Focus on what is happening than on what was happening or what
will happen.
Distractions in our Life come from two sources. The
past. And the future. There’s no worry about the present moment. Because you
are in it already! There’s no choice with the present. This is where we can be
happy.
But while we want to be happy, we don’t recognize the
opportunity to be happy when it comes in front of us. The truth is we don’t know
how to be happy. We like to indulge in self-pity and in worrying. So, we
conveniently exercise the debilitating choice of slipping into the past or
moving into an imaginary future state. Neither of which is in our control. The
past is over, it HAS HAPPENED. It is dead. The future is still TO
HAPPEN, it is the unknown. Anything can happen and not necessarily what you
imagine. So, stay in the present. Stay here knowing fully well that you CANNOT
stop the worries from coming to you. What you can do is STOP WORRYING!
Worries are like waves. Their job is to keep coming to
the shore. Come, crash, ebb, recede, resurge, come, crash, ebb….this is a
non-stop cycle. So will your worries keep coming to you, non-stop. Their job is
to keep coming at you. You will have to learn to be unmoved. Don’t try to be
untouched though. Because the nature of a worry is like the wave, it will
drench you if you are standing at the shore. But don’t be influenced by it.
Remain unmoved. And that you can achieve by focusing on what is happening.
Worrying from a guilt or a burden from the past or fearing the unknown future
is going to take away the beauty of the moment you are in.
There’s this Zen story called ‘Cliffhanger’ that should help us understand the power of being in
the NOW. One day while walking
through the wilderness a man came across a vicious tiger in his path. He ran
for his Life but soon came to the edge of a high cliff. Desperate to save
himself, he climbed down a vine and dangled over the precipice. As he hung
there, two mice appeared from a hole in the cliff and began gnawing at the
vine. Suddenly, he noticed, on the vine, a plump wild strawberry. He plucked it
and popped it in his mouth. It was incredibly delicious, he thought, and enjoyed
himself! Imagine, the man had the following options: 1. Continue to hate the
Tiger, his past, at the moment, that had, in a way, led him to his present. 2.
Fear the mice for what they were about to do to the vine and worry about the
future__for his Life. 3. Eat the strawberry and celebrate the moment’s
delicious opportunity. He chose the third. This is the secret of intelligent
living. To make the right choice.
Remember:
Life’s offering us delicious strawberries even as the tigers from our past are
chasing us and the mice are chewing away and possibly ruining what we imagine
to be our future. Know that the tigers can’t come down to the present__they are
only there to haunt us. And that the mice can’t do anything to stop you from
enjoying the strawberry, if you decide to eat them! The simple non-negotiable
reality is that if you want to be happy, you must eat the strawberry, you must ACCEPT
WHAT IS. And
if you don’t like strawberries, then, please stop complaining about the lack of
happiness in your Life!
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