Each Present Moment

Each Present Moment

"Lucky to be walking a Path

that finds peace in the arising

and passing away of each

present moment.

Regardless of how things

work out, or don't."

—Bhadra (6th Century BCE Buddhist nun)

Ever-seeking for the present moment on my inward Path is a worthy journey. I am accustomed to my usual orientation of achievement and accomplishment, how I have been raised in the West. This poem suggests, however, that there are other qualities to consider: luck, peace, and things working out or not.

True success is quite different from the usual definition. Being on the Way means there are no failures or successes. Measures of failure and success anchor us to sleep, attach us to the world of the lower self. In the tradition of the Fourth Way, my Teacher calls this mechanical state, identification and considers it the point of departure from which I am “arising and passing away.” The author of this ancient poem from the East might call it attachment, but it is the same thing.

Life just happens and screams for my internal attention. My train of thought often carries me onto a train track of distraction. All the cravings for creature comforts, the ups and downs of daily occurrences, and the seemingly endless swirling of preoccupations with the imaginary take me away from what is before me, each present moment.

These noises and charades of my subjectivity rob me of the luck and peace of being present. My opinions, political debates and endless commentaries on the troubled world around me borrow the tranquility of my Divine Presence, like a misplaced overdue library book. Walt Whitman wrote, “The mockeries are not you.” My Higher Self is above the finger-pointing and finger-waving.

Presence is a book that has no check out or due date. Higher Centers are available all the time if we can resist being swept aboard our usual train of distraction and justification. I am not a passenger, I am the observer. My sensations, emotions, and thoughts either aid me on my Path, or they deviate me from my Higher Self. Do not get on that train, let it pass away to the present moment.

When I became silent I could see that my thoughts were the veil that separated me from God. —Bayazid

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Jean-Leon Gerome, Veiled Circassian Lady (Orientalist Museum, Doha, Qatar)