I find it so interesting how much collective emphasis is placed on the passing of a single moment of time each year on December 31st at 11:59 PM. There are 1440 minutes in a day, 525,600 minutes in a year. But, it's just that one moment as it passes in our time zone that is able to actually hold our attention for 60 seconds as the Earth completes another full orbit around the sun. Isn't it amazing that the vast majority of moments that pass each year are given so little attention when happiness can only be experienced in the present moment? Happiness in the past is only a memory that will likely only create longing for those days long past. Happiness in the future is just a day dream arising from dissatisfaction. These are just vexations. Happiness can only be experience here in the present!
Even so, we only seem to really emphasize mindfulness, being fully in the present moment, for this meager 60 seconds out of the 31,536,000 seconds in a year!
Most of us spend the first two thirds of our life looking forward to future experiences. We get so conditioned by living in expectation of the circumstances that we have decided are necessary for our happiness that by the time causes and conditions bring about these circumstances, we have already conceived of other circumstances we deem also necessary for our happiness! Consequently, we spend almost no time in the present moment appreciating just what is here but live in constant anticipation of an illusory time when we will truly happy and therefore fully present. We are living our lives as phantoms, not truly alive but trapped in a dream.
When we are truly happy, we are deeply satisfied, we are naturally content and grateful for what is present right here and now. There is no tendency for our mind or heart to look beyond the present moment other than to share it with others. Many people don't realize the opposite is also true. When we cultivate the habit of remaining in the present moment, we find happiness, contentment, deep satisfaction in whatever we are doing.
During group meditation sessions, I often remind participants that enlightenment can never be found in the future and never in the past. Full awakening can only happen in the present moment. This realization itself is a blossoming of enlightenment. When we fully understand this, each moment of each day is blessed. Everything we do brings joy and satisfaction. Each passing moment has all the richness we could ever desire. It is through living a life of such moments that great poetry is born, where insight reveals the tremendous beauty and perfection that has always been there but was missed, as in Blake's Auguries of Innocence:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Let's resolve to make 11:59 PM the starting point for our practice of mindfulness during this next orbit around the sun. Just like in sitting meditation, when we find our mind moving away from following the breath or having the full awareness of the body just sitting, we gently, with great kindness and compassion, bring the mind back to the present moment, on just what we are doing here and now. Cultivating mindfulness in this way will make 2012 one of the most deeply spiritual, rewarding and enriching years of our lives.
Wish you the very best in your practice in 2012. May the happiness, joy and equanimity latent in each moment be fully experienced and shared with others!
Here's a video from Venerable Chanmyay Sayadaw you might find very helpful.
With Metta,
Barry
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