The Power of Now Part 4 of 5: The Joy of Being
January 29, 2009 by dr. lam · 4 Comments
As we escape our ego and pain, we move into the moment of now. We enter an unbridled and unfiltered joy that can be profound and liberating. Too often we look at the what instead of the how. We focus on the end product or result rather than focusing on what we are experiencing now: the how, the process, the action. When we get lost into the moment we begin to release the fears of the past and the future and move ourselves fully into the current state.
If we think of how animals behave, they live fully in the moment. Look at a dog or a cat. Are they reflecting on their past grievances or worried about tomorrow? No, they are fully and completely absorbed in their present state. Even when an animal fights another animal, that skirmish is fleeting and does not linger after the event. The animal continues on its way. In fact, the only time that animals have shown the same negative energies that humans possess is when the animal lives in close proximity to humans who are similarly so inclined. We should learn from animals and how they are simply happy being. Perhaps if we spend time with an animal and look deeply into his/her eyes, we can see what living in the moment truly feels like.
When adversity should arise, our response to that adversity reflects where our current state of being truly is centered. When an individual defames or expresses hatred toward us, we let it pass right through us. We do not even acknowledge or respond to it because it is something that would appeal to the egoic mind and the related pain-body. When we truly live in the present devoid of ego and body, we do not suffer the slings and arrows of a perceived enemy because we perceive no enemies. We are free from that individual’s venom. We are in a different plane of existence being fully ensconced in the present moment. When adversity strikes you and you remain deeply calm and at peace, you have entered a deeper state of consciousness. You have entered the now. It is a great place to be.
The Power of Now Part 3 of 5: Clock Time vs. Psychological Time
January 28, 2009 by dr. lam · 4 Comments
This is perhaps one of my favorite ideas that Tolle presents. Sometimes if we live so far into the current moment, we fear that we are not planning for the future or have goals that we want to set. Tolle distinguishes between clock time meaning we put a certain event on our calendars or plan to do work tomorrow for a certain project. But setting that time down for clock time should not force us into constantly thinking and worrying about that event, which becomes what he calls psychological time.
Psychological time is how we live with our egoic mind/pain-body in the past (regret, sadness, hate) and our future (fear, anxiety) rather than being fully alive in the current time, right now. It is living our life unconsciously as he says. We are living far from a level of consciousness and peace when we fail to leave our mind and live right now. By living psychologically at another time, we subscribe to many of the negative emotions that grip us, all driven by the egoic mind.
Clock time is not bad if put into context, and it doesn’t have to do just with future events. When we learn from our past mistakes not to repeat them, then we are using clock time. However, when we sit in deep regret about our past and it begins to color our current perception so that in fact we are living in the past then we are beholden to psychological time.
Living deeply within the framework of the current time allows you to be free of the egoic mind and the related pain-body. If you truly sense everything around you: the food you taste, the person you are with, the work you are doing, the music that surrounds you, the breath that you take, you are treating time as one of the most precious of commodities. We oftentimes think time is so precious so that we must not waste it by planning so and so. However, by engulfing ourselves in the future, we fail to live in the current and so we therefore waste the most precious of all time, which is now.
Is it not true that the only real time is the now? Have you ever experienced the past or the future? Only in your mind perhaps but not in reality. We can only experience the now. There is no other time than the present so if we waste that precious time by living in the past or the future, we are truly wasting the most precious part of time, which is the now.
By the way, I was chosen surgeon of the month by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery. For those who are interested, here is the link to the article. Also, in the next few days, my webmaster is creating several indices for those who would like to easily access past blogs. This was an excellent request by one of the readers of this blog last week. Check out the top menu bar of this blog, and you will already see an index by category. I have asked him to make an index by date and other functional improvements as well.