Mindful living

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past,
not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live
the present moment wisely and earnestly.
-The Buddha
When the mind is at rest, we are lifted out of time into the
eternal present. The body, of course, is still subject to
the passage of time. But in a sense, the flickering of the
mind is our internal clock. When the mind does not flicker,
what is there to measure change? It's as if time
simply comes to a stop for us, as we live completely in the
present moment. Past and future, after all, exist only in
the mind. When the mind is at rest, there is no past or
future. We cannot be resentful, we cannot be guilt-ridden,
we cannot build future hopes and desires; no energy flows to
past or future at all.

Past and future are both contained in every present moment.
Whatever we are today is the result of what we have thought,
spoken, and done in all the present moments before now
- just as what we shall be tomorrow is the result of
what we think, say, and do today. The responsibility for
both present and future is in our own hands. If we live
right today, then tomorrow by faith will be right. ~Eswaran

I think mindfulness, or living in the present moment, is the most profound gift of The Buddha /Buddhism to our consciousness.
Moses, who was standing before the burning bush that burned but was not consumed...asked the Creator--"what is your name?"
When He answered, he didn't say "I have been","I was", or "I am going to become", or "Jehovah", no---He clearly said, " I am that I am".
I am. He is.
Now, not just before, or in the past, and not just to be in the future.
NOW-this moment.
Jalaluddin Rumi, 12th century Sufi mystic- said that God is closer to us than our jugular vein.
In Christ we know that he inhabits our lives by His Holy Spirit.I can simply know that as His child, I can rest in the knowledge that He IS and that He animates the life I live.
He has created the very breath that I breathe. He spun up all the instinctive processes that keep me alive. I can trust that. I don't have to understand it, or to be able to explain it with intellectual concepts. I will leave that to the sages, professors and prophets.
He wants us to exist and LIVE in the NOW. That is all I need to know. I can rest in that. I can trust His care and provision.
He never failed me yet!
In The immediate present...that is where He is, and it is where you are as well.
In Him we live and move and have our being.
Why do we mull over the past, or worry about the future? It never works. It is of no use.
I want to live in the reality of NOW...where the Father dwells. Worry is a real waste of force.

Comments

walt said…
This little book by Will Johnson is one of the most practical and useful books I've run across on the subject of mindfulness. And, good news: inexpensive!
February 22, 2009 at 8:03 AM
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