pay attention to your

life.

What is the difference?

Your life situation exists in time.

Your life is now.

Your life situation is mind-stuff.

Your life is real.

Find the “narrow gate that leads to life.” It is called the Now. Narrow

your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of

problems — most life situations are — but find out if you have any

problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now. Do

you have a problem now?

When you are full of problems, there is no room for anything new to

enter, no room for a solution. So whenever you can, make some

room, create some space, so that you find the life underneath your

life situation.

Use your senses fully. Be where you are. Look around. Just look, don’t

interpret. See the light, shapes, colors, textures. Be aware of the

silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows

everything to be. Listen to the sounds; don’t judge them. Listen to the

silence underneath the sounds. Touch something — anything — and

feel and acknowledge its Being. Observe the rhythm of your

breathing; feel the air flowing in and out, feel the life energy inside

your body. Allow everything to be, within and without. Allow the

“isness” of all things. Move deeply into the Now.

You are leaving behind the deadening world of mental abstraction, of

time. You are getting out of the insane mind that is draining you of

life energy, just as it is slowly poisoning and destroying the Earth. You

are awakening out of the dream of time into the present.