Being in the Moment

 

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Being in the Moment

The mind is always either in the past or in the future. It cannot be in the present; it is absolutely impossible for the mind to be in the present. When we are in the present, the mind is not there because mind means thinking. How can we think in the present? We can think about the past; it has already become part of the memory; the mind can work it out. We can think about the future; it is not yet there; the mind can dream about it.

Mind can do two things: either it can move into the past; there is space enough to move, the vast space of the past - one can go on and on and on. Or the mind can move into the future; again, vast space, no end to it — one can imagine and imagine and dream. But how can mind function in the present? It has no space for the mind to make any movement.

The present is just a dividing line, that’s all. It has no space. It divides the past and the future; just a dividing line. We can be in the present but we cannot think; for thinking, space is needed. Thoughts need space, they are just like things - remember this. Thoughts are subtle things, they are material; thoughts are not spiritual, because the dimension of the spiritual starts only when there are no thoughts. Thoughts are material things, very subtle, and every material thing needs space. We cannot be thinking in the present; the moment we start thinking it is already the past.

A beautiful flower in the garden and we say, “A beautiful rose”; now we are not with this rose this moment; it is already a memory. When the flower is there and we are also there, both present to each other, how can we think? What can we think? How is thinking possible? There is no space for it. The space is so narrow — in fact there is no space at all - that we and the flower cannot even exist as two because there is not enough space for two, only one can exist.

That’s why in a deep presence we are the flower and the flower has become us. We are also a thought — the flower is also a thought in the mind. When there is no thinking, who is the flower and who is the one who is observing? The observer becomes the observed. Suddenly boundaries are lost. Suddenly we have penetrated, penetrated into the flower and the flower has penetrated into us. Suddenly we are not two - just one exists.

The whole world moves, existence moves, into eternity; mind moves in time. Existence is moving into the depth and the height, and mind moves backwards and forwards. Mind moves horizontally: that is sleep. If we can move vertically, that is awareness. Be in the moment. Bring your total being in the moment. Don’t allow the past to interfere, and don’t allow the future to come in.