Trouble with Now

So what do we do here in this world? I wonder about that. What is this whole situation here? Really! We do all these things. But what is all this about? It’s an incredible question. We will be here the rest of today and tomorrow and we hope for many, many days. So what do we do here? What do we do with the rest of the time that we have here?

All the other things that we talk about are beautiful things but what are we going to do today, tomorrow, three or four days from now, and four or five days after that? Some of the purists will claim that thinking about that is living in the future and we are in the presentso why are we discussing it?

All these things run in my mind with the purity of the now teachings. We have to live now. Now is all that we have. This is true. Now is all that we have. But at the same time I have a feeling that tomorrow is coming!

It is magnificent to appreciate everything right now.

But tomorrow is also coming and the day after that.

Eventually death is also coming. What about that?

We have all the yesterdays. The yesterdays are important, too. If it weren’t for some yesterdays, we wouldn’t have any memories of anythingugly or beautiful! So why do away with yesterdays? Why do away with tomorrows? Some people say that we have only now. But then, when we try to define now, it is just a fraction of an instant between before and after. What does that leave us with?

All of us have to decide what is best for ourselves.

For myself, there are yesterdays, there are tomorrows, and there is now. I have all three. I have my yesterdays. I have some beautiful memories of yesterdays, and I have some memories of yesterdays that I don’t like. I have plans that I make for the future which allow me to look forward to things in my life. Maybe they will happen and maybe they won’t, but I want to have plans. This may not agree with many teachings, but it is how I want to live my life. So I have to be careful in balancing this stuff.

It’s just like everything else.

It’s a balance of things.

I could sit someplace and visualize the future for the greater part of a day. I could think about living in the future, the future, the future. But that doesn’t seem to be such a good idea because, obviously, I’m not doing anything now. Or I could be sitting and thinking about my past life and all the different things that have taken place. I could find myself thinking about events that bother me. I could spend an exorbitant amount of time with those particular things if I let myself. I could keep thinking about those things and keep thinking about them and therefore be living in the past, the past, the past. Or I can take the position that I’m going to try to live now, now, now, now. Then I would make no plans of any kind for the future. I wouldn’t plan to go someplace for a vacation. I wouldn’t buy a ticket. I wouldn’t go to school to study something to improve my life. I wouldn’t do anything because there is only now so what’s the point? All these things require a balance.

If we are honest with ourselves, we know

when we are spending too much time on one spot.

We can fool other people but not ourselves. Especially when we are spending too much time in things that are negatively affecting our lives, then something has to be done. The time comes that we have to say this is enough.

Enough exploring and rehearsing past history over and over again! Enough worrying about unknown future circumstances over and over again! There has to be a balance. And when we get thrown off balance, because we will get thrown off balance from time to time, we have to be kind to ourselves and forgive ourselves.

So, we have today and we have tomorrow. Hopefully, we will have many, many days in this most magnificent gift that the Beloved has given us.