If all we have is now, this moment. And all we have to experience this here and now are our senses. As we experience our lives in the present we often encounter things which don't please us. Then we start letting it bother us and we worry and start thinking about how we can change or improve - solve, maybe - this situation. And we are back to "suffering" which in time becomes unbearable.
The way out of this trap is acceptance - to grow to accept the world being exactly as it is at this moment. Now acceptance doesn't mean we have to agree with something in order to accept it; acceptance means that we face up to and acknowledge something - in a way, the opposite of denial where we try to banish something from our awareness. Nor does it imply a fatalistic endurance of the causes of what's causing us discomfort or pain.
As soon as we start to think about the situation we are in, we have made it worse. We're certain to face anxiety and dissatisfaction when we think what we see as difficulties. The epigram "Pain is unavoidable; misery is optional" talks directly to this - the more we think about our difficulties the sooner we become miserable. The thoughts distract us from actually experiencing our life, from being what we truly are.
If we are frightened, we have to experience the fear. If we're upset we have to experience being unhappy. When we think, we try to avoid the feelings which are bothering us and avoid the pain. By observing ourselves we increase our awareness of how we behave when we are discontented.
The more I am present in the now the more quickly I see my mistake. Uncomfortable feelings had the power to make me upset for weeks, if not months. As I practised living in the now, that time reduced. Sometimes - but only very occasionally - I can experience my upset as it happens without being distracted from the here and now. So that now it seems my difficulties are "carved" in the air rather than indelibly into rock.
The way out of this trap is acceptance - to grow to accept the world being exactly as it is at this moment. Now acceptance doesn't mean we have to agree with something in order to accept it; acceptance means that we face up to and acknowledge something - in a way, the opposite of denial where we try to banish something from our awareness. Nor does it imply a fatalistic endurance of the causes of what's causing us discomfort or pain.
As soon as we start to think about the situation we are in, we have made it worse. We're certain to face anxiety and dissatisfaction when we think what we see as difficulties. The epigram "Pain is unavoidable; misery is optional" talks directly to this - the more we think about our difficulties the sooner we become miserable. The thoughts distract us from actually experiencing our life, from being what we truly are.
If we are frightened, we have to experience the fear. If we're upset we have to experience being unhappy. When we think, we try to avoid the feelings which are bothering us and avoid the pain. By observing ourselves we increase our awareness of how we behave when we are discontented.
The more I am present in the now the more quickly I see my mistake. Uncomfortable feelings had the power to make me upset for weeks, if not months. As I practised living in the now, that time reduced. Sometimes - but only very occasionally - I can experience my upset as it happens without being distracted from the here and now. So that now it seems my difficulties are "carved" in the air rather than indelibly into rock.
Or indeed, into clay?
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