Being Present in the Now

Life is only Now !!! It is never not Now . The question is where is your consciousness? Is it totally aligned with life in this moment ? Does it stay present in the Now ? If not , how can you re-align your being and consciousness back to life? First you must clearly understand what obstacles prevent you from being present. The first one is your own thinking which wants to dominate and absorb all your consciousness. The second is suppessed emotional pain from the past which is stuck in your memories and resurfaces from time to time as fear , anxiety, or pain both emotional and physical. These obstacles are not easily overcome by simple techniques devised by the mind. Fortunately since you are connected to and a part of Life itself , it understands and will help you with these obstacles. It will give you challenges and life situations that if properly accepted and allowed to be as they are without resistance, will push you deeper and deeper into Presence. The basic practice is to allow this moment to be and surrender completely. In other words , no emotional separation to the form this moment takes no matter how challenging! This sounds simple. However, in reality it can be very difficult depending on the magnitude of the challenge Life presents in this moment. So no matter what happens , try to allow and embrace the form of this moment completely, then respond and take action or not out of full consciousness not out of the conditioned reaction of the ego mind. This will help you be in the Now, which is Life itself !!!

Depression

Many people throughout the world suffer from depression. It is a living hell for many as it sucks the joy and will to live out of their lives. The basic cause is the gap between what they expect to happen in their life and what actually does happen. This can come about in two ways. If there is a strong , future based , expectation of what they think will happen which turns out differently, or for many , when the current circumstances of life pile up on them to such a degree that they mentally breakdown and cannot process the stress level it has created . Either way, this gap is the cause of suffering and turns into depression in the extreme form. There is fundamentally one way to deal with this problem. The person must totally accept the life circumstances as they are and emotionally digest them . If there is any resistance to life as it is, the problem of depression will stick and not be resolved. It sounds like an easy solution , however in practice it can be extremely difficult to go through. It is in a way a kind of ego death when a person goes through this. In a very real sense the person feels as if a part of them is dying. They have to remember the part they feel is not their true divine essence which never dies and cannot be destroyed. It is the illusory self that feels the sting of ego death. Ultimately, this is spiritually healthy if the person can surrender to the suchness or isness of life as the Buddha said . This doesn't mean that a person cannot change his circumstances if they are not pleasant or painful. However, first must come acceptance and alignment with life so there is no disconnection from lifes energy. Then a conscious response can be planned and executed to try to change things for the better. If this is done with awareness and consciousness then it is fine. If it is an unconscious reaction based on negative emotion, it is likely that the situation will not change and could get worse. Being totally aligned with life as it is can be the best remedy for depression. Allowance, acceptance, and surrender are helpful tools on this process. Try this approach and see what happens !

Preparing The Ground

In today's active and busy world our minds tend to become cluttered with thoughts, emotions, and things to do. This creates a certain movement and momentum in our stream of mental activity that is hard to slow down. Most of us think it is important and necessary to engage in thinking and doing from the moment we awake till the time our head hits the pillow at night. We then many times still have active mental activity in our dreams as well, only to wake and proceed to pick up the action where we left off the day before. Just as our physical body needs rest and time to re-energize , our mind and spirit need time to rest as well. This is meditation !
Meditation is a vacation for the mind. It is time to clear out all the mental activity and clutter that is sometimes bordering on addiction , and become aware of the space of consciousness without thought that is the essence of who we are. This is the fundamental spiritual identity crisis of humanity. However, meditation is not easy if you are trying to go from the mind of obsessive thinking and doing to a peaceful meditative state in one step. You must first prepare the groung for this transition. This can be done by a number of means which include any kind of physical activity such as yoga, shaking, dancing , jumping followed by stillness either sitting or lying down in complete motionless position. This is called active meditation ! Another type of preparation is through the use of sound such as mantra chanting, Tibetan bells or bowls, the sound of falling rain or other meditative music. These stepping stones can help you transition from the clatter of a noisy mind to the sublime peace and bliss of deep meditation where you can get to know your own being at the essential level !!! It is truly worth the trouble !

The Masters

To my beloved Masters my heart is beyond gratitude. You have touched my soul at the very core. I feel your presence in every aspect of my life. Jesus , Osho, and Lao Tsu , my internal guides of spirit, you have helped me so much to realize the blessing of eternal life and the spiritual birthright of divine creation. Thank you!!! To my living master Khan Ba Da. You came like a thief in the night without a sign. Through your heart of boundless compassion , you have opened the way to the great ocean of one divine life. As the illusory mind dissolves, and real soul blossoms, please remember , I am eternally grateful to you for giving me this treasure that has changed my life forever. It's value has no equal in the world of things. It is the blessing that words cannot describe. No matter where the Tao leads us both in the future, we are one in spirt and heart, eternally bound through the love and life of heaven! Let it be now and forever !!!

Nourishing the Soul

The human being is made up of body , mind , spirit, and soul. The body and mind are temporal and the spirit and soul are non-temporal or eternal. However , most human beings spend almost all their tme and energy feeding or nourishing the body and mind. They pursue the physical survival and well being of the body and they thirst for information to satisfy the intellect. In the case of the spirit and soul, which is fundamentally at least as important , or some may say more important , there is not nearly enough time and effort given to nourish these essential aspects of the person. This results in an unhealthy imbalance and leads to physical and mental disease and ultimately death! Think about it ! If you were to make a choice of what aspects of the self to feed and nourish more, would it make sense to emphasize the temporal or the eternal. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't take care of your body and mind. They are gifts from life and should be well cared for. Just don't ignore the more fundamental aspects of spirit and soul. They deserve at least as much care and concern , if not more, because they last forever. In today's world the spirit and soul of the human being suffers from neglect and malnourishment. They live in poverty while the body and intellect are glutonous and overfed. Look within you own being to see if you have a healthy balance or not. Ask your spirit and soul for a report card or survey on how they are doing relative to the mind and body. You may be surprised at what they say!

Self Realization

Some religious people have the perspective that self realization is self-centered. They believe that to be truly religious one must totally deny the evil world including the self. However, in this attitude or posture they fail to realize one critical reality. God created and is living in the self. God is the true Self. Self realization is God realization ! When one becomes totally Self realized , the last delusion is recognized. The delusion that there is a separation between God and the self.
Life is one ! The human being does not exist and cannot exist as a separate entity . The essence of the creator is at the core and center of each expression of life including humanity. If the mind looks for or projects God outside of the self, that is a conceptual God which is an illusion. This type of egoic mental projection is the basis of religious difference and strife. In somes cases it is the basis for violence and war! Without individual Self realization , there can be and will never be true and lasting peace in the world! Violence, war, civil strife, crime, domestic violence or any other form of non-peace in the world originates in the egoic consciousness of the un Self realized human being. True Self realization happens when the egoic mind is recognized for what it is , a mental illness and illusion. As the illusory mind is transcended and the divine mind wakes up and is realized, this becomes the basis for peace. Any attempts or efforts for peace , however noble , that don't rest on this foundation , ultimately are futile and will end up in collapse and frustration. These efforts are like a physician dealing only with the symptoms of disease and ignoring the root cause. Individual Self realization is the basic foundation or building block for true and lasting world peace. The individual is a microcosm of the cosmos. The divine Self realized human is what connects heaven and earth. When the delusion of the egoic mind has been transcended , and each human being is at peace not only outside themseves but more importantly within their essential being, world peace will be finally realized ! Otherwise the illusory egoic consciousness will continue it's reign of terror and violence over humanity !

Expectations

Whenever you think you know what is going to happen , or expect things to be a certain way, be prepared for something to turn out differently. The only certainty in life is that it is uncertain. One day you think you have it all figured out and , Wham, it blind sides you . This begs the question " How important is certainty anyway?" If we always new what was going to happen or if we could see or predict the future , wouldn't it get pretty boring after awhile? Life is mysterious, and that is the way it should be. Otherwise we would not grow! Life is organic both externally and internally. Embrace the mystery! It is a great adventure! Be open to let life lead you where it will. Change the word expectations to possibilities. Expectation is too conditional. It is a product of the conditioned mind. You are much more than your conditioned thinking! Your possibilities represent all the possibilities in the universe. You are only limited by your own mental and spiritual limitations. Life is your partner in the great adventure! Explore the massive new frontier of unconditioned pure consciousness! It is waiting for you.

Science and Religion

Science and religion need not be at odds with each other. Science is the pursuit of truth in the external, objective world and religion or spirituality is the pursuit of truth in the internal, subjective world. Just as the mind and body need to harmonize to have healthy life in man, so do these two important aspects of humanity. The strength of science lies in it's ability to look at reality with an open objective framework. When new and better understandings of existence and nature are discovered, the old views simply give way to the more advanced and better viewpoint. With religion and spirituality, it is a little more tricky. This realm of human inquiry attempts to find and explain the internal, subjective world of the mind , heart and soul. This territory is a much greater challenge for obvious reasons. Much advancement has been made also in this regard in recent times. Not only are new and more advanced understandings emerging today from many sources, a global shift of consciousness is happening on a scale that is unprecedented in human history. This shift has allowed for a better understanding of the ancient spiritual wisdom of most traditions and is providing a framework for integration as such. The Eternal Truth is One. It contains all aspects of reality including both subjective and objective aspects. All religions need to adopt the open minded and objective posture of the scientist when searching for internal truth. If advanced understanding emerges, the dogmas and less advanced concepts need to give way to the deeper realizations. This is very difficult for most traditional highly organized religions because their structure and very existence is highly dependent on the old concepts and precepts. At this point in mans evolution however, if they can't transcend their attachment to their limited grasp of reality, they will eventually be left on the garbage pile of history. Ultimate reality is non-conceptual and best experinced directly. It transcends all dogmas and belief systems. It is what Lao Tsu called the first principle. If you can speak about it, that's not it. Scriptures , sutras, words about ultimate reality are the second principle. In other words they are indirect and as such open to great potential for debate and misunderstanding . Even the words on this page are at best pointers to the truth!
Science on the other hand will never find ultimate reality if it continues to believe it is the whole enchilada. The failure to recognize the transcendent spiritual dimension has brought it to a dead end as such. I believe we are stuck at string theory! Even the great Albert Einstein was religious and knew the limits of physical science! What is needed is a scientific religiosity . In other words , both the theists and atheists need to adopt the beginners mind of Zen and take a fresh and open look in an integrated way. In other words, the human being is not simply the physical body including the intellectual mind, it is also not just the dimension of spirit , heart and soul. It is an integration of both. This is so obvious I wonder what all the fuss has been in the past!It must be the ego staking out its territory for survival. Let's drop that narrow view of life! Life is one integrated whole with the primordial energy and intelligence as subject and the manifested cosmos as object. They are totally interdependent and cannot exist without each other . As such there is divinity in all aspects of life! If we can all see through the veil of conceptual obscuration , we may experience life directly as it is. It would be better if we would all take an agnostic approach. Let life in the present moment reveal itself in all it's glory without the mental barriers of the highly conceptualized conditioned mind. We are all much more than that!!!