Our Moving into Meditation class explored what it means to live with a trusting heart. We drew inspiration from Jack Kornfield’s book, No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love and Joy Right Where You Are. In Chapter 4, The Eternal Present, Jack encourages us to live in the present moment. We were moved by excerpts from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Robin is a Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, a poetic writer and passionate advocate of a much more generous and expansive vision of relatedness between humans and the natural world. If this notion inspires you, listen to her On Being interview, The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life.
Guided Relaxation
Welcome. Let yourself be at ease. . . present in timeless loving awareness . . . Let yourself become the witness to all things. . . . Be relaxed and sense yourself at the still point of the turning world. . . . Allowing experience and sensation, thought and sound appear in your awareness. Perhaps poignant memories, joys and pains spontaneously appear and dissolve . . . . arise and subside . . . as continuous waves of experience.
Experience is always now, the eternal present. Even as children playing we knew how to step outside of time. . . . Now we can see how time, clocks, calendars, future, past, plans and memories are all ideas created by the mind. We can shift our attention and come to timeless loving awareness . . . Sense the vastness. In the timeless universe life renews itself again and again. It is not your body, it is eternity’s body, known by eternity’s awareness. . . . Trust. Resting in timelessness, naturally knowing how to respond, create, embody. . . . Lao Tzu counsels us to: Remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself.
In her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, botanist, ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer writes:
Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.
And what are these gifts? How do you look at a flower or allow your eyes to roam over an open field, trees, clouds and birds? . . . How many sunrises have you been gifted? How did you receive these gifts? Were you able to let go of busyness and planning and abide in the timeless reality of our natural world? How have you experienced nature? How have you experienced mystery?
Jack Kornfield reminds us that life sings through us all . . . with mindfulness we can be fully present to great beauty and tragedy that marks every human life. We can embrace the blessings of the life we’ve been given. It takes only a moment to break the spell of time, to free ourselves from the constant push of doing and planning. Our minds fill with tasks to do or stress over past mistakes. How often do you feel rushed? Do we ever feel there is enough time?
We can relax in the present moment – it is our home. Now that you are at home, feel your responsive being . . . it is happening right now – opening to what is. . . . Our creativity often waits for us in the mystery beyond time. Reflect on the ordinary miracles that have blessed you in the string of present moments that is your life: moments with family and friends, heart opening music, uplifting works of art, magical words of poetry that capture the simple and the wonder of now.
Novelist Storm Jameson explains:
There is only on world, the world pressing against you at this minute. There is only one minute in which you are alive, this minute here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.
Our busyness and distractions bind us and blind us. We cloud and numb life’s hurts. The painful feelings of anger, depression, confusion, loneliness and fear linger – waiting for our kind attention. Our busyness and distractions entangle and entrap our capacity to love. We love in the present – in the place where we are – with the ones who are present.
Jack reminds us that:
. . . Living in the present is the ground of liberation. But it is difficult; living in the present opens you to the full measure of life. . . . Mindfulness and loving awareness are the antidotes, the gateways to freedom. When you recognize exactly what is present, even if it’s pain, anxiety, anger or grief, you can acknowledge it gently, as if bowing to it. As you do, you will feel love grow and the space of ever present loving awareness, which can hold it all, now. . . . . . Become centered, still. Step out of time. You can do this. Wherever you are, with loving awareness, you can meet the full measure of human life, and trust that your heart is big enough to open to it.
Perhaps even now you can feel the opening – feel yourself being nourished and supported by the world around you. Can you take sanctuary in this awareness?
Robin Wall Kimmerer writes:
Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.
Perhaps you are similarly drawn to give and receive – to experience the reciprocity that animates all of nature. We are not separate. We are not alone. In our mindfulness practice – in movement and in stillness – we can realize this truth – we inter-connect, we inter-depend – we are life unfolding. We are naturally drawn to nurture and tend all our relations – our earth home.
A Tibetan poet writes:
One hand on the beauty of the world,
One hand on the suffering of all beings,
And two feet grounded in the present moment.
This movement . . . here together . . . sensing the warmth of our bodies, feeling subtle expression of mood and the pulsing of our heart. We can cherish this moment – it is a treasure arising from timeless awareness and the courage we bring to meet the mystery. The next moment may bring grief or joy. The present moment is a gift we give ourselves. Jack writes:
. . . Each step, each word, each breath is an invitation. Give yourself the gift of silence, of listening. Go out into the woods, the mountains, walk along a meandering stream or the ever changing sea. Look closely at a hundred kinds of steady, leafing trees. Follow the delicate flight of birds. Marvel at the strange giant of human bipeds. . . . When you are in difficulty, remember the world beckons to you with a bigger story. It invites you to vastness and freedom.