power of the moment

Chapter summary:

🔷CH 1. You are not equal to your mind

1. Beyond the mind:

If you want to regain your freedom, you must understand that you are not something attached to you-you are not equal to the "thinker". This allows you to observe the self as an entity. The moment you observe this "thinker," a higher level of consciousness is activated. You understand that there is an "Intelligent" beyond thinking.

2. Get self-liberation from mental bondage:

Criticisms, complaints are constantly popping up in people's minds, this is the muttering of the mind.

Freedom from mental bondage. First, spend as much time as possible listening to the voices in your head and noticing repetitive thought patterns. "Observe this thinker": Listen to the voice in your head and be a witness. Stay neutral and don't criticize any voice, you understand:

 The sound is there, and I am here to listen and observe it. The realization of the perceived presence of the self arises from a higher level than the mind.

When you listen to a thought, you are not only aware of the thought, but also aware that you are the observer of the thought. At this time, a new dimension of consciousness arises. When you listen to your thoughts, you feel your deepest self behind them, and at the same time, the thoughts lose their grip, your identification, and their energy. The mind dissipates, and you experience some discontinuous "no-mind" gaps in the mental stream. At first, these gaps will be fleeting, but as time goes on, you will feel a sense of peace inside . This is the beginning of your becoming one with the body. This state is often disturbed by thinking. As long as you persist, the feeling of silence will become deeper and deeper. The joy of Being arises from deep within.

🔷CH 3. Go deep into the present

12. Essence Joy:

If you don't feel joyful and comfortable doing something, it doesn't mean you should move on to something else. What needs to change is how you do it:

"How you do things" is more important than "what you do".

Try if you can focus more on doing this, don't rush to get results, and focus entirely on what you are doing at this moment. Accepting it for what it is, it is impossible to be engrossed in something and yet resist it . Once you are able to focus on the present moment, all unpleasant feelings dissipate and joy begins to infuse the flow of life.

Don't focus on the result, just concentrate on doing the thing at hand, and the result will be perfect. This is a powerful spiritual method.

The Bhagavad Gita, a spiritual guide, calls this detachment from results "Karma Yoga"—a path to the "divine."

When you are at the level of your life situation, you still want to achieve or get something. It is a world of form, gain and loss. On a deeper level, however, you are whole because whatever the "power of now" does, it will be filled with joy and energy. Like playing a game, free yourself from the shackles of mental time and pursue your goals without worrying about gains, dissatisfaction, or who you want to be.

Your self-awareness comes from the "ontology". When you no longer have the psychological needs of "who you want to be", your happiness or sense of self will no longer need to rely on external results. There is no need to pursue eternity in the world of impermanence (the world of form, gain and loss, birth and death), no need to rely on certain situations or certain people to bring you happiness, and to feel sad and miserable because they let you down.

Appreciate everything without being bound by things, forms come and go, you see eternity outside forms. You will know that "what is true is never threatened."

How can you not be successful when this is your "being" state? You have been successful.

🔷CH4. Strategies for the mind to escape the present moment

2. General unconsciousness and deep unconsciousness:

If you cannot be present in normal times (such as sitting alone in a room, listening to others, taking a walk), you will never be able to be present in the face of adversity and sadness. Pulling into the unconscious state of being subject to a fixed pattern of responses. These adversities are meant to test how you react when faced with them. When the days are smooth, it is important to bring more awareness into your daily life and to grow your presence stronger and stronger. It generates a high frequency vibrational energy field within and around you. Nothing unconscious, negative emotion, violence can penetrate this energy field without being destroyed.

An indicator of clarity of meaning: It depends on how you face the adversities of life. If you are in an unconscious state, when you encounter adversity, people will get used to entering a deeper unconscious state; on the contrary, people with clear consciousness will be more clear.

Adversity can wake people up, and it can also pull people into deeper nightmares, allowing people to go from a light dream in a general unconscious state to a nightmare in a deep unconscious state.

If you are unable to be present during normal times (such as sitting alone in a room, walking in the woods, or listening to someone talk), it is absolutely impossible to be present in the face of adversity, trouble, or sadness. You will be drawn into a deep unconscious state by being locked into a fixed pattern of responses (usually some form of fear). These adversities are meant to test you, and the results depend on how you react to them. These adversities can tell you and others who are in the same place, how clear your state of consciousness is, it is not determined by how long you can close your eyes and meditate, or what you see.

So it's important to bring more awareness into your daily life when the days are fairly smooth. As you do this, your ability to be present grows stronger. It creates a high frequency vibrational energy field within and around you. No unconscious, negative emotion or violent state of mind can penetrate this energy field without being destroyed, any more than darkness can sustain itself when illuminated by light.

As you learn to watch your thoughts and emotions (an important part of being present), you will become aware of the vague uneasiness that comes with being normally unconscious, and be amazed at how rarely you are truly at ease. On the mental level, you find that you use a lot of value judgments, dissatisfaction, and mental projections to resist; and on the emotional level, you notice restlessness, tension flowing through you like an undercurrent, both The manifestation of mental inertia resistance mode.

3. What are they looking for

The Buddha taught that the root of suffering is endless craving.

4. Disruption of the ordinary unconscious

Bring it to the conscious level and observe the restlessness, dissatisfaction, tension that arises within you, how you resist what is and deny the present. Any unconsciousness will collapse under the light of consciousness.

Once you know how to dispel general unconsciousness, the light of your presence will shine brighter and it will be easier to deal with deep unconsciousness.

The general unconscious state is not so easily perceptible at first, we are too accustomed to it.

Therefore, we should develop the habit of self-observation and measure our mental and emotional state at any time.

Often ask yourself: "Am I comfortable and comfortable at this moment?" Or ask: "What is going on inside me at this moment?"

Allow yourself to be as concerned with the inside as you are with the outside.

As long as there is no problem inside, the outside will naturally be in order . The inside is the first layer, and the outside is just the appearance wrapped around the outside.

After knowing yourself these questions, don't rush to answer them right away.

(1). First focus on your inner self, carefully observe your inner self, what are you thinking in your heart? How do you feel?

Then (2). Turn your attention to your body. Where does the body feel tense? Once you notice a little anxiety, try to watch how you are escaping and resisting life.

As you continue to practice this way, your ability to observe yourself and monitor your inner states will become stronger and stronger.

6. Wherever and when, dwell fully:

If you find the "here and now" intolerable, you have three options: leave it, change it, or accept it. If there is really no way to change the situation, let go of your inner resistance and fully accept the here and now. In this way, the self that is suffering ceases to exist -- this is surrender.

Surrender does not mean cowardice, but actually requires greater courage. Only warriors who are willing to bow their heads truly possess spiritual power. Surrender, your heart will no longer be affected by the situation and situation, and then you may find that changing your situation does not take much effort. No matter what situation you face, you are free.

7. The inner purpose of the life journey

It is possible for a person to reach his inner goal and fail to achieve his outer goal, but it is also possible, on the contrary, to become outwardly rich and inwardly poor, as Jesus said: "If a man gains the whole world, but loses his own life, what does it matter?" benefit?"

Strictly speaking, all external goals are doomed to "failure" because they are all governed by the law of "all things are impermanent." The sooner you realize that external goals cannot bring you lasting fulfillment, the more important it is to you. When you see the limitations of the outer goal, you will give up false expectations that he can bring you happiness; instead, you will let him become a helping hand to achieve the inner goal.

🔷CH5. Presence:

4. The manifestation of pure consciousness

Whenever you observe the mind, you remove the consciousness from these mental forms, it becomes the observer or the witness. Slowly, this observer becomes stronger and stronger, and the formal refinement of the mind becomes weaker and weaker.

Listening to silence creates stillness within you, stillness is present. Listening to the silence is the easiest and most direct way to enter Presence.

🔷CH6. Inner body

7. Take root deep in the body

The more you focus on your inner body, the higher its vibration will be.

As you listen or read, the mind may be judging what you hear or read, but don't let that take all your attention, try to see if you can connect with your inner body at the same time. Bring some attention inward, don't let it all flow outward. Feel your whole body from the inside, think of it as a single energy field, make it almost as if you are listening or reading with your whole body, and practice this method over the next few days and weeks.

Instead of giving all your attention to the mind and the outer world, do your best to focus on the task at hand while feeling as much as possible about your inner body. Root deep in your body and watch how doing so changes your state of mind and the quality of your work.

Visualizing your body will eventually bring you a new way of life, enter a state of constant connection with your body, and add a depth to your life that you didn't know before.

When you can be deeply rooted within yourself, it becomes easier to remain present, to be the watcher of the mind, no matter what happens outside, it cannot shake you in the slightest.

Unless you remain present, you will continue to be at the mercy of the mind. The script you have drawn up in your mind long ago will direct how you think and act. You may be able to get away with it for a while now and then, but not for long, and when you encounter adversity or a major setback, your institutional response will be automatic, fixed, and predictable. What initiates these responses is the fear hidden in the conscious state of the identification mind.

Whenever you encounter difficulties or adversity, make it a habit to immediately focus your attention on the inner energy field of your body as much as possible. It doesn't take long, a few seconds is enough. The important thing is to act the moment a difficulty or adversity arises, any delay will allow habitual emotional patterns to arise and take over. When you focus on the inner body, when your awareness is withdrawn from the mind, you will immediately feel stillness and presence. If you have a problem that needs to be dealt with immediately: do it as above, and you will come up with a more effective solution later. Because such a solution comes from a level deeper than the mind , just as the sun is infinitely brighter than the flame of wax, and the intelligence of the ontology is infinitely higher than the mind.

8. Forgive first before entering the body:

Unforgiveness is the nature of the mind, and the ego cannot survive without conflict. But the mind is not capable of forgiveness, and once you forgive, you can move into the presence of the peace and stillness that radiates from Being.

11. The art of listening:

When listening to others, don't listen with your mind, but listen with your whole body while feeling the energy field of your inner body. This draws attention away from the mind and creates a still space where you can truly listen without the distraction of your mind. Also give the other party space, let the other party present as they are, that is the most precious gift you can give to others .

Most people don't know how to listen, because most of the time they just think about themselves and they focus on this, not what the other person is saying, the other person's "identity" under these words and the other person's mind.

🔷CH8. Enlightened emotional relationship

3. Addiction:

Every addiction starts here: an unconscious resistance to facing pain and getting out of it. Every addiction starts with pain, but in the end it is pain. No matter what your addiction is, be it alcohol, food, illegal substances, or love, you are using someone or something to cover up your pain, which is why, in romance, when initially Once the feeling of happiness is over, there will be a lot of unhappiness and pain. In fact, love is not the cause of your pain or unhappiness, it just seduces the pain and unhappiness that is already hidden . Each medicine has its sequelae, and the pain relief effect of each medicine has disappeared. When it is no longer effective, the pain you feel will be far worse than before.

4. From Addiction to Enlightened Relationships

As long as you stop pouring "selfness" into your mind, you will lose the trait of compulsion, and you will no longer force yourself to make judgments, so you will no longer reject what is, and conflict, drama and pain will no longer exist. Appeared. In fact, the moment you accept who you are and stop judging everything, you free yourself from the grip of your mind and make room for love, joy and inner peace. (1). First, you stop judging yourself, (2). Then you stop judging your partner. The biggest catalyst for an emotional relationship is to fully accept everything about your partner, without judging or trying to change the other person, which will immediately get you out of the "false self", so that all mind games and addictions will come to an abrupt end, and there will be no more victims and perpetrators , The accuser and the accused. Instead of dancing to each other's fixed-response patterns, you will love each other as separate identities, deep together into the Now, Being.

🔷CH9. Beyond happiness and unhappiness

3. Life is a cycle of rise and fall and impermanence

You stop seeing them as disasters and accept everything for what it is, a deeper dimension unfolding. You feel the eternal presence, the joy that transcends blessing and misfortune.

The Buddha said: Happiness is also suffering (dukkha, meaning suffering). The two are inseparable, and only when they fall into the illusion of time will they think they are separated. Nothing can give joy, joy can only arise naturally from Being.

6. Step into a new world:

You begin to make a real contribution to improving the world and restoring order to all things. Genuine compassion arises in the heart,

Help others from the level of "cause". Only those who are free from the domination of the world can bring about a better world.

Compassion has its dual nature, being aware of both mortality and immortality. Seen from this deeper level, it has healing power in the broadest sense. Your influence is not what you do, but how you naturally shine. Everyone who comes into contact with you is affected by your presence, the inner peace you radiate. Your inner peace is so vast and deep that anything that is disturbing dissolves. Teach all things through your being, you undo suffering at the cause level.

Compassion is not a one-sided lack of empathy for the suffering of others. If human consciousness does not undergo a profound transformation, the suffering of the world will never end . Let your inner peace flow into what you do, and play its due role at the two levels of "cause" and "effect".

If you pay too much attention to the "fruit" level, it is easy to get lost in it. Remain strongly present at the cause level, with the main goal of teaching others to be enlightened, with inner peace as the most precious gift to the world.

🔷CH10. The meaning of surrender:

Follow the flow of life, the only moment to experience the flow of life is the present moment, accept this moment unconditionally, stop resisting and evaluating the original

1. Relationships

When you have an argument with someone close to you, first observe how you defend yourself when you are attacked; how you develop when you attack someone else. Observe how you cling to your positions and opinions, and feel the energy behind your competitiveness, which is the energy emanating from your ego mind. Acknowledge it, admit it, feel it, and over time, realize that you have a choice in the middle of an argument, and maybe you'll stop arguing, and if it feels light and clear, then you've surrendered. True communication begins when the mind positions are no longer identified and the energy between each other is strengthened.

experience:

Feel the breath and behavior of the moment, even if it is difficult to learn, know how to take it step by step, get rid of psychological time, become more patient unexpectedly, life, interpersonal relationship, and the peace of being alone are all released in the moment

Note: Image source: Blog, Hikarinoshita Hikari Unsplash