As we experience our individual yet profoundly interconnected journeys of transformation, we inevitably encounter obstacles, challenges, or, otherwise known as growth opportunities. Thoughts and emotions become valuable tools that can help us become clearer and more attuned to our Higher Selves. Thoughts and emotions also have the potential to assist us in destroying all that we have persevered to attain. Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with the much vaster realm of consciousness, can quickly become destructive. Through an understanding of how our minds operate, we gain the ability to see why it is so important to be aware of the chatter within. Being aware of this chatter consequently enables us to be conscious of the present moment.

Thoughts and Emotions

For many years, seekers of divine wisdom have studied the importance of protecting our personal energy – the energy that we hold with ourselves in this moment, the energy that has been allocated to us for the purpose of benefiting our Highest Good, the energy that can enable us to serve others if we so choose. One of the ways that we, as humans, expel the greatest quantities of energy is through feeding our constant streams of thought. In this way, most people sleepily go through their lives allowing their minds to control their experiences and influence their choices. In this unconscious state, our thoughts continually control who we are and keep us living in the past or somewhere out in the future. Our thoughts either keep bringing us back to memories that provoke states of anger, resentment and regret, or they coax us into a state of worry, in which we are afraid of something ‘bad’ happening in the future. Choosing to live in either of these mental states means that we are escaping this precious NOW and preventing ourselves from experiencing the joys of the moment.

Our emotions can be another incredible drain on our energy. Some people may feel that they lose more energy through their emotions than through their out-of-control thoughts. Emotion arises at the place where our thoughts and our bodies meet. Emotion is our body’s reaction to thought. We might say, emotions are a reflection of our thoughts in the body.

The moment the body reacts to a thought, an emotion is created. The image above can be interpreted as an energetic depiction of this process.

Let’s look at an example to better understand this concept. A hostile thought will create a build-up of energy in the body that we call anger – the body is getting ready to fight. The thought that we are being threatened causes the body to contract. This is the physical side of what we call the emotion of fear. Research has shown that strong emotions even cause changes in the biochemistry of the body, which represents the actual physical aspect of the emotion. Of course, we are not usually consious of all of our thought patterns. It is often through watching our emotions that we can bring them into awareness.

 

Hostile Thought manifesting into Emotional Response

Sometimes, a conflict exists in which we find ourselves thinking ‘no’ while our emotions say ‘yes’. Just by observing our bodies, we can tune into our higher senses of awareness. The body will always present a truthful reflection of what is happening on the level of our thoughts and emotions. Look at the emotions, or rather, ‘feel’ them in the body. If there is an apparent conflict between your emotions and your thoughts, the thoughts will generally be the lies while the emotions will be the truth…not the ultimate truth of who you are, but the relative truth of your state of mind at the time.

For example, imagine that you are trying to decide between two job offers. You have logically analyzed both opportunities and understand the pros and cons of each option. Yet still, you don’t know which door to walk through next. What do you do? Well, you could try observing your body as you think of one job, and then do the same as you consider the other option. Is your body giving you subtle hints about which offer you would feel better taking? Do your muscles feel tight and your limbs tense when you imagine one job, while with the other you feel yourself relaxing into your chair and taking a breath? Sometimes, the clues are obvious, while at other times you might be so stressed that the Universe’s hints are difficult to sense at first. This is when relaxing into your body as much as you can will help tremendously. No one knows the answers to your questions but you. The key is to pause and listen to yourself instead of looking externally for the answer. You will find your way. There is no need to waste energy worrying about what might happen if you make the wrong decision. Focusing all your awareness on connecting with your Higher Self will bring you to where you want to be. It is that simple.

The ‘knowner’ behind the ‘thinker’

So, when we talk about the ‘mind’, we refer to both thoughts and emotions. It is very important to be aware of both the thoughts and the feelings that we experience and strive to be the ‘observer’ as much as possible. When we are able to step out of the experience of the thought or of the emotion and really SEE it is for what it is, we are taking steps towards expanding our consicousness. We begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, and that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. We also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, and inner peace – arise from beyond the mind.

The mind is a superb instrument if used correctly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. It is not so much that we use the mind incorrectly, for most often, we really don’t use it at all – IT USES US! We believe that we are our mind and this is the delusion – the point at which the mind has taken over us! It is almost as if we are possessed without knowing it, and so we take the possessing entity (our minds) to be who we are. In order to free ourselves from our minds, it is necessary to realize that we are not the ‘thinker’.  We are much more than that! We are the ‘knower’ behind the ‘thinker’.

Within each one of us is that deeper self that immediately recognizes spiritual truth, resonates with it, and gains strength from it. This is why it is so important to ‘watch the thinker’, which will then allow us to ‘feel the knower’ (or inner voice) on a regular basis. We must begin to distinguish these two components of the inner dialogue – the false self that performs a continuous monologue babbling on about involuntary thoughts that he is unable to stop feeding, and the real self, the knower of spiritual truth, that resides within each of us and is trying to re-gain power over the ego (false self). The Higher Self wants to make us whole and complete and bring us into the present moment, into the blissful state of love, peace and joy.

Love, peace and joy are not truly ‘emotions’. They lie beyond emotions on a much deeper level and cannot flourish until we have freed ourselves from mind-dominance.  Love, peace and joy are deep aspects of our inner connectedness with Being. Thus, they have no opposites because they arise from beyond the mind – from beyond duality. Emotions, on the other hand, being part of the dualistic mind, are subject to the Law of Opposites. This simply means that we cannot have good without bad. In the unenlightened, mind-identified condition, what is sometimes wrongly called joy is the usually short-lived pleasure side of the common pain/pleasure cycle that many of us find ourselves returning to regularly. Pleasure is always derived from something outside of us, whereas JOY arises from within. The very thing that gives us pleasure today, will give us pain tomorrow, or it will leave us, and then its absence will give us pain. When true joy is experienced, we settle into an authentic peaceful state that cannot be shaken by the external presence of duality.

So, how can we learn to control our thoughts and our emotions and thus free ourselves from this identification with our minds? How can we learn to separate ourselves from the ‘thinker’ and learn to be the ‘observer’? The good news is that we can free ourselves from our mind by learning to listen to the inner sense as much as possible. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns – those old audiotapes that have been playing in our heads for years. This is what is meant by ‘watching the thinker’, which is another way of saying: “Listen to the voice within and be there as a witnessing presence”.

Listen impartially, that is to say, do not judge nor condemn what you witness, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door! You will soon realize that “There is chatter, and here I am listening to it, watching it.” This I AM realization, this sense of our own presence, is not a thought – it arises from beyond the mind. Therefore, when we listen to a thought, we are aware not only of the thought, but also of our self as the witness. A new dimension of consciousness will have just come in! As we listen to the thought, we feel a conscious presence – a deeper self behind or underneath the thought. The thought then loses its power over us and quickly diminishes because we are no longer energizing it through our identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary compulsive thinking.

Disassociate from the mind

The single most important step on our journey toward enlightenment is this: Learn to disassociate from the mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of thought, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. Enlightenment means rising above thought. In the enlighened state, we still use our thinking mind when needed, but in a much more focused and effective way. We use it mostly for practical purposes, but we are free of the involuntary internal dialogue. We thus create inner stillness. When we use our mind when a creative solution is needed, we oscillate every few minutes between thought and stillness, between mind and no-mind. No-mind is consciousness without thought. Only in that way is it possible to think creatively, because only in that way does thought have any real power.

I myself looked for some larger branches and put them on top of the kindling. So it was in life. In order for the more substantial  pieces of wood to catch fire, the kindling must burn first. In order for us to liberate the energy of our strength, our weakness must first have a chance to reveal itself.

~The Witch of Portobello, Paulo Coelho

“I cannot live with myself any longer!”

Have you ever said this to yourself in the privacy of your own lunacy? If you have, perhaps you’ve made yourself miserable enough to want to wake up now and acknowledge that you’ve just made a fundamental discovery! You’ve identified two of you – there is the “I”, and then there is the self with which “I” cannot live. If you assume that this is true, then is it possible that only one of these “I’s” is real and the other is artificial? An interesting thought…

So, why bring this up? Well, what I’d like to do during this three part this ‘Living in the Now’ series is to discuss the difference between our ‘real self’ (you as a part of the Oneness) and our ‘false self’ (our physical body as identification with the ego).

How can we challenge ourselves to step beyond this limited view of ourselves and step into the greater expanse of who we really are? How can we free ourselves from the intense grip of our egos, which is currently controlling our thoughts, our emotions and our mental image of what we project into the world we perceive? How can we step out of our ‘minds’ – these minds to which we surrender so much control? How can we learn to live in the present moment and let go of past baggage and fears of the future?

These sound like impossible tasks to some, but hopefully with greater understanding of how to apply the principle of living in the Now to our lives, we can attain a deeper grasp of how we can transform ourselves into ‘Beings of Now’.

Enlightenment, transformation and living in the present moment can only truly begin when we honestly look at ourselves and ask questions like, “Who am I?”, “Am I listening to my soul?”, “Is there a ‘real’ self and a ‘false’ self? And if I believe that there is, can I make a distinction between the two and believe in myself enough to take the necessary steps for transformation?”

During this period of major realignment on our planet, there are many coined phrases and terms that are flowing as freely as our out-of-control minds. Words like evolution, vibrations, false self, ego, consciousness, superconsciousness, unconscious, inner body, unmanifested, authentic self, soul, spirit – the list goes on and on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to determine the meaning of each word and how it fits into our own interpretation of how things work. But remember, these are just words – words that can both confuse and words that can excite, words that make us feel empowered and words that make us feel unworthy. But remember that the most basic job of words is to help us TRY to communicate.

As an example, there are words whose meaning we don’t question, such as the word ‘dog’. When we hear that word, we can assume that most people immediately envision a furry, friendly, cuddly pet who wants to lick us and be our friend forever. Pretty simple: mental image = definition of the word. But…what about other words a bit more tricky to envision? How about a word like ‘enlightenment’? What immediately comes to mind? Is this a harder picture to conjure up? I would guess if we asked each person reading this what he or she saw in the mind’s eye, each person would have a different mental picture and thus a different explanation of what ‘enlightenment’ means.

Our minds are very important to this process, but we must know how and when to use them and when to step out of our minds! Our intellect is also very important in our human expansion, yet our intellect can also get in the way of transformation. We have to learn how to understand the difference between our mind and our intellect in order to really make significant changes in our lives. The journey is challenging, yet it is tremendously important in our own personal path back to Source.

Can we release our falsely-created self, the ego, behind? Can we truly breathe the lighter air of the spiritual on a regular basis? Through the wisdom of various spiritual teachers, a variety of different lessons and also, with the study of the powerful book of Eckhart Tolle called ‘The Power of Now’, let us bring to light the importance of living in the present so that we can face this existence in a state of true inner peace. Eckhart Tolle shares so beautifully his deep understanding of the power of our own minds. In this book he speaks of ways in which to understand how the mind works, of obstacles that we are confronted with daily that have the power to challenge our ability to stay on the path, of the importance of undersatnding relationships that we share in our lives, and of how to discover, through communion within ourselves as well as with others, how to truly live in the present moment.

As we work through this process, it’s important to define a few terms that we will be discussing as they relate to the material given here. Each person, each religion, each teaching that we have all been exposed to over the years can have a different definition or understanding of a specific term – that is both the beauty and the confusion of trying to use words for spiritual understanding. I by no means am giving the ‘right’ definition of the following terms but I am attempting, within our limited vocabulary, to share one possibility, one variation of an xplanation of some of these important terms so that clarity may have a chance to assist us in the understanding of what it means to live in the Now.

The first word I would like to discuss is the word ‘being’. I am sure there are various definitions of this word but in this context here, the following definition is offered:

BEING: ‘Being’ is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the many forms of life that are subject to birth and death. ‘Being’ is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence.

This means that it is accessible to us now as our own deepest self, our true nature. ‘Being’ is used by many people because it is an open concept – it does not reduce the infinitely invisible to a finite entity since it is difficult to form a mental image of ‘Being’.

Many people identify the word ‘being’ with a physical expression and label it ‘God’, where they can envision a very large man-like character who knows all things, sees all things and judges how we live our lives. Other people think of ‘Being’ as life-force energy or Sprit of pure love and light that vibrates at a very high rate of frequency. No interpretation of ‘Being’ is right or wrong. For every living creature, it is their very presence, and it is immediately accessible to us as the feeling of this presence. It is only a small step from the word ‘Being’ to the experience of Being! How incredible is that!?

Next, what is enlightenment? Simply:

ENLIGHTENMENT: means to regain our awareness of ‘Being’ and to abide by that state of ‘feeling-realization’. It is simply our natural state of ‘felt oneness with Being’ that keeps us in the state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible – something that IS essentially us and yet is much greater than us. It is the discovering of our true nature, beyond name and form and identification with our physical body. The word ‘enlightenment’ conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way!

The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of seperation, from ourself and from the world around us. We then can perceive ourselves, whether consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment, separate from everything else. When this happens, fear arises and conflicts deep within ourselves can become fueled.

The greatest obstacle to experiencing the reality of our connectedness to All There IS is the identification with our mind, which then can cause thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadul afflication, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents us from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. This can help to explain why so many people have difficulty meditating. Their inability to establish stillness within and of having a mind empty of thoughts seems an insurmountable task. After several failed attempts, our minds declare victory and meditation becomes an imposibility. However, if we can learn to understand the power of our minds and begin to have power over them, the results are peace, happiness and stillness within.

It is of vital importance to observe our minds (thoughts AND emotions) in order to begin to live more consciously and fully in the Now. Self-observation and introspection enable us to evolve into more loving, peaceful beings. In order to remember who we are, we must look at ourselves under a microscope and honestly accept what we see, observing where our thoughts are and how we deal with our emotions. It is only through this conscious self-introspection that we can view ourselves as the ‘witnessing presence’ which is the ‘watcher of the thinker’. This is the point of perception where our Higher Selves continually observe the activities going on both in our thoughts and our emotions. Whether we consciously know we are doing this or not, it is happening constantly. It is very important to remember to view ourselves with loving, non-judging eyes, because if we find fault with ourselves or feel guilty about the chatter going on in our heads, then we are simply continuing on in the duality thinking and will not be able to make the necessary changes within ourselves.

So, before we go on, we need to discuss briefly how we can change these ingrained patters of rampant thoughts and emotions and learn to understand our minds and how they work. The first step is that we must understand the basic mechanics of living UNconsciously, which is when we define who we are through our thoughts and emotions, allowing the mind to control our lives, thus creating a false self or ego as a substitute for our true self. When this occurs, we become as a ‘branch cut off from the vine’ where the ego’s needs are endless and keep us living in a state of constant fear and want. When we truly begin to grasp how this dysfunction operates, we can then begin to detach from this ego or illusory sense of self and learn to disconnect from the many fears, problems and traumas in our lives that seem to define who we are. It isn’t until we recognize where our minds are that we can begin to make changes within ourselves and learn to live more consciously. Our minds generally want to escape the Now by thinking that either the past or the future will be better than the present…if the imagined future appears better, it gives us hope and anticipation…if it is imagined worse, it creates more anxiety and fear.

BOTH ARE ILLUSIONS!!!

By living more consciously, a higher dimension of presence comes into our lives automatically. The moment we realize that we are not present, we ARE present! Whenever we are able to observe our minds, we are no longer trapped in them! It is that simple…it just takes awareness!!! Awareness takes effort at first, but with trust, perseverance and determination, living consciously the majority of the time is truly possible.

The following are simple reminders:

Click on image to view in full size.

All of these reminders help us to live more consciously in the Now and enable us to step out of past and future fears and introduce more presence into our lives. Once we can feel what it means to truly be present, it becomes much easier to simply choose to step out of the time dimension whenever it is needed for practical purposes and move more deeply into the Now.

This leads us into the discussion of how we can change our attitudes and perspectives on what is ‘time’ and what role it plays in our ability to stay conscious and present as much as possible.

The following statement is the key:

Time and mind are inseparable!

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time…the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and simply allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation and fulfillment. BOTH ARE ILLUSIONS!!! Thus, it is important to end the delusion of time!

Many people say, “Time is something so very precious”, but time isn’t precious at all because it is an illusion. What we perceived as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the NOW…that is precious indeed! The more we are focused on time (past and future), the more we miss the Now, the most precious thing there is. Why is it the most precious thing? Because it is the ONLY thing…it’s all there is. The eternal present is the space within which our whole life unfolds, the one factor that remains constant. Life is NOW…there was never a time when our life was NOT now, now will there ever be.

Often times, we think the past and future are even more real than the present since the past determines who we are and how we behave in the present, and future goals determine what actions we take in the present. This is very challenging for us to undersatnd because we are using our ‘minds’ to try to grasp this; however, ask yourselves the following questions: Have you ever experienced, done, thought or felt anything outside of the Now? Do you think you ever will? Is it possible for anything to happen or be out the Now? Of course not! Nothing ever happened in the past…it happened in the NOW! Nothing will ever happen in the future…it will happen in the Now.

What we think of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind, of a former Now. When we remember the past, we reactivate a memory trace of an event. Also, the future is an imaged Now, a projection of the mind. When the future comes, it comes as the Now. When we think about the future, we do it now. Past and future obviously have no reality of their own…just as the moon has no light of its own but can only reflect the light of the sun…so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power and reality of the eternal present. The essence of this is difficult to be understood by the mind; however, once we grasp it, there is a shift in consciousness from mind to Being, from time to presence. Suddenly everything feels alive, radiates energy and emanates Being.

If you have ever been in a life threatening or emergency situation, you are aware that there is a shift in consciousness from ‘time’ to ‘presence’ that happens immediately and naturally. The personality that has a past and a future momentarily recedes and is replaced by an intense conscious presence, that of being very still but very alert at the same time. Whatever response is needed then arises out of that state of consciousness.

Similarly, many people love to engage in dangerous activities such as mountain climbing or car racing because it keeps them in the constant state of Now, that intensely alive state that is free of time, free of problems, free of thinking. Slipping away from the present moment even for a second for them may mean death, so the totally conscious state that is required is exhilaration! That energy is powerful and this desired state is available to all of us, without having to climb to the top of El Capitan! We simply have to BE present!

Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. In church you may have heard the saying, “Nobody who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Also, the whole essence of Zen consists of walking along the razor’s edge of Now, to be so utterly, so completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not WHO YOU ARE in your essence can survive in you. A similar question in the Zen tradition is, “If not now, when?” Finally, Rumi, the great Sufi poet and teacher declared “Past and future veil God from our sight; burn up both of them in fire.” We have all been exposed to many, many lessons and teachings that have stressed the importance of living the present moment, but how many of us truly are able to live and apply this awareness into our lives on a daily basis? We must be honest with ourselves…do we live and accept ourselves in the present NOW or do we depend on our past experiences or our future dreams to mold our present days?

Clock Time Vs. Psychological Time…

Just as there is a place for mind and mind knowledge in the practical realm of day-to-day living, we also need to know how to use time in the practical aspects of our lives. Keeping track of time for daily appointments and activities is of course important, but we must be wary when it takes over all aspects of our lives. There are two types of ‘time’ that we must be aware of: ‘clock time’ and ‘psychological time’. The enlightened person’s main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally aware of time, which means they continue to use clock time but are free of psychological time.

Clock time is used for the practical aspects of our lives. Clock time is not just making an appointment or planning a trip. It includes learning from the past so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over. Knowledge that we have attained through past experiences is also using ‘clock time’. It is thus when we are able to make choices, based on learning from prior experiences. Similarly, when we set a goal for ourselves and work toward it, we are using clock time. We are aware of where we want to go, but we honor and give our fullest attention to the step that we are taking at this moment. However, if we become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because we are seeking happiness or fulfillment in it, the Now is no longer honored and it becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future. Then we are no longer using clock time. THE PRESENT MOMENT REMAINS THE ESSENTIAL FACTOR: when any lesson from the past becomes relevant and the knowledge of the experience is applied to the Now, ‘clock time’ is being honored.

‘Psychological time’ is identification with the past and continuous compulsive projection into the future. It is when we lose all touch with the present moment, and when our identity, value and purpose is only based on what we have done or what we will be doing later, what we look like or what we are thinking or feeling. If life’s journey is no longer an adventure or seen as beautiful but is an obsessive need to arrive, to attain or to ‘make it’, then psychological time or past and future identification rules who you are.

Be alert as you practice this so that you do not unwittingly transform clock time into psychological time. For example, if you made a mistake in the past and learn from it now, you are using clock time. On the other hand, if you dwell on it mentally, and self-criticism, remorse, or guilt come up, then you are making the mistake into ‘me’ and ‘mine’: you make it part of your sense of self, and it has become psychological time, which is always linked to a false sense of identity. Nonforgiveness necessarily implies a heavy burden of psychological time.

You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease if you look at its collective consciousness manifestations. They occur, for example, in the form of ideologies such as communism or rigid religious belief systems which operate under the implicit assumption that the highest good lies in the future and that therefore the end justifies the means. The end is an idea, a point in the mind-projected future, when salvation in whatever form (happiness, fulfillment, equality, etc.) will be attained. As an example, it is estimated that as many as 50 million people were murdered to further the cause of communism, to bring about a ‘better world’ in Russia, China and other countries. This is a chilling example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can there be any doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental illness?

How does this mind pattern operate in your life? Are you always trying to get somewhere other than where you are? Is most of your ‘doing’ just a means to an end? Is fulfillment always just around the corner or confined to short-lived pleasures such as drink, drugs, or thrills and excitement? Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and attaining? Do you believe that if you acquire more things you will become more fulfilled or psychologically complete?

In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and creative potential that lies concealed in the Now is completely obscured by psychological time. Your life then loses its vibrancy and sense of wonder. The old patterns of thought, emotion, behavior, reaction and desire are acted out in endless repeat performances, a script in your mind that gives you an identity of sorts but covers up the reality of the Now. The mind then creates an obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present.

If you are currently experiencing a very challenging set of experiences that make you believe that the future HAS to be better than this present state, you must realize that the future is generally a replica of the past! Superficial changes are possible of course, but REAL transformation depends upon whether you can become present enough to dissolve the past by accessing and accepting the Now. What you perceive as future is an intrinsic part of your state of consciousness now, and chances are you will experience more of the same unless the quality of you consciousness NOW is altered.

So….if it is the quality of your consciousness at this moment that determines the future, then what is it that determines the quality of your consciousness? It is your degree of presence!!! Therefore, the ONLY place where true change can occur and where the past can be dissolved is the NOW!!!