Do you Believe in Staying in the Now?

I just read some more on this. Writer didn't seem to realize this practice is thousands of years old.

But one interesting thing he talked about was the gap between the conscious mind and the unconscous mind. Turn the mind off and slip into this gap and WaLa - instant peace.

He said he stayed there for about two years and didn't do much of anything else. Sat on a bench and was peaceful.

Odd about that.

I'm a mystic and meditate a lot. But I have serious misgivings about that practice. That gap could be just another oddity of the mind.

It's interesting that animals stay in the "now" all of the time. And we don't stay there at all.

I don't know if this means anything at all. Just another wierd question about my practice.

I know there are people who are hermits and live away from the world, and for all I know they are in samadi all the time. Others have a path where they are in the world and not of it--to me, this is always a balancing game. I've had glimpses of the Now, usually in ceremony, but not always. That those glimpses have given me tools by which I can live my life, helping to sort the Real from the unreal, I would say they are useful.

Sounds to me that your path is similar to mine--staying in the world. Anyway, hope my musings help you a bit. Salaam.

Forget the past,
It's gone, and you can't change it.

Forget the future,
It hasn't arrived, and you can't predict it.

Forget the present,
I didn't buy you one.

:thumbsup:

Good one, though. :)

We must deal with time and space, because we've been put onto this earthly plane for 50 or 90 years; we have to plan, delay gratification, learn from the past, etc.

But at the same time we have to be like the animals and stay "in the now" as far as our spiritual awareness is concerned. So we end up in daily meditation or practice.

For me, everything seems to come back around to the Middle Way.

It's that whole mind thing I wonder about. The Now is a pretty good place to be - especially when you have lots of troubles. It can make all the difference in how you manage to get through stuff.

I'm not sure exactly what "hermits" do. Since they are up there all alone I guess we may never really know for sure.

I could not meditate all the time. I physically could not do it.

And if I meditate too much I start having real problems telling which plain I'm on. This side and that side begin to get all mixed up.

I worry about just going crazy and thinking its some high mental state.

and wander around as "sleep walkers." The cure for this condition is focus on the here and now, and to concentrate on one's senses and you'll discover your calm inner-self. I recall that his disciple, Pieter Ospensky, called this "active mentation."

It's all as old as the wind.

Did I make that up. I remember that he thought he could just get in and drive. And he almost killed himself when he wrecked. But what an interesting character he was.

Not surprised he crashed - good thing he didn't try that with an airplane.

Indeed, G had a very interesting life, including a circle that included a lot of White Russian and Baltic proto-Fascists. Anti-Bolsheviks were also prominent among the Theosophers, and Crowley's followers, as well.

What is it about the esoteric and the Right-wing? Until the spread of the leisure class after World War Two, these metaphysical groups tended to overwhelmingly attract individualists with a lot of leisure time. This may still be the case. I have the feeling that progressives have been a minority within such movements for a long time.

I find that simple chores like washing dishes, gardening, etc. are perfect opportunities to practice this. Calms me down, makes me really enjoy what I am doing. Brings peace.

When we did centering prayer at my Church it was on Saturdays and lasted 12 hours - and I really felt better afterward.

But it is not a Church Service like Morning prayer, or Evening Prayer. It is just Eastern Meditation with the alternative name of Centering prayer being used.

IT is interesting that when a dog is completely happy and content it just sits and watches the world go by, while a human doing the same thing is said to be depressed.

And I tend to agree such actions (in the extreme as in over 2 years on a park bench) in humans reflect depression. We humans are really happier when we have something to do, and are doing it, IMHO.

I'm just playing with this. The Bhudda sat for years - I think.

I don't know what is right and what isn't.

calm and refreshing when I was doing it, and when I do a few hours now.

But if it made him blissfull - whatever floats your boat!

:-)

But he is writing as a "great teacher" of Westerners.

I'm not really sure there has ever been a great Zen teacher that was a Westerner. I know there have been a lot who tried to be.

I must be in a very cynical mood today. It is so gray and foggy and dreary here. It always affects me.

:freak: