A Skill of Balance

We have a direction and a goal in this lifestyle. There’s something that we’re aiming for, and we should think about that. What’s the direction of our life? What’s the goal of our life? Where is that goal located? The goal is located in the present moment, it’s right now, and it’s always going to be there. Many of us live our life thinking about the future most of the time. Maybe as you get older you think more and more about the past. But often enough, we’re not in the present moment. This is particularly apparent in our meditation, where the work is to bring your mind to the present moment and learn to cut through the delusions we create around thought and time. The whole creation of time is something we do in the present moment. The whole universe to which we attach, that we like, dislike, dread, hate, fear and love—that whole world is a creation of our mind. We’ve created it in the present moment, and then we create this illusion of time and a whole Samsara that we feel trapped by.

Bringing the mind to the present moment is hard work because we have this momentum going into time. It takes a balancing act because we tend to slip into the past or future, and we have to bring ourselves back to the perspective that’s centered and balanced in the present moment. It takes a skill of balance rather than effort to stay here.

Coming back to the present moment is a relief because all the anxieties and tensions and discontent that build up around the things that we have and want is always around time. Time is simply that which we create through craving and if we can see things clearly then there’s just the present moment. That’s all there’s ever been. It takes commitment and determination to see that and take it seriously. There’s no worldly benefit for it. No one knows if you are in the present moment or not. No one will praise you for it and you won’t get any money for it. It’s a self sacrifice, because you don’t get anything (worldly) out of it. But you put down the weight of bearing a whole universe on your shoulders. So that’s the reflection for today.