Drinking Deeply From The Present Moment

In today’s session we contemplate the quote, ‘See how you are literally free of the future, for the simple reason that it hasn’t and will never arise. There can be no other moment. Feel how that is so. How it is impossible to get ourselves into some other moment, for there is no other moment, and no other reality but, than what is presently here, this instant...’ From John Astin, an American based researcher, meditator, and practitioner. This track is taken from my course, ‘Daily Contemplations For Living An Examined Life’, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session.

I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.

You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

And I just want you to gently begin opening your mind to today's quote.

To contemplate the words with a free and open and supple mind.

To welcome impossibility and expansion and growth and to allow yourself for the next few minutes to just sit and be with whatever arises.

In a moment I'm going to share with you a quote to contemplate and then we'll sit in silence for a minute and just let it percolate.

Then we'll talk about that quote and see where the discussion leads us.

Today's quote comes from John Astin,

An American-based researcher,

Meditator and practitioner.

It's a little bit of a longer quote but it's worth the listen.

See how you are literally free of the future for the simple reason that it hasn't and will never arise.

There can be no other moment.

Feel how that is so.

How it is impossible to get ourselves into some other moment for there is no other moment and no other reality but than what is presently here.

This instant,

The one and the only we can ever have.

Revel in this.

Drink deeply from that that's here because there is nothing else to drink from.

See how you are literally free of the future for the simple reason that it hasn't and will never arise.

There can be no other moment.

Feel how that is so.

How it is impossible to get ourselves into some other moment for there is no other moment and no other reality but than what is presently here.

This instant,

The one and the only we can ever have.

Revel in this.

Drink deeply from that that's here because there is nothing else to drink from.

So this quote asks us,

Encourages us,

Attempts to convince us to live fully in the present moment.

And it's doing this by the suggestion that quite literally nothing else exists.

And,

You know,

It's sort of true.

The past happened and it leaves the ramifications,

The scars,

The pains,

The traumas,

The ruts,

The ideas,

The personalities,

All of these things it leaves us with.

But it doesn't actually exist.

We see the ramifications of it.

We can trace the flow from then to now and predict into the future.

But where is the past?

How can it be accessed other than in the present moment?

We can't access the past.

We can't get back there.

Physics has yet to explain how if it is possible.

But for us right now,

The past only exists in our mind and the minds of others.

And the interesting thing is that what we view as the past is different from what other people view as the past.

There are countless studies showing the fallibility of memory.

And you can see this in your own mind.

Go back to a place that you haven't been to since childhood and notice how much smaller and more mundane everything is.

Compare a memory with people from a long time ago and it will change and tweak and different people may appear or disappear.

Different people said different things.

And the final thing I want you to consider down this path is,

You know,

The self-trust that you have.

Let's say something happened when you were young,

6,

10,

And you remember it and you remember how you felt and what happened and all these details.

It's very easy to let those beliefs,

Memories,

Feelings,

Shade and jade what you're doing as an adult right now.

You believe the six-year-old version of yourself.

But if a random six-year-old was to come up to you and to start talking to you and explaining things to you,

How much weight,

How much truth would you believe in their words?

You'd believe some level of truth,

Of course,

But you would have a healthy level of adult-based skepticism because you understand the world differently.

You understand the world from a more wiser,

More nuanced,

More experienced perspective.

So you see deeper layers of truth to those feelings that they're feeling because you've felt them before and you've learned.

But those same feelings expressed as yourself as the inner six-year-old,

They are held as gospel,

As real,

As truth that shade and change and sort of push you down certain paths of thought and relationships and connections and attachments.

So this quote helps us to come back to the present out of the past,

But it also helps us to not move into the future.

Once again,

The only place we can access the future from is here and now.

We can predict the future.

I'm going to keep talking for a while,

Then I'm going to stop,

And you're going to listen,

And then the meditation is going to end,

And your day is going to continue.

That's what most likely is going to happen.

We can predict with decreasing levels of accuracy,

Historical trends and patterns,

Economic things,

Political things,

Relationship-based things,

But we can only do that from the present moment.

And unless we're grounded in the present moment,

In the reality of the current situation that we find ourselves in,

Those plans and beliefs and predictions about the future are flawed.

We cannot access them properly,

And the more clouded we are in potential futures,

The less ability we have to be in the present moment and trying to predict the real future.

Think of it this way.

This is a very,

Very simplistic version of what is actually happening.

You can choose what you'd like to do today.

Let's say there's five options,

Five viable options.

Go to work,

Cancel work and go to the beach,

Catch up with a long-lost relative,

Et cetera,

Et cetera.

You've got a decision point that could branch into five different futures.

Each one of those futures will have different decision points that will branch off separately themselves,

And so on and so forth.

One decision now will fractal into thousands and millions and billions.

And the same thing is happening simultaneously throughout the whole world with everyone,

8 billion of us.

And in addition to the natural permeations of the world we find ourselves in,

The weather and other natural phenomena.

The point is that it is impossible to predict the future.

And if you spend the present moment living in the future,

You'll be sitting in an infinite number of possibilities that most likely none of which will happen.

This instant is the only one we can ever have.

Drink deeply from that which is here,

Because there is nothing else to drink from.

So let's turn our attention to the present moment,

To this moment right now.

Reality is a sequences of nows after nows after now,

Goes now,

Now,

Now,

Now.

That is all that actually exists.

And a lot of our pain comes not from what is happening,

But from the fear that it will continue to happen,

Or that it always has happened.

Are you fearful?

Are you annoyed?

Are you upset with meeting,

With going to catch up with someone?

Or are you just fearful that some pain will come and that's causing you to rest now?

People that suffer from anxiety or panic attacks or these sorts of conditions often inadvertently,

It's not their intention,

But the fear of being fearful causes the fear to arise.

They're so worried about it that they plan about it and it becomes this actual active tension that they can't let it go.

They cause the fear to arise,

The heightened tension to arise,

Which causes them to melt down,

Which causes them to break down,

Causes them to have the overwhelm,

And thus proving their fear in the first place.

It's a cycle that can be broken,

But the way to break that is to come back to the present moment.

What is happening now?

Don't get me wrong,

This is easier said than done,

But really,

What else is there to do?

What else is there to do?

Let's take an extreme example.

Let's say you had five minutes to live and in front of you was a plate of your favorite foods.

What would be the better use of your last five minutes of your life?

You can't avoid it,

There is nothing you can do to stop this.

Would it be best use to sit there worrying about what's going to happen in five minutes?

Or would it be a better use to sit in mindful joy of the final pleasures of the most tastiest meal that you could have?

Or for the more spiritual of us,

Sit in a samadhi,

In a revelatory state of our own creation,

As we feel the pure joy and essence of our being in this present moment.

There's Zen koan and other sort of spiritualistic stories of these sort of sayings.

The realistic fact of it is,

It's a little bit ridiculous if you knew that sort of thing was going to happen,

The ability to control yourself in that moment might be beyond almost all of us.

However,

The analogy still stands.

What is the best use of your time right now?

Is it worrying about the future?

Is it sitting in that sort of awkward state of just tension,

You know,

Like limp,

Inactive,

Unable to be used tension?

Or is it better to sit in the present moment?

Because the present moment is beautiful,

It is free,

It is alive,

It is just vibrant.

The more we practice,

The more we contemplate,

The more we meditate,

The more we sit in the solitude of the silence of the self in the moment,

Joy arises,

You start seeing things and hearing things and acknowledging things and feeling things that are always there.

You know,

Watch a dog frolic in the park,

Watch a young child play,

They are just present,

They're not worried about other stuff,

They're just there in that moment.

Can we find that in our lives,

In everyday lives?

Can we turn the cleaning,

The mundane act of cleaning into something like that?

That's a goal,

That's something to consider.

And,

You know,

I guess if we consider the future,

We do need to plan for the future.

But can we do it from a grounded point in the present moment?

To go,

Okay,

From this point,

Where can I go?

And it's like an active,

Mindful,

Calm choice,

Not allowing ourselves to get into this higher body that is freaking out.

No,

Let's sit grounded in the moment,

Reveling in the moment and then planning our future,

Where we want to go,

Which path do we want to take,

Which choice,

Which sequence of fractaling choices are the best option.

And then add to that some freedom and flexibility to twist and change as things go along.

So let's bring ourselves back to the quote and sit in contemplation once more.

See how you are literally free of the future for the simple reason that it hasn't arrived and will never arrive.

There can be no other moment.

Feel how this is so,

How it is impossible to get ourselves into some other moment,

For there is no other moment,

No other reality but than what is presently here,

This instant,

The only we can ever have.

Revel in this,

Drink deeply from that that's here,

Because there is nothing else to drink from.

So well done.

This brings us to the end of the session.

You should be able to see at the bottom of your screen the option to view the classroom or to ask a question.

Before moving on,

I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights,

To read the answers from other students and to hear my replies.

Remember to start your session with John Astin or to restate the quote or in this case freedom from the future so we know which one you're referring to.

This is an opportunity for deep learning,

Further introspection and insight,

So please don't miss out.

I look forward to seeing you in the next session.

Thank you.

This track was taken from my course Daily Contemplations for Living an Examined Life.

It's out now on Insight Timer and available via my profile.

I invite you to join in.