Saturday, January 03, 2004

I meditation class we are supposed to be concentrating on "be empty, be now"  meaning, live in the present.  So, during meditation this morning, I had this horrifying vision of the future as a dark squashed place devoid of sensation where we spend most of our waking moments.  And in the same moment, I observed my own brain wanting to always be living in the future, which in my vision was pretty close to hell.  Also, in our class, we are supposed to try and gaze with loving acceptance on our thoughts and feelings, on our reactions to the world, and so I tried that and felt a wave of respect and sympathy for my brain always wanting to live in the future. Even though the future is a featureless place devoid of dimension and color, our brave brains or thoughts want to rush there and serve as an advance guard for the flesh.  We should commend these little agents, with their backpacks and spy gear as they live so much of their existence in the future. They deserve medals.  They deserve our loving attention, especially when we meditate.  We should try to keep them in our loving gaze as long as possible and not dismiss them with some epithet like  "worrying"  or "planning" as if that is a great evil.  Obviously, these little friends can't be in the drivers seat all the time, or we would always live in the future instead of enjoying the present and we would miss the kingdom of heaven which is laid out before us right now on the earth.   12:10:14 PM    comment []