Mist on a Breeze #14
It has been said that the highest wisdom lies in detachment, which means to have neither regrets for the past nor fears for the future; to let life take its course without attempting to interfere with its movement and change, neither trying to prolong the stay of things pleasant nor to hasten the departure of things unpleasant.
To do this is to move in time with life — and this is called Enlightenment.
In short, it is to live in the Eternal Now. For, in truth, neither the past nor the future have any existence apart from this Now; by themselves they are illusions. Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment, it is infinite and eternal. The moment is the only reality.
How can we bring ourselves into accord with this infinite and eternal moment?
The curious thing is that you cannot get out of accord with it. Though your thoughts may run into the past or the future, they cannot escape the present moment. So, you may believe yourself to be out of harmony with life and its Eternal Now; but you cannot be, for you are life and exist Now. Hence the infinite and eternal is something you can neither escape by flight nor catch by pursuit; there is no coming toward it or going away from it — it is, and you are it.
— Alan Watts
(adapted from Become What You Are, Shambala, 2003, pp. 10-11)
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We, all too often, try to live in the past or future, and it brings us nothing but trouble. I try to live in the now, daily, but as humans, you will always find your thoughts slipping to those places from time to time. The key is (when we have these thoughts), to redirect back to the now and let those thoughts go as we do so.
Good post!
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