Running Away From The Present Moment

[phoenix666]

the concept of living in the present moment is part of the core of many, if not all spiritual teachings. if oneness, calmness, peacefulness and all those wonderful thing lie in the present moment, why are we so desperately running away from it?

this question came came to my mind whilst walking through the woods: I noticed that nature is always present. always in the now. I became aware that my whole life, since I was a little girl, I've been running away from that. I've been hiding in fantasies about my past, my future, alternative universes. 

we is it so hard for us to just be in the now? why doesn't it come natural to us, if the key for inner peace lies within the present moment?

much love <3

[Wes Thoughts]

I agree. I wish I could be in the present moment more. I think it's just the "curse of being human" like Leo says. It's our damn prefrontal cortex wanting to always think ahead, label, dream, plot, plan, scheme, etc. It's a skill that can be improved though and it's something I want to work on myself. 

[Dodo]

1 hour ago, phoenix666 said:

the concept of living in the present moment is part of the core of many, if not all spiritual teachings. if oneness, calmness, peacefulness and all those wonderful thing lie in the present moment, why are we so desperately running away from it?

this question came came to my mind whilst walking through the woods: I noticed that nature is always present. always in the now. I became aware that my whole life, since I was a little girl, I've been running away from that. I've been hiding in fantasies about my past, my future, alternative universes. 

we is it so hard for us to just be in the now? why doesn't it come natural to us, if the key for inner peace lies within the present moment?

much love <3

Mind cannot be in the timeless now if it wanted to. Mind by definition lives in Time. Mind is already past, content is already past. Only awareness can be present timelessly and luckily that's you! 

Edited November 2, 2017 by Dodo

[phoenix666]

@Wes Thoughts I wish that too. we have to train our awareness muscle! again. and again. and again.. 

@Shiva he gets a bit messy in the end, but I loved the beginning, with the difference between living for or in the moment. I think that many people get that wrong and get trapped into the pleasure trap. I was there too. 

so the key lies into accepting what is, he said? being in the present moment=accepting whatever arises? it's also on of those concepts I came across multiple times. letting go, dropping any resistance...those are all things I would like to work on.. 

@Dodo oh, this is ingenious! thanks for your input! mind is in the past a priori. awareness is in the present moment. I'm not my mind, I am awareness, ergo I must be in the present moment. I 'just' need to become aware of this. ^^ therein lies the most difficult leap. thanks for showing me a new perspective!

thank you all for your inputs guys <3 very much appreciated <3

[Nahm]

@phoenix666 I suggest the now is layered upon by beliefs & thoughts (and beliefs are thoughts). So the path is letting go of beliefs & thoughts (suffering), what’s left is the now. Versus the now being something to acquire or attain or progress to. It’s now, now, with made up layers on it. Ultimately, what’s happening now, is nothing. 

[phoenix666]

@Nahm beautiful <3 so I don't get to the now by acquiring. but I get there by stripping away layer upon layer of belief? I just don't quite know how  to then actually shutter my beliefs, in practice. 

[Azrael]

17 hours ago, phoenix666 said:

if oneness, calmness, peacefulness and all those wonderful thing lie in the present moment, why are we so desperately running away from it?

Because you can't do shit if you are present and society is concerned about doing shit so that its people has its basic needs fulfilled.

[Nahm]

@phoenix666 make two columns on a piece, or 1000 pieces of paper; experienced, and belief. Be Uber honest with yourself, and start putting everything in those columns. This is an easy way to surface many ah ha’s! I found it shocking - the things I thought were true, but realized were not at all. The conditioning of this world is very deep. Very very deep. 

[MiracleMan]

One cool thing to think about here, you can't ever be out of a present moment!  Think about it, everything the ego claims is retroactive, it comes after the fact always, so it's easy to see it as another dissolving object subject to the illusion of time.

So thinking that one is running away from the present moment is the ego staking a claim.  It's impossible to be out of the present moment.  You can only "seem" to be out of it.

[MiracleMan]

1 hour ago, Nahm said:

@phoenix666 make two columns on a piece, or 1000 pieces of paper; experienced, and belief. Be Uber honest with yourself, and start putting everything in those columns. This is an easy way to surface many ah ha’s! I found it shocking - the things I thought were true, but realized were not at all. The conditioning of this world is very deep. Very very deep. 

I had this belief that a pressure washer was assembled in a certain way, I looked at it and said, "Yeah that piece goes there."  Only I had it backwards.  I spent weeks thinking I was missing some attachment for it, I bought certain couplings to fit it, but it wouldn't work.  It was confusing.  My whole reality was shaped by the belief "I know this."  I looked at the instruction manual, I just shook my head and laughed.  I feel like my entire life has been based around a similar situation.

[Nahm]

@MiracleMan I know that feelin!! 

[Leo Gura]

@phoenix666 Because it will literally kill you!

This ain't no joke! This isn't some cute Ekhart Tolle teaching on Oprah. Your entire existence is at stake here!!!

You are like a shark, which can only live so long as it's moving forward.

The trick is to realize that you're better off dead. And then actually make it happen.

What comes natural to you is self-survival. Which is why you're here in the first place.

When you exist as a lie, the truth (the present moment) is your greatest enemy, because it means your death. You have to realize this. You have no material substance of which you are made. You exist as a mental fabrication, an optical illusion. So your only way of surviving is to not look at this illusion closely.

Which, BTW, is why you keeping stalling to do self-inquiry. You look for less direct methods, because you REALLY don't want a direct method to your death. You want to play spiritual games instead. You don't actually want enlightenment! You just want the IDEA of enlightenment, but not the real thing. No ego does, because the point of ego is to be a wall from enlightenment.

[phoenix666]

@Nahm I tried this exercise once again, expanded the list and re-evaluated a few things. I feel strange now, not sure how. a bit lost. like I always had goals and securities. like I always did things for a reason. now I feel kind of uneasy, insecure, also a bit empty. I don't know whether it has to do with the exercise, or whether I feel that way independently from that..

@MiracleMan beautiful! so I guess the trick is to see through that illusion to be out of it.

[phoenix666]

@Leo Gura I see. thanks for the beautiful analogy of the shark moving forward. I've just been realizing this during my AL-LAD trip and today. I feel a bit lost now, because I realized that my whole life I've been chasing. I've been doing everything because I wanted something out of it. I've forgotten how to do things out of pure joy. I've buried the playfulness of kids under layers of goals and result-oriented seeking. 

It's true, doing enlightenment work seems to be a process of killing, bit by bit. How can an enlightened being function in society? or actually, I imagine enlightened beings managing that very well. to them it's probably sailing through in a flow state. all just a play with everything to win, nothing to lose. but on the way towards becoming unlighted, that's where it can become tricky and spirituality and society interfere. 

true, ego doesn't want it, I can feel the resistance and procrastination whenever I want to do enlightenment work.

but there is also a part in me that really, really wants to discover my true nature. otherwise, I wouldn't be here..

[Leo Gura]

12 minutes ago, phoenix666 said:

How can an enlightened being function in society?

Once you're dead, there are no problems.

Yes, the ego will fight this process every inch of the way, kicking and screaming like a stubborn mule.

Then the second after it dies, you will experience Nirvana, and exclaim, "OMFG! Why was I so stupid!!!!! And you will laugh and laugh. Death?? Death?? Ahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

But until then, you will take death deadly serious, because hey, that's what keeps you alive

[Shin]

1 hour ago, phoenix666 said:

 

but there is also a part in me that really, really wants to discover my true nature. otherwise, I wouldn't be here..

If you really wanted to, you would never come to this forum, you don't need to read or ask anything.

The only thing there is to do is staying present and going deeper, everything else is mental masturbation/pointless activity you think you do to enlightened yourself, but that's just a big fat lie to keep the truth at bay.

Meditation and self-inquiry are great, BUT not if you use them as an excuse to stay inconscious the rest of the day ... 
The point of these activities is to make you more alert of the importance of being conscious, they aren't the only time where you should allow yourself to be present, otherwise you're just tricking yourself here.

[krazzer]

On 2-11-2017 at 5:19 PM, phoenix666 said:

why doesn't it come natural to us

@phoenix666 I think it is our natural state, but our current society creates too many fears and desires

[phoenix666]

@Leo Gura i will kick this stubborn mule of mine into motion! again and again! thanks Leo <3

[phoenix666]

@Shin you got me there. true. hahah thanks for reminding me. 

that's actually exactly what I'm trying to work on: starting to expand 'meditation, awareness and yoga' into my daily life. I am trying to practice mindfulness throughout the day.. it's so challenging thou..

[Nahm]

@phoenix666 this thread has me laughing and smilin. Thanks! And....it really is the ultimate ‘when you see it, you’ll shit bricks’.