IF YOU CAN ACCEPT WHAT IS THERE’S NO PROBLEM

Everything is best. Yes, every thing. Now, that’s a strange spiritual truth if ever there was one. Yet, I have found it to be so.

There’s a Zen kōan that goes like this. When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. ‘Give me the best piece of meat you have,’ said the customer. ‘Everything in my shop is the best,’ replied the butcher. ‘You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.’ At these words Banzan became enlightened---that is, he 'woke up' and saw things as they really are ... for the very first time.

The great spiritual philosopher J. Krishnamurti, pictured, had this to say about acceptance. 'In the acknowledgement of what is, there is the cessation of all conflict.' It took me years to understand what he was saying. I mean, years. Actually, decades. Yes, decades---and decades of unnecessary suffering, both to myself and others. Yes, whatever is, is best. Why is that so? It’s simple (but not easy). Because whatever is, is what is. And what is is reality, is now. When we resist what is, we suffer---every time. Yes, every goddam time. Resistance is non-acceptance. Resistance is suffering ... and conflict (be it physical, psychological, or whatever). And resistance is living in the past … or in the future. It is anything and everything other than living fully in the present.

Of course, acceptance is never easy---if only we could buy it at a supermarket---but we make the task of acceptance so much harder than we need to. Acceptance is letting go---that is, letting go of all resistance, especially all opinions that stand in the way of a full acceptance of what is. However, before we can let go we must first let be. That's right, we must let be whatever is our present reality. That's not fatalism. Not at all. Before we can change what can be changed we must first ... let be. 

Acceptance is surrender---to what is. And acceptance is faith. Now, by faith I do not mean creedal belief but living with hope, courage and confidence despite appearances to the contrary. Faith is embracing what is, even though we might have hoped for something altogether different. 

And what is hope? Well, hope is not the same thing as having expectations. Indeed, we must get rid of all expectations if we don't want to be constantly disappointed in life. No, hope is a certain mindset that knows---yes, knows---that whatever is, is best. It is a state of mind that is prepared to accept whatever be the outcome in any given fact-situation of life.

‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.’

LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD

Do you haul the corpse of your past around with you? So many people do, you know.

Elmer Rice [pictured left], in his play Dream Girl, says, through the character Clark Redfield, ‘If you can make a dream come to life, grab hold of it. But if it dies on you, roll up your sleeves and give it a decent burial, instead of trying to haul the corpse around with you.’

I often hear someone say in AA meetings, ‘Let the past stay in the past.’ That’s very sound, spiritual advice. I think that is what Jesus really meant when he said, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead’ (Mt 8:22).

Albert Einstein [pictured below right] wrote, ‘We live in a society that forgets the present.’ One of the reasons we forget the present is that we are still haunted by the past, especially our own past. We relive old hurts, failures and other negativities, and for so long as we are obsessing or ruminating about the past, we are not living in the present. We must let go of the past---and let it stay in the past. For better or for worse, the past is over. It no longer exists, except perhaps as a present memory.

There is something odd about all of us. We often cling to our hurts and failures more than we do to the good times. We must forget both---yes, both the ‘bad’ stuff as well as the ‘good’ stuff. Both prevent us from seeing things-as-they-really-are right now. 

In many ways holding on to the so-called ‘good’ stuff is even more dangerous than holding on to the ‘bad,’ for it deludes us into thinking that the best times are in the past and are unlikely to be repeated. We fear ever having that sort of experience again, so we cling to the memory of it lest we forget it. We fear that if the latter happens, there will be no joy, happiness or excitement left in our life. Rubbish! That’s a cop-out. Please see it for what it is.

The good news is that you can be totally free of the past---at any moment. It’s entirely up to you. No one else can do ‘it’ for you. Yes, there can indeed be that ‘total revolution’ (or psychological mutation or transformation) of which J.Krishnamurti constantly spoke. 

Now, I am not talking here about change as a result of intellectual analysis or any form of traditional psychology including psychoanalysis. You---yes, you---can instantaneously liberate yourself from the past and from past conditioning (including beliefs and misbeliefs of all kinds), provided you refuse to analyse or dissect the content of your consciousness and choose to see things as they really are, without judgment or evaluation of any kind. 

So, stop looking back. Remember what happened to Lot’s wife? She looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt---with no life in her. Don’t let that happen to you.

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MINDFULNESS ACCORDING TO VIVEKANANDA AND YOGANANDA

‘The world is a demon. It is a kingdom of which the puny ego
is king. Put it away and stand firm.’ – Swami Vivekananda.

'The truth simply is. It cannot be voted into existence.
It must be perceived by every individual in the
changeless Self within.' – Paramahansa Yogananda.

There really is only one spiritual teaching. It is taught, in various ways, and in different words and imagery, by all of the world’s religions. Some adherents of one religion or another will deny that the teaching to which I refer is taught in their particular religion but that is immaterial for present purposes. It would take some time for me to establish that the teaching to which I refer is indeed part-and-parcel of every religion, but even if I were able to demonstrate that fact there would still be many people who would not want to agree with me, largely because they erroneously think theirs is the one, true religion.

So, what is this teaching? It is this---all life is one. Now, I am not saying that all things are one in some monistic sense. That may or may not be the case, and I tend to the view that it is not the case. What I do say is this---there is only one way of being, and that way is common to all persons and all things. There is only one order or level of reality---an Omnipresence (call it 'God,' if you wish) expresing Itself through and as all persons and things---and all such persons and things have their one and common existence and being in or on that plane or level of reality. In addition, a single logic---in the sense of 'law' and 'principle'---applies to, regulates, and governs all persons and things. Here’s another reason why we must insist on oneness---there cannot be two ‘causes’ of the universe … assuming for the moment that the universe was anything other than self-caused or uncaused.

In short, the same life---the very self-livingness of life---runs through all our veins, bodies, and minds, and through the entire fabric of existence.

Now, what has mindfulness to do with all this? Well, a fair bit. You see, mindfulness is a knowing awareness of the flow of life as it unfolds from one moment to the next—an awareness that goes beyond ever-changing forms and rests quietly in the unchanging spirit of life itself.

The teachings of two famous Indians gurus of yesteryear---each a formidable master of world spirituality---have had an enormous impact for good on my spiritual life over many decades. The two spiritual leaders and teachers to which I refer are Swami Vivekananda ('Swamiji') [pictured above left] and Swami Paramahansa Yogananda ('Paramahansaji') [pictured below right]. For the benefit of the uninitiated, Swamiji was a brilliant exponent of Vedanta, having been the chief disciple of the great Indian saint Ramakrishna. Paramahansaji was the celebrated author of the widely acclaimed Autobiography of a Yogi, which has been printed in more than 20 languages, and which is one of the all-time landmark works of spiritual literature. I am very proud of the fact that the Unitarian Universalist denomination of which I am a minister---a denomination that stands for reason, freedom, and tolerance, as well as unconditional love for all---had a great deal to do with bringing these two giants of humanity to the United States of America, befriending them, and helping them to promulgate their teachings to the Western world. 

Both masters had a lot to say about mindfulness, even though the primary focus of each of them was on a quite different, albeit related, theme (Vedanta in the case of Swamiji, and Kriya Yoga in the case of Paramahansaji). Both masters, in their writings, teachings, lectures, and classes, made it unambiguously clear that direct communion with Divinity was possible through a direct, immediate and unmediated experience of life itself. That was not only possible, they said, it was the only real way to go. 

Why is that the case, you may ask? Well, truth---that is, life, reality, God---is very near, indeed it is all around us, and in us, and is us. 'The whole universe is one existence---objectified God,' wrote Swamiji. Problems arise, however, when we identify with the world, our bodies, and the mental imagery of our minds. Those things tend to become all-absorbing for us, and we lose sight of the eternal. Paramahansaji expressed it this way: 'We are hypnotized by our environment and we can't see beyond the horizon of our experience.'

Now, here's Swamiji on the subject of mindfulness. He wrote that the goal of Vedanta---and we might also say that it is the goal of life---is to achieve and maintain ‘an eternal calmness … which cannot be ruffled, the balance of mind which is never disturbed, no matter what happens.’ He also wrote, ‘Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. This is freedom---to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure; be unattached.’ So, a mindful mind is a balanced, unflappable and imperturbable state of mind; it does not react to what comes and goes from one moment to the next, but instead remains unattached and unaffected by what happens in or outside of us.

Paramahansaji's advice is as follows: ‘Live quietly in the moment. ... Be detached inwardly from whatever happens in your life and consciousness. ... No matter what happens, look at things with non-attachment.’ He also wrote, ‘Live each moment completely and the future will take care of itself. Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each moment. ... To live mechanically is to be dead inside though your body be still breathing!’ 

Then there’s this gem from Swamiji: ‘Retire to the centre of your being, which is calmness. … Remain clam, serene, always in command of yourself.’ And this one: ‘Stillness is the altar of spirit.’ So, as the Bible also says, ‘Be still, and know …’ (Ps 46:10). Note the connection---first, you get still, then you know. True knowledge---or wisdom---comes when we are still. Yogananda wrote, ‘Each minute of life should be a divine quest.’ Yes, a quest for stillness and spiritual knowledge.

Here's a short YouTube video, containing some wonderful archival footage from 1936, in which Paramahansaji gives some advice on how to sleep correctly:

Both gurus made it perfectly clear that true spiritual knowledge was costly. ‘Until we give up the world manufactured by the ego, never can we enter the Kingdom of Heaven,’ wrote Swamiji. ‘None ever did, none ever will.’ In a similar vein, Paramahansaji wrote, ‘To humble the ego or false self is to discover one’s eternal identity.’ He also spoke of the 'old habit-bound self' and ‘false identifications’ with body sensations as well as thoughts, feelings, and other mental images. Elsewhere Paramahansaji referred to these things as ‘false egoistic limitations’---those ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’ that we mistakenly and unthinkingly believe are the ‘real’ person each one of us is. Yes, the ego or false self—which we tend to generate almost every moment of the day when we are not living mindfully---stands in the way of our seeing things-as-they-really-are. 

What, then, are we to do? Well, the ego or false self needs to be crucified, with deep humility, on the altar of mindfulness. In the words of Swamiji, ‘Put out self, forget it. … Get rid of the little “I” and let only the great “I” live. … The little separate self must die.’ Or, in the words of Paramahansaji: 'Your beliefs won't save you. ... Salvation means freedom from ego-limitation, which is imposed on the soul [mind] through attachment to body-consciousness. ... Stop dwelling on the thought of "I", "I".' In short, let go.

Of course, the same truth is contained in all sacred scripture. Here's one I like: 'The person of self-control, roaming among material objects with subjugated senses, and devoid of attraction and replusion, attains an unshakable inner calmness' (Bhagavad-Gita 2:64). Here's another---this one from the Bible: 'Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus' (Phil 2:5). And I love this prayer of Swamiji: 'May the Lord ever protect you from illusion and delusion!' That just about says it all.

So, stop holding on to your little separate selves. Let them go. Let them die on you---mindfully.


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WALKING IN THE ETERNAL NOW

It was the spiritual psychologist and teacher Vernon Howard who said, ‘Real life is a timeless renewal in the present moment.’ I like that.

I think so-called ‘time’ and ‘space’ – which are really one – are no more than mediums in which all things exist. Life is movement---ceaseless movement--- and life itself is timeless and spaceless. That much is clear. Another thing is clear---everything is contained within ‘the Now.’ All duration – or time – is total and complete in the Now. There is an ‘eternal’ quality about the Now. It is forever new. The present moment has its unfolding in the Now. The past, in the form of memories, inherited characteristics and tendencies, the karmic consequences of past actions---all that is no more than the expression of a ‘present’ reality, being a present ‘window link’ to the eternity of the Now. It’s the same as respects the future---any ideas about or hopes for the future are present ideas and hopes. Yes, the present is simply that which presents itself before us in the Now---so the present embraces past, present and future. Amazing!

My favourite Christian theologian Paul Tillich says as much in his wonderful book The Eternal Now. Tillich writes, 'The mystery of the future and the mystery of the past are united in the mystery of the present. Our time, the time we have, is the time in which we have "presence." ... Each of the modes of time has its peculiar mystery, each of them carries its peculiar anxiety. Each of them drives us to an ultimate question. There is one answer to these questions -- the eternal. There is one power that surpasses the all-consuming power of time -- the eternal ... .' 

Here are some other words I like. They really resonate with me. The words come from the influential New Thought minister, lecturer and writer Dr Emmet Fox (pictured below left), who had this to say about the 'Now':

Has it ever occurred to you that the only time you ever have is the present moment? We have all heard this said many times but probably few of us realize, even slightly, all that it implies.

It means that you can only live in the present. It means that you can only act in the present. It means that you can only experience in the present.

Above all, it means that the only thing you have to heal is the present thought. Get that right and the whole picture will change into one of harmony and joy. When some students hear this statement they may think, ‘Oh yes, I know that. I have known it for years’; but the chances are that they have not yet understood it thoroughly.

When they do, remarkable results will follow. All that you can know is your present thought, and all that you can experience is the outer expression of all the thoughts and beliefs that you are holding at the present time.

What you call the past can only be your memory of the past. The seeming consequences of past events, be they good or bad, are still but the expression of your present state of mind (including, of course, the subconscious). What are all the future things that you may be planning, or things that you may be dreading - all this is still but a present state of mind. This is the real meaning of the traditional phrase, The Eternal Now.

The only joy you can experience is the joy you experience now. A happy memory is a present joy. The only pain you can experience is the pain of the present moment. Sad memories are present pain. Get the present moment right. Realize peace, harmony, joy, good will, in the present moment. By dwelling upon these things and claiming them-and forgetting during the treatment, all other things-the past and future problems alike will take care of themselves.

If you are reading this, you are alive---although it is necessarily the case that some people are more alive than others. (Sorry, the motivational preacher in me gets carried away at times.) Also, where you are right now is where you are---right now. (Deep stuff, all this.) These things must be taken to be axiomatic. Further, we can never escape the Now, so why not live fully---and mindfully---'in' it ... now! We do not truly live in the Now when our minds are on other things. Unless we are mindfully present, from one moment to the next, we are not truly alive. Our attention---which must be choiceless and non-discriminating---has to be right here---right in the here-and-now. In addition, if we are to find any meaning or purpose in life we must find it in the eternity of the Now. The Now is omnipresence itself. No wonder mystics and holy ones have referred to God as the ‘Eternal Now’ or the ‘Eternal Presence.’ God eternally subsists and expresses Itself in Its own Being---in the Eternity of the Now---in all things and as all things.

Scott Shaw, a Zen master and teacher, has written, 'Time is a scale we created in order to measure our worldly accomplishments.' Ha! Very Zen. Yes, time – as we ordinarily understand it – is a somewhat ‘relative’ construct, but I still think it is ‘real.’ The truth is we live both in time and eternity. Now, eternity is not something we enter when we die. No, eternity is ‘something’ we are in---right now! You are part of life’s Self-expression, and life cannot die. Your body will die, and, I think, also your mind, but the life in you---well, that’s an entirely different matter. Stop identifying with your body and your mind---they are not you. Stop identifying yourself with time, for the less you think about time, and the less you concern yourself with time, the freer you will be. You can't see time. Even if you watch the hands of a clock move, you are seeing just that---movement. You are not seeing time. The fact is that if you live entirely in time, you will be afraid of death. If, however, you live fully and mindfully in the abundance of the Eternal Now, you will know that you live forever! There’s a big difference.

The disciple asked the master, ‘What is the path?’ The Zen master replied, ‘Walk on!’ Yes, the ‘meaning’ of life lies in the living---the ‘walking’---of life. Life is endless movement, and so we must walk---from one moment to the next. Any ‘meaning’ we find must and will be found in the moment-to-moment experience of the Now. Eternity is not the present time plus all the past and all the future, nor (as already mentioned) is it a postmortem experience. It is a present---indeed, ever-present---reality. In truth, there is no time after time after time. No, eternity transcends time altogether---and is despite time! The mystics and holy ones have known this for centuries---there is an ‘eternal’ element to life which moves us beyond spacetime to ‘something’ which is the very ground of our being---indeed, Being itself. No wonder Jesus exclaimed, 'Before Abraham was, I am' (Jn 8:58). He didn't say, 'I was before Abraham was.' No, he said---altering the order of the words---'I am before Abraham was.' He understood his essential and existential pre-existence, and I do not believe he was claiming that fact uniquely and exclusively for himself. No, he never did that! That was not his way. He never asserted a fact about himself which was not also applicable to---you and me! Never forget that.

Vernon Howard was right. The Eternal Now is that ‘present’ which is forever renewing itself in and as each new moment. Yes, this Eternity supersedes time itself. To understand the ‘eternity’ of the Now, you need to know that there is a ‘present’ in the present as well as a ‘present’ beyond the ‘present,’ but if you try to 'chase' the next present you will fail. Don't even bother---there is no need. This concept needs to be experienced as a present reality. Intellectual understanding only takes you so far. In a very real sense, the Eternal Now and the so-called temporal now are---one and the same! Everything is---here now! Life is eternal, and we are alive in eternity---now! What Life---God, if you like---offers us is the Eternal Now, which is anything but a time on the clock.

H P Blavatsky (pictured left), in the first volume of Isis Unveiled, said it all when she wrote, ‘The human spirit, being of the Divine, immortal Spirit, appreciates neither past nor future, but sees all things as in the present.’

No wonder the New Testament says, ‘Exhort one another daily, while it is called today’ (Heb 3:11). We live for so long as it is still---today!


NOTE. For those who may be interested, I have compiled and published online a collection of some 2012 retreat talks of mine, the volume being entitled Walking in the Eternal Now.

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Whatever arises is impermanent (anicca). Sensations (in the form of thoughts, images, ideas, feelings, bodily sensations, external physical sensations, and so forth) come and go. They wax and wane. They arise and vanish. Reality – what is – is that which comes and goes, waxes and wanes, arises and vanishes. Mindfulness enables, indeed empowers, us to live in the immediacy and directness of the arising and vanishing of that which is truly present in the now.

In order for there to be an immediacy and directness about our moment-to-moment experience of life, three events need to occur more-or-less simultaneously. Those three events are ... touch (or sensation), awareness, and mindfulness. If those three events are not simultaneously experienced, then the chances are that what will be experienced will be nothing but ... the past! Yes, the reality of the immediate experience will subside. Indeed, it will die! Any consciousness of it will be in the form of an after-thought or a memory, as we glance back to re-experience, and (sadly, yes) evaluate, a past experience.

No wonder we talk about people who live in the past! However, we all do it when we are not mindful of events in the immediacy and directness of their arising and vanishing. There is one thing – more than all others – which keeps alive and reinforces that false, illusory sense of ‘self’, and that is when moment-to-moment sensation is experienced not as something which is happening, of which we are mindfully aware, but as something which is happening to ‘me,’ or which ‘I’ am suffering ... that is, as something being ‘inflicted’ upon us.

Don’t let reality die on you. Don’t experience it as a past event. Let your mind penetrate sensation, not by anticipating it. No, that is not the way to go. Nor should you constantly reflect upon or evaluate sensations as they arise and vanish. That is also not the way to go. Let each sensation arise and vanish of its own accord. Watch it closely, without analysis, judgment, evaluation or condemnation – indeed, watch it, without thinking any thought associated or connected with the sensation. Otherwise, you will instantly lose the immediacy, directness and actuality of the experience.

Shakyamuni Buddha advised us to observe and watch closely ... that is, mindfully ... whatever is occurring in time and space in the here-and-now, in the moment, from one moment to the next. Not only watch, but the Buddha went on to say, ‘and firmly and steadily pierce it.’ Pierce the reality of each here-and-now moment-to-moment experience. Only then can you truly say you are alive and no longer living in the past.

You may ask, ‘How am I to have any insight into what is happening if I don’t reflect upon, analyse, evaluate and judge what is happening?’ I say to you, ‘How will you ever have any insight while you continue to do those things?’ The piercing of reality of which the Buddha spoke is itself a penetration into the core and nature of reality, that is, into the arising and vanishing of each moment-to-moment spatio-temporal occurrence. That penetration is itself moment-to-moment ... but it is insight into the nature of reality as and when it unfolds from one moment to the next. You can do no better than that! We are told to ‘seize the day’ (carpe diem), and that is not bad advice, but you can still do better than that. I say to you, seize the moment ... pierce it!

So, stay mindfully aware, in order for you to have immediate and direct access to the real. Observe. Watch closely. Pierce the moment!

Calligraphy

‘Open one's eyes and penetrate the heart of matters,
like the monkey's golden eyes did.’

Signed in Japanese, ink [inscribed], Kôju Sokuhi Sho [written by Kôju Sokuhi]
[with two artists’ seals]. Not dated. Edo (Tokugawa) period 1615–1868.

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