 Normally
our minds are "living" either in the future or the past and
being judgemental.
As long as the mind does not recognise that it exists in opposites,
it is steeped in ignorance, duality and illusion.
Whilst the mind exists in this state, we are living in forgetfulness
and ignorance. If we consider our lives seriously, we only have this
moment. The past has gone, the future is not here. Only here and now
are present at any one moment.
We are used to living our lives in a robot-like way: seeing, thinking
and doing. This leads to breaking contact with our deeper selves.
Carelessly, these moments become periods and these periods become
whole lifetimes.
To allow ourselves to be in touch with our deeper selves we need
to stop and experience long enough to allow the present moment to sink
in, to feel it in our awareness and gain an understanding of it.
It is through this knowledge that we can accept the truth of this
moment in our life and learn from it in order to move on. We tend to
look forward to the future when things will be better or, on the other
hand, we are preoccupied with the past when life was better. The truth
is that neither the past nor the future is here, you only have now
and will always have now.
Exercise to Cultivate the Present Moment
Now and again tell yourself: “This is it.” Is there anything
that this cannot be applied to? Acceptance of the present moment means
acknowledging that what is happening is happening. Remember that acceptance
of the present moment has nothing to do with resigning yourself to
the situation you are in.
The following qualities provide a solid foundation for the practice
of Mindfulness:
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