It feels as if a heavy burden has been lifted. A sense of lightness. I
feel clear. . . but my problems are still there waiting for me, aren’t
they? They haven’t been solved. Am I not just temporarily evading
them?
If you found yourself in paradise, it wouldn’t be long before your mind
would say “yes, but. . . .” Ultimately, this is not about solving your
problems. It’s about realizing that there are no problems. Only
situations — to be dealt with now, or to be left alone and accepted as
part of the “isness” of the present moment until they change or can
be dealt with. Problems are mind-made and need time to survive.
They cannot survive in the actuality of the Now.
Focus your attention on the Now and tell me what problem you have
at this moment.
I am not getting any answer because it is impossible to have a
problem when your attention is fully in the Now. A situation that
needs to be either dealt with or accepted — yes. Why make it into a
problem? Why make anything into a problem? Isn’t life challenging
enough as it is? What do you need problems for? The mind
unconsciously loves problems because they give you an identity of
sorts. This is normal, and it is insane. “Problem” means that you are
dwelling on a situation mentally without there being a true intention
or possibility of taking action now and that you are unconsciously
making it part of your sense of self. You become so overwhelmed by
your life situation that you lose your sense of life, of Being. Or you are
carrying in your mind the insane burden of a hundred things that you
will or may have to do in the future instead of focusing your attention
on the one thing that you can do now.
When you create a problem, you create pain. All it takes is a simple
choice, a simple decision: no matter what happens, I will create no
more pain for myself. I will create no more problems. Although it is a
simple choice, it is also very radical. You won’t make that choice
unless you are truly fed up with suffering, unless you have truly had
enough. And you won’t be able to go through with it unless you access
the power of the Now. If you create no more pain for yourself, then
you create no more pain for others. You also no longer contaminate
the beautiful Earth, your inner space, and the collective human psyche
with the negativity of problem-making.
If you have ever been in a life-or-death emergency situation, you will
know that it wasn’t a problem. The mind didn’t have time to fool
around and make it into a problem. In a true emergency, the mind
stops; you become totally present in the Now, and something
infinitely more powerful takes over. This is why there are many
reports of ordinary people suddenly becoming capable of incredibly
courageous deeds. In any emergency, either you survive or you don’t.
Either way, it is not a problem.
Some people get angry when they hear me say that problems are
illusions. I am threatening to take away their sense of who they are.
They have invested much time in a false sense of self. For many
years, they have unconsciously defined their whole identity in terms of
their problems or their suffering. Who would they be without it?
A great deal of what people say, think, or do is actually motivated by
fear, which of course is always linked with having your focus on the
future and being out of touch with the Now. As there are no problems
in the Now, there is no fear either.
Should a situation arise that you need to deal with now, your action
will be clear and incisive if it arises out of present-moment awareness.
It is also more likely to be effective. It will not be a reaction coming
from the past conditioning of your mind but an intuitive response to
the situation. In other instances, when the time-bound mind would
have reacted, you will find it more effective to do nothing — just stay
centered in the Now.