Meditation, the moment and the illusion
The most important practical tool for self development excludes everything but the present. Be in the moment and everything past and past and future, dissolves. Yet people tend to look for resolve or certainty in future prediction or past amylases. The great American writer on Zen, Alan Watts, summarised a ton of Eastern, yogi, Zen and Taoist literature: “The past and the future are real illusions, in that they exist only in the present, which is what there is and all that there is.”
Everything in the past, or the future, is no more or not yet, never the less so easily and effectively overpowers the present. The illusion that future happiness or fear, or past trauma or good times, IS reality, creates a disconnect with the present. The trick is to understand that while “reality”, in its hardness, lusciousness, challenges and victories, only overpowers timelessness and limitlessness when we allow it to.
This is why we meditate
Meditation helps us see a different, objective angle on the world. It momentarily shatters ordinary reality, encouraging the thinking mind to see the present more clearly, and begin to understand the illusionary realities for what they are.
Meditation creates constructive inner change, to direct positive outer change!
From here real life changes may begin, as result of action motivated and directed by meditation, contemplation, and self knowledge with insight and wisdom.
Become what you are, proclaimed Alan Watts in one of his book titles.
Be here now, said Ram Das famously.
To do so… trust & surrender
It is testament to the dazzle of illusion that the power of the now is overlooked. Avoid the endless q’s (the cartoon) of over-anyllising, wallowing, worrying, speculating, predicting and second guessing the past or future. Cut straight to the chase: the cutting edge is now.
Trust the moment, surrender the story, and let go of control. As one’s inner peace grows the comfort of the expression “this too shall pass” becomes evident. Easier said than done in many instances, and not so hard at all in others. It always helps to… just be… Zen 🙂
Yours in Music & Yoga, Cape Town,
Johann Kotze, Muizenberg,
2 August 2016.
Play my meditation music to help you be expansive, focussed, and in the moment