(19) LIVING HERE: A Present that’s not for “you”.
It’s a curious thing, life. People always say how it goes by so fast. Truth is, we run through it so fast. We’re in such a hurry in our heads and hearts, to grasp experiences – to touch, to taste, to hear, to smell, to see, move, think and talk. In truth, we live in the notion of having a life – always somewhere else, rarely at home. In fact, in our conditioned experience, our reactions are an automatic, “knee jerk” response not to life as it actually is, but to the ways we’ve abstracted it to appear. We routinely function in the “known” and actually live in the unknown.
The active, alive present is not an idea or feeling that comes from our mind-made and habitual “experience” of it. It’s no wonder we lose our real, live sense of our underlying being. We rarely stop (or get stopped) long enough to recognize our own presence here in this world.
When we say “our own presence” it’s important to see that, at bottom, there is no actual person – no real “you” remains to “own” the present. This is the present that cannot be opened by a “me” on the move. That’s what it means when some sages say:”Nirvana is cessation”. There’s no personal, proactive and preemptive “you” actually doing anything. Just the fullness of life, doing what it does.
Stop, if only for a moment, and we inherit all the earth – right down to a fallen leaf. Stop, and we begin to see the magnificent work of God, or Buddha, or Love. When we stop, look and listen deeply, we come into contact with our natural well-Being. We unwrap the joy and harmony that is always here in the present. We celebrate Peace on earth and goodwill to all.
