There Is Only This (A Lesson on Being Present)
Too often we get trapped in the concept of Time.
With The Past, we either miss it or regret it. With The Future, we are either too excited for it or see it as impending doom.
Time is a prison. Time brings anxiety or regret. Time is bondage.
Life is not suffering. Time is.
“What about The Present? Isn’t The Present part of Time?”
No.
The Present is not of Time. The Present is when you break free from Time. To be present is to be Timeless.
Recall the last time you felt Joy.
You were not thinking about good memories or bad memories. You were not thinking about the fear or excitement of tomorrow.
You were not thinking at all. You were being. You were in the moment. You were bliss. You were here. You were free.
The greatest delights in Life: loving, creating, dancing, laughing, etc. When done fully, Time ceases to exist and Joy immerges. Joy is a by-product of being present.
To be present is to completely immerse yourself into the experience/moment. You immersed yourself so fully that you were not even there. You disappeared. You became unbounded. You were without Time.
You felt Freedom in the truest sense.
This is how children live.
They are fully immersed in the moment that they become the moment. They fully laugh, fully play, and fully cry because the moment is all they have. The moment is the world and the world is the moment.
This is why people say “children are learning machines.” Life doesn’t happen to them, Life happens through them. Empty cups becoming full.
For most of us, we either neglected or forgotten our original nature. When Time arrived, so did paralysis. We started to move against Life instead of moving with Life.
Often we say, “I wish I had more time.”
It’s not that we wish had more time. We wish we were more present.
If you were present, you would’ve been satisfied. You would have eaten your fill and quenched your thirst.
You would not feel regret because you would have experienced fully and completely. You wouldn’t long for more or less. The Present is enough.
To be present means nothing is missing. When nothing is missing, everything becomes perfect.
Perfection exists. It’s found in the Now. It is found in the Present because the Present is where Freedom exists: Freedom from Self. Freedom from Mind. Freedom from Time.
If we break the shackles of those self-imposed prisons, living one life, no matter how long or short, will be enough.
Remember, we are not called a human “been” or a human “will-be”, but a human being.
Thank you for reading my post! I sincerely appreciate your time. Feel free to agree or disagree with any of my opinions. Let me know your thoughts! I would love to learn and hear from you.
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Originally published at https://jacobacosta.substack.com.
