Live in the Present Moment

To live in the present moment requires a change in our inner posture. We have to calmly observe our own stream of consciousness and see its compulsive patterns. These patterns drive our small “ego” self which are the illusions of our thoughts, a passing fantasy. That’s why it’s called the false self. It’s not real. It’s the past and gone, or the future and imagined. Some people don’t have a clue who they are apart from their thoughts. Meditation moves us to the level of pure and naked being, of pure consciousness, naked awareness. We must force ourselves to wait in silence. In silence all our usual patterns assault us, patterns of control, addiction, negativity, tension, anger, self-blame, self-loathing, and fear, they all make an appearance to assert themselves. Thomas Keating teaches a beautifully simple exercise: Imagine yourself sitting on the bank of a stream. Observe each of these patterns coming by on little boats saying, “Think me, feel me, define yourself because of me.” Acknowledge that you’re processing them, feeling them, judging them, but don’t let them come up and hug you or make a home around you, keep them in their boats and point at them and name them: “resentment toward so and so,” “an embarrassing moment from second grade,” “an ill word toward someone who has passed away,” “so and so told me / whispered / got in my way…” Admit each moment, wave to the boat, and keep it floating down the stream. That stream is our stream of consciousness. We have to become the watcher, where we sit over here and observe those boats without judgment, just in acknowledgment, over there, until we realize those episodes are not us, they don’t define us, they’re just fancies. If we’re over here then it’s a perception, it isn’t intrinsically us, it’s not even a part of us anymore. What’s the point of such contemplation? God doesn’t want us bound by these illusions, God wants to continuously remind us of our intrinsic worth and value, not shadows of our past or worries over our future. God wants to help us send that garbage downstream and infuse us with prophecies of bounty and success, and wrap us in a blanket of eternal love and care, which God can do once we, and our limited minds, are finally out of the way.

– kind of Richard Rohr, sort of