The Power Within

When was the last time we can remember actually washing up? Not just the mechanical motion of scrubbing and rinsing, but to truly be present in the moment to experience every aspect of it. While the exterior filth is cleansed, the mind, for the most part, has raced miles ahead carrying out chores and other activities in the future.

Life has moulded itself into a series of guesstimated futuristic events without our ever really experiencing the present. We’re here, but we are constantly distracted by how we need to be there, at some later point in time. And when we arrive at the ‘there’, we are then consumed by the thought of how we need to meet a commitment some place else – thus, never really being alive to the present moment.

It comes as no surprise that when complaints about meditation are put forward to the Master, the advice given, more often than not, hints towards casting off any thoughts of results, that is, some outcome in the future. Thoughts are the ever changing canvas that the mind exploits to paint millions of pictured scenarios, calling them the future, which may or may not ever come to be.

Thoughts are also the raw and primary food for the ego. The ego, a false yet dynamically powerful aspect, is born from the illusionary identity that who we are is different from our source. The ego employs time as the gatekeeper to prevent any entrance into the realms of reality. With every futile thought and circular analysis, the mind further empowers the ego causing its make-believe identity to become more distinct. Clarity of the moment is lost as predictions of the future are confused with the present.

It seems transparent now why the saints have cautioned us to do away with all the procrastination and start taking action. Actions can only be taken in the present. But what actions are they referring to? The action is not just sitting for meditation but rather in focused meditation which must be endeavoured sincerely, encompassing and fulfilling the Sant Mat way of life.

The mystics further reveal that the secret lies in learning to witness each moment with a sense of presence and awareness. Being with it. Not resisting it, and not judging it. Just accepting it. And this can only be done now! Not tomorrow, not a little later, not in the next minute, but now – where there is neither recollection of the past, nor speculation of the future. It is in the now that the mind voids itself of all thought and instils in itself a deep and sanctified silence. In this state of total stillness and complete awareness, the present moment – now – then becomes the portal of entry to the Power within.

The present time is most precious;
  now is the accepted time,
  now is the day of salvation.
It is sad that you do not employ your time better,
  when you may win eternal life hereafter.
_{Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ}