Sunday, August 22, 2010

Are you here?

Are you here?  Are you really here in this room? I don't mean is your body here because that is obviously the case. But are you here? Do you feel that you are here in the room? Are you aware of being present here, and of your actual experience in this moment? Or are you lost in thoughts, fantasies, plans, emotional reactions? Are you here or are you busy liking and disliking? Are you here, or are you busy judging yourself and everything else?

Are you here now, or are you trying to be here, making a token effort because this is what we're talking about? Are you aware of everything and everyone around you? Are you aware of your surroundings, or are you lost in a whirlwind of thoughts? When you hear the question, "Are you here?" it's not important in answering that you try to be good or correct. It's important only to sincerely explore for yourself, are you here or not? Are you in your body or oblivious, or only aware of parts of it? When I say, "Are you in your body?" I mean, are you completely filling your body? I want to know whether you are in your feet, or just have feet? Do you live in them, or are they just things you use when you walk? Are you in your belly, or do you just know vaguely that you have a belly? Or is it just for food?

Are you really in your hands, or do you move them from a distance? Are you present in your cells inhabiting and filling your body? If you aren't in your body, what significance is there in your experience of this moment? Are you preparing, so that you can be here in the future? Are you setting up conditions by saying to yourself, "When such and such happens I'll have time, I'll be here?"  If you are not here, what are you saving yourself for?

Regardless of the stories you tell yourself, at this moment, this very moment, there is only this moment, here, now.  Nothing else exists. For your direct experience, only the here and now is relevant. Only now is real. And it is always like that. At each moment, only that moment exists. So we need to ask why we put ourselves on hold, waiting for the right time, waiting for the right circumstances to arise in the future...The future is not your life; it never arrives. What is actually here and now is always only this moment.

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