Living in the Moment

 by: Rose Burrows

 An elderly aunt, in the process of preparing tea for her favorite niece, hums along gaily.  Spontaneously, she stops in her tracks, and with a perplexed look about her, she proclaims: "I'm so happy..."  She pauses again and shaking her head in bewilderment she muses: "I don't know why..."  She picks up the tune where she had interrupted it and goes merrily about her business. To her own amazement, she sees her joy is not beholden unto anything outside of her own precious heart.  Her joy was not triggered by events or people or things, it burst out magically from within herself.   In this very moment, right here, right this instant, she is identifying with the joy, she is the joy. Can anyone add anything to make her Joy more complete?   No, and neither can anyone take it away from her.

             Suppose a storm blows in from the north and now she feels pain or fear or anger or self-pity, or resentment...some form of discontent, what went wrong? Is her peace threatened, is she then vulnerable, does her peace crumble?  It depends totally on her own reactions.  It is time for Aunty to check her love barometer and take her identity pill.

            If she judges the event to be good or bad, emotions will creep in like a thief in the night,  she will identify with the emotion and let the fox steal the grapes.  Whatever she felt, she judged that feeling to be either good or evil.   Having established its rightness or wrongness, she gets into the emotion of it, wallows in it, identifies with it. The emotion is a result of the judgment. Now, she cannot feel peaceful because she has disallowed the feeling and the emotion has taken over. 

            She does not have to change or reform herself, to eliminate her imperfections and become a better person, or to get rid of hassles or live a particular lifestyle or religion to live peacefully in this world.   No, that would be denying or avoiding herself.  She/you are perfect this very moment, she is perfect with her imperfections and so are you.  We are not speaking of good humanhood, she is not required to try to make herself more of this or something less than that.  She can begin right here, right now where she is and be at peace with the feeling, be at peace with the pain or with the fear, et al and know that there is no power in it.  It isn't necessary to be in a quiet place, we are talking about the peace that comes when you are free from struggle and you are quiet within. You can be at peace on the battlefield, right there in the front lines.  Acknowledge your feeling without judgement and peace will be quickly restored.  Nothing is outside of peace, peace is in everything, peace is everything.

          Does this mean we are doomed to be doormats?  Not at all.  You can throw someone out of your house, just never throw them out of your heart...check your love barometer...take your identity pill...  If you take someone to court for the sake of vengeance, you are stabbing yourself in the heart, if you do it for a different motive and are not attached to the outcome, your peace is not disturbed.  If they ask for your shirt, give them your coat also.  You will be amazed at the miracles that happen when you are true to the peace and joy that is already established in your heart.