“Live in the present moment, and life will be a festival for you.”
I passed a double rainbow the other day. It made me stop in my tracks and take a moment.
Just inhale and exhale. And smile. And inhale the light around me and exhale the dark. And be more conscious of my inner body and the present moment. Something about closing my eyes and inhaling the good energy and exhaling the bad energy has always seemed to wash waves of calmness and happiness over me.
“The Power of Now,” by Eckhart Tolle is the best description of enlightenment and peace I’ve ever read. However, until a person actually experiences, truly experiences, the present moment, his message might fall on deaf ears. I’ve only ever experienced the present moment for brief seconds, something Zen Buddhists call ‘satori.’ It is not true enlightenment, but it is a brief taste of absolute calm. I know I don’t understand everything Tolle describes completely, but something within me knows he speaks the truth.
Everyone is on the same journey — this journey towards happiness and fulfillment. Unfortunately, most of us don’t live in the present moment — we don’t fully experience our own lives. We’re always waiting for that promotion, that vacation, that degree title. In the midst of all the waiting, it becomes quite easy to forget to appreciate your today. In the very present moment — what is wrong? Nothing. Yet, many people will be worrying about their list of to-dos, and end up never truly finding happiness.
I realized a long time ago that I was among the majority of the population, trapped in this ‘waiting’ lifestyle. Always waiting for something — for me, it’s been getting a job and having a ‘real’ life. I used to think I wouldn’t be happy until I got this job or traveled to that place. Instead of treating every moment like an adventure, I took it for granted, thinking of the next thing I needed to do. I realized I had to stop treating life as merely a means towards an end — I needed to find the beauty in all my moments. Life shouldn’t only be beautiful when we’ve had a good day or we’ve fallen in love. We should live our lives in love.
I seek to wake up and find beauty and peace in every thing around me, no matter how normal. Just finding beauty in how the light enters my room, or how the trees sway with the wind on my walk to class. As Tolle explains, “beyond the beauty of the external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence.” I’m able to come the closest to feeling this essence while out in nature. Particularly, the ocean — I am most at peace near the ocean. The sounds of the waves prove meditative to me and help me feel closest to the world — better put, closest to the energy of the world.
“The Power of Now,” although it conveys the same message religions seek to describe, and the same message other spiritual teachers also tell, has truly helped me begin thinking of my life in a different way. My primary goal: to not dwell on any thought — to instead become the observer of the mind. Whenever I get upset over something, I must take a step back and observe the emotions felt within me, and the thought process. Become the observer of your life. This brings me back to one my favorite Paulo Coelho quotes: “Live in the present moment, and life will be a festival for you.” Every time a negative thought comes into my mind, I must immediately become the watcher — watch the thought from somewhere outside myself and laugh at the silliness of the mind. The mind has tricked us — deep down, we know the truth. We are all one. We are all made of the same energy. As Paulo Coelho describes it in “The Alchemist”, we are all part of ‘the soul of the world.’
A main theme in my life has been about finding my true calling and going after it. “Fuel your fire” is a saying truly close to my heart. For a long time, however, this need to find my passion and chase after it caused me pain — or rather, I was thinking about it in a way that caused me pain. I was thinking so much about the future and achieving the goals I had set for myself, that I was not enjoying the present moment. I was reinforcing this ‘waiting’ mindset and allowing my passion to make me miserable! Because I was not already doing exactly what I envisioned, I was unhappy. This is of course was an irrational way of feeling: true goals take years to accomplish — they are not just handed to you. I didn’t realize that I’ve been on my way towards these goals from my youth — the way I’ve been brought up and the beliefs I’ve been brought up with undoubtedly helped shape these goals. Further, after all my worrying, I realize now I’m on a direct path towards my goals. Instead of worrying so much and not enjoying the present moment, I could’ve been enjoying it. But enough about the past — it matters not. Only the present moment matters for that is all we have and will ever have.
The Alchemist says: “When you desire something, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.” I can see the truth in this. It’s another saying that is ingrained in me now. It’s amazing to me where I am now — somewhere I had never planned, somewhere I had never envisioned for myself. That brings me to another point — sometimes envisioning everything actually hurts you — you don’t leave any room for the Universe to help you achieve what you want. It may not be in the way you imagined, but it is always the in the way things were meant to be.
I find it so enlightening when I read the same teachings by different teachers. It makes me inhale, and exhale, knowing I have reached the tip of the truth. For example, Metta meditation, also known as love or compassion meditation, teaches to inhale the light, exhale the dark, and eventually exhale the light within you towards the world. I read a passage today where Tolle describes a meditation to help us find our inner light: it begins by envisioning a light surrounding you, and by inhaling that light. They are teaching the same message. In a recent interview, Matttieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk, said: “Stillness is to avoid the chaotic aspect of the mind, and then you can deal with thoughts and emotions, or sometimes you just sit or rest in that pure awareness. That’s a place of immense peace.” Richard is teaching the same message of quieting the mind.
As I go forward, I don’t want it to be only strikingly beautiful things, like double rainbows, that make me take a step back and observe the beauty around me. I want things that we typically call ‘ordinary’ to be breathtaking. Be in love with the world. You are blessed.
