“The destination toward which you assume you are traveling in your spiritual quest is not a destination at all. For a destination, by definition, is somewhere other than where you are. And where you are is all there is and ever can be—which is Nowhere. All that can be changed is your perception of that blessed state.” (Oneness, p. 342)
How often are you in the moment? What does that feel like? Can you see the ways not being in the moment creates blocks for you to move forward?
Enlightenment As A Goal?
I once knew a man whose goal was to become enlightened. I was puzzled by that because it seemed to me that enlightenment was something that came to us or didn’t. Of course there are many spiritual practices that can take us to a consciousness level where enlightenment is more likely, but it seemed to me that making it a goal was self-defeating because enlightenment then became a destination.
George_Harrison_Chanting_Hare_Krishna in Vrindavan, India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Time Is An Illusion
We earthly beings have created the concept of time. It doesn’t actually exist. Perhaps we created it so that we would know where we were in some sense because we have not yet developed the consciousness to just live in beingness. In this physical body and physical plane we need concepts that ground us. Time is one of those.
The older I get the more I am able to live in the moment. I think it’s part of letting go of the need to control so much of life or perhaps it’s the result of having had so many experiences when I couldn’t control the situation. As an adult, I reached a point where I was very depressed because it seemed I couldn’t get anything I really wanted.
Trying To Control Everything Creates Resistance
My parents wouldn’t send me to the school I wanted to attend, then my husband proved to be uncommitted to our marriage the way I was and he left, then I tried to get a full time teaching position after I left the one I had in Nebraska and couldn’t. It seemed that there was nothing that was really important to me that I was able to create despite my determination. I had been taught that if I worked really hard, I could get what I wanted in life, but it didn’t turn out that way.
What I didn’t understand then, that I do now, is how my determination created resistance and how resistance blocks the manifestation of what we want. I was always so busy doing what I thought I needed to do to make things happen that there was no space for what I wanted to enter my life. I was unaware of how my energetic vibration affected all of this.
A Positive Energetic Vibration Creates What We Need
While I was applying for a job or looking for a new friend or lover, my focus was out there on some destination, not in the moment, because in the moment I was unhappy with what I didn’t have and so that energy was the most influential. Now I’ve learned to focus on the present. If I’m filling out a job application, I do it with excitement and pleasure, relishing this first step. I need to stop worrying about getting the job, and make this step and each following step pleasurable.
Our energy in the moment is what creates the future, but when we get to the future we are again in the present, and we were in the present as we journeyed to the future, so….how we experience the moment is the only thing that matters. The more we visit the stillness within us where the moment resides, the more clarity we will experience. It also allows thoughts and feelings from our deepest selves to emerge.
Answers Come To Us In the Spiritual Silence Of the Moment
Recently, I was sitting with much anxiety about why I was feeling anxious. I knew there was no rational explanation, so I sat until I felt calmer and let go of my need to understand. In the quiet I created a space for the answer to emerge, and when I calmed down, it did emerge. I saw that the child within me was responding to how my mother’s overprotection used to make me feel smothered. I reminded myself that this had nothing to do with this current situation, that I was projecting the past into the present. When I saw what was going on, I let go of the anxiety that no longer served me.
When Oneness reminds us that in the moment, we are nowhere in relation to time, it also reminds us that being in the moment means we are also Everywhere. In this state, there is no sense of “not having.” “All That Is—is present.” (Oneness, p. 343) When we can slow down enough to experience this present moment, it allows us to experience peace, love, and joy—not because of what we have, but because we simply are. In this spiritual state, we are all that we need to be.
Is practicing being in the moment a part of your life? Please comment.
© 2013 Georganne Spruce ZQT4PQ5ZN7F5
Related Articles: Awakening to New Life, Oneness Speaks (video), The art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment, Learn to Live in the Now With Eckhart Tolle
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