Don't Resist the NOW

“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them - while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.”
― Eckhart Tolle

 

What is resistance to life and how does it apply to us? We all resist many things in life- more often than not. There is the old saying “Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.” This doesn’t mean to not have goals and strive for great things and favorable circumstances. But we all know that all of those things are not attainable all of the time. Much of life is circumstances we do not prefer or do not like. It is all essentially up to you if you are a happy individual or not. The happiness is a choice of how you perceive the world and choose to interpret situations around you. We often find ourselves in places we do not want to be or people we don’t want to be around, but we have to be there anyway, don’t we. Most of us have to work, since most of us are not instant scratch of lottery winners or trust fund babies. Letting go of resistance to the now is allowing the now to transform into something better than we had allowed it to be before. If you must be at work- be there- and be there now. What that means is to be present in the moments that are now. Make the most of your day as a choice and be present in the work you do and the people you interact with. Most of us in conversation are never really present in who we are talking to or what we are talking about. We focus on what is in our minds such as grocery lists and what we might do later that day or on the weekend. We are never really present with who we are with or what we are doing. Our focus is on the past, the future, or the thoughts our minds. The mind is always on, but you could be missing something interesting NOW. You could be creating sincere conversations and work situations. If you are at the doctor’s office in the waiting room- make the most out of it. Don’t dwell on waiting- do something fun in the present moment. Bring a great book to read or something to do. You have to be there anyway.

My personal least favorite are the grocery store, the post office and the gas station. I try to remove myself from my own egoic mind and be where I am. Smile at the other people there and say hello. Be in the moment wherever you are no matter where you are. You always have the choice to make the most of your situation. You don’t not have to be trapped in the mind with your constant thoughts and miss the life that goes on around you now. I’d rather be on a yacht on the Greek isles right now eating feta cheese and olives….but I am not. I am here in the present moment- and choosing to be Present- wherever I am. Enjoy the NOW wherever you are and make the most of the time we have-which is the present.

Change Your Relationship With The NOW

The Zen master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his next door neighbor became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting accusation that the daughter bad confessed that he was the father. All he was replied was “is that so?”

News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The master lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. No one came to see him anymore. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the parents brought him to Hakuin. “You are the father so you look after him.” The Master took loving care of the child. A year later, the mother remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was the young man who worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they went and apologized to Hakuin and asked for forgiveness. “We are really sorry. We have come to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father.”  “Is that so>” is all he would say as he handed the baby over to them.

The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in exactly the same way. “Is that so?” He allows the form of the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so he does not become a participant in human drama. TO him there is only this moment, and the moment is as it is. He is nobody’s victim. He is so completely at one with what happens that what happens has no power over him anymore. Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness and unhappiness.

Imagine briefly how the ego would have reacted during the various stages of the unfolding of these events.

Ego and the Present Moment

The most important, the primordial relationship in your life is your relationship with the Now, or rather with whatever form the now takes, that is to say, what is or what happens. If your relationship with the Now is dysfunctional, that dysfunction will be reflected in every relationship and every situation you encounter. The ego could be defined simply in this way: a dysfunctional relationship with the present moment. It is at this moment that you can decided what relationship you want to have with the present moment.

Once you have reached a certain level of consciousness, (and by reading this you almost certainly have), you are able to decide what kind of relationship you want to have with the present moment. Do I want the present moment to be my friend or enemy. The present moment is inseparable from life, so you are really deciding on what kind of relationship you want with life. Once you have decided you want the moment to be your friend, it is up to you to make the first move. Become friendly toward it, welcome it no matter what disguise it comes, and soon it will become friendly toward you, people become helpful, circumstances become cooperative. One decision changes your entire reality. This decision has to be made again and again and again- until it becomes natural to live in such a way.

The decision to become friends with the present is the end of the ego. The ego can never be in alignment with the present moment, which is to say, aligned with life, since it is its very nature to ignore, resist, and devalue the Now. The stronger the ego, the more time it takes to over your life. Almost every thought you think is concerned with past of future, and your sense of self depends on the future for its fulfillment. Fear, anxiety, expectation, regret, guilt, and anger are the dysfunctions to the time bound state of consciousness.  

Via A NEW EARTH- By Eckhart Tolle

How We Think

“Whatever we plant in our minds and nourish with repetition and emotion one day will be our reality. “ ~ E. Nightingale

 

Our minds are powerful tools. What we think about and speak of attracts that energy frequency. It is just that simple. What are you attracting in your life?