The Zen Rebirth of Presence
As a principle, being present is pretty simple and straightforward to understand, however, it is not as easy to personify it. In philosophies like Zen, the present moment is the only space where things actually happen. Think about it, the things that happened to you or around you yesterday are in the past and now only exist as memories. Tomorrow’s possibilities, while exciting because it allows you the opportunity to see change, is not tangible as it has not occurred. So, that leaves the right here and now. It’s sad because we spend most of our lives living everywhere but in the right here and now. We spend our attention worrying about the what-ifs and the “what-to-do-next” paradigm or lamenting over what has been done to us or around us in the past. Ironically, the rare pause that we need to self-sustain is found in the presence of the present.
Returning to the self in the moment that has been abandoned in chasing the distant past and the not-yet-existing future, requires the kind of rebirth that places survival ahead of “no longer existent” or “non-existent” concept. Presence reconnects the “you” to your life in the present moment. In other words, we often lose ourselves with the images of things that we can no longer experience other than through a memory or a vivid imagination. As such we lose our awareness of the moment where true wisdom resides. This is a concept often discussed in Zen awareness. Zen awareness, defined as a state of effortless presence beyond discriminating thoughts in order to experience life and reality as it truly is. In other words, it speaks to the plain or simple type of attention that has eliminated the need to fix, to change, or to attach experiences to. We just need to arrive.
All these words, arriving and presence and the being in the moment, I don’t mean to toss them around so casually that they lose meaning. For if we lose the contextual significance, we run the risk of landing back where we started. So, maybe this little piece will help. Presence begins right here and right now…in this moment. When we suffer or are unhappy in this context, it’s often because of not knowing. In our minds we tend to make baseless assumptions, we begin to catastrophize events with unfounded evidence, or even worse, we create complete distortions of reality by making things up entirely. Keeping our thoughts to the present moment dissolves those temptations. What we find in the aftermath is truth and unfiltered honesty. When we learn to accept, acknowledge, and welcome this type of decisive attitude and approach, we welcome the kind rebirth of your life stepping out of the past, mentally preparing for the future, but living in the moment.
Not to say doing this will make everything better, and please understand this reality, there is no magic ball or sorcerer’s wand. Whatever was supposed to happen is going to happen regardless, but at least we have better positioning to stand on if something less desirable occurs.
Zen philosophy and awareness teach that the present moment is always enough. It can satisfy all the needs and desires we can conjure up. But we need to release the previous conceptions we have been brought up to believe in when it’s appropriate. Our minds are like a river and require continual motion to function. Despite that continual motion, it is a practice that can be infused into any style of life. Meditation is not required, only willingness and patience. And after considerable practice, a new way of living awareness is shaped in ingrained into your everyday life. While it may not solve the world’s problems with immediate action, it allows you to view the world’s problems with a different, more all-inclusive pair of eyes. The awakening this arouses doesn’t happen in life’s grand moments. In fact, it’s bent on discovery in the ordinary and mundaness of normal life. Use this if you are attracted to a life that finds beautiful things in simplicity, peace in overlooked (and underlooked) areas, and an existence filled with the bounty of clarity.
Stay mindful…
Rebirth
