faceNOW
“Be here now. Be here now. Be here now. Be here now. Be here now. Be here now. Be here now. Be here now.”
-Inspired by Ram Dass
I believe in the power of the moment. I believe in its transcendent nature, its ineffability. I believe that everything is accessible through this vessel; the moment is the vehicle to the divine essence of all that we know. But I also believe that we don’t give ourselves enough credit. We don’t acknowledge the infiniteness of our beings. We emphasize ‘mindfulness’ and ‘present-ness’, but in doing so, we tend to dwell within the confines of our specific characters. For example, I am often “busy meditating” or “busy being Nick Simon”–I take this all on and trip myself out thinking that it’s all true. In this way, the way society perpetuates identity and self-definition, I think we limit ourselves unnecessarily. We trip ourselves out. The moment encompasses a limitless expanse that matches the limitless expanse of who we are. I invite you to take refuge in your divine nature as part of the ecstatic motion of the universe. Give yourself the credit you deserve. Bask in the all pervasive light of your nature — the light that is free of conceptualization and limitation, the light that is the real you. I long to see all beings realize and take refuge in the innate freedom that we all have. We deserve it; it’s the most profound and precious gift of our human incarnations, and it exists free of the societal game we play. In this moment, free of all illusions, delusions, and confusions, what we do is precisely what the whole universe is doing.
“You are something the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing.
The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real, deep down you is the whole universe.”
-Alan Watts, The Real You
Within this all-encompassing moment lies the all-encompassing truth. The depths of hell and the heights of heaven– they all dwell in the now. As Ram Dass says, “it’s perfect and it stinks.” All too often, I find myself fixated on one extreme or the other — either I am burning in the flames of hell or the heat of the sun, but either way, I am far from balanced. The notion that happiness lies in avoiding what’s uncomfortable to hide in bliss, while widely embraced, has many holes. In any case, for those concerned with ‘waking up,’ it seems that the only vessel to do so is through truth — the all-encompassing truth, heaven and hell united, that I spoke about above. As we navigate our way through our lives, our common worldly predicaments, acknowledging this paradigm is absolutely crucial if we are to thoughtfully and heart-fully address the areas that need help.
“It’s Perfect and It Stinks” Sulfuric mud-pools, New Zealand
Acknowledging that what goes on in the physical world is a reflection of our consciousness can be very profound. The issues of the physical world today are no exception to this perception. Waking up is a double-edge sword — as we awaken to the afflictions of the physical world, we are also waking up to our own mental afflictions (and vice versa). In this way, every one of us is capable of awakening. In the same way that we choose not to passively allow ourselves to suffer unnecessarily, it is antithetical to act this way regarding the world — the ultimate extension of ourselves. Passively existing in this world is not zero-sum! It is within a very complex system in which passivity equals the perpetuation of suffering. Perpetuating, or even just allowing systems that create unnecessary suffering, is interchangeable with maintaining, or even cultivating, suffering within ourselves.
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
-Martin Luther King Jr, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence
This blog is not meant to be a downer. It’s intended to be the exact opposite. In facing the reality of now, in all its forms, we are choosing to embark on a path of awakening. It’s all here, now — the most profound “present” we can be given.
face IT — we have work to do. face NOW — let’s get to work!