The photo: From the walkway along the underbelly of the bridge we see ahead to daylight, the sun reflecting a burst of trees, green, nature. The river flows gently. We can imagine emerging into the day from the cool quiet depths And yet there is an unhurried peaceful sense of simply being, that time is not the issue; this moment is enough.
A mindful moment, it is a reminder for me, that I share here. Although the photo evokes a sense of potential, of something that lies ahead, the nature scene also suggests there is an eventuality to time, movement is inevitable and that we are each of us a part of nature.
All well and good, you say. I’ve got work to do, right?
To my theme of Mindfulness and Creativity, we accomplish more in a sane and efficient manner when we are present and aware. People and situations are in constant flux. And awareness is not a natural state in our hurried world. Reminders like this photo, or taking a deep breath can be positive triggers to reposition your thinking, to this moment.
Are you here right now? Or are you multi-tasking, with part of you in the past, rehashing a particularly troublesome memory? Those past events, choices, people have already happened, and yet we keep them alive, holding onto the negative feelings of the original event.
What’s going on? Its about dissatisfaction, and it plagues us all. That undercurrent that things could/should be different. It makes us edgy. We want to fix it, push it away, analyze it, daydream, review the past in an endless dissatisfied loop.
A wonderful Zen teaching story illustrates the choice in it for us. In days of old two monks walking in the woods come to a small river with no bridge. The only way to cross is by wading through. They also realize the beautiful young woman before them is trying to cross the river too. The monks live by a rule to not touch another. But yet, the first monk offers to carry the woman across the river. On the other side, the monk puts her down, she thanks them and walks off.
For the rest of the day the second monk is beside himself with the memory of his friend carrying a young woman on his back. He thinks about it, stews, chews on this all day. Finally as they stop in the evening, he conveys his shock and dismay. The monk who did the carrying, replies gently, the difference between you and I my friend, is that I put the young woman down when we reached the other side. You’ve been carrying her with you all day.
Like the second monk burdened by thoughts and reactivity, we rehash the past endlessly. And yet it does nothing to change those past events. The ego continues to the point of exhaustion sometimes.
Being caught up in the past in thought and reactivity is a static situation. The photo above is a reminder that the river keeps flowing. Nature is in continuous movement. Why don’t we choose this for ourselves? It is so much more gentle a process.
The choice is this. It starts with slowing down, being aware of what we’re thinking about, being Mindful of thoughts and emotions, the sensations inside. The big choice is to let go of the story. The emotions and internal sensations are tied to a story. When we release the story there is a sense of spaciousness or of relaxing held tension. We are more able to be present to the moment.
That’s alchemy. The process of choosing to turn what no longer works (long held habits of thought) into a moment of being present. That’s the gold, in the Being. Present and aware, focused on Now.
