#3 Notice the Moment

Reading from Wednesday, April 17, 2013 yoga class

Moving through the zen commandments... today #3 NOTICE THE MOMENT.   Thank you Dean Sluyter for this book and your wisdom, humor and courage.

"To embrace eternity instead, we can start by changing some of the habits we've developed to distract ourselves from it.  Don't automatically turn on the radio every time you get in the car, don't turn on the TV the moment you find yourself home alone, don't read the newspaper every time you get on the exercise machine, don't light a cigarette or pick up a magazine every time you find yourself waiting.  There is no waiting; there's only being.

On our journey through life, we think of, say, stopping for gas or going to the bathroom as time out from the main event, from our "real" activities.  We think of the time we spend walking down the corridor from Office A to Office B as intermission, dead time, mere connective tissue.  But there is no intermission.  The show never stops.  Every moment is the only moment.

Guy walks into a bar and sees a big sign: FREE BEER TOMORROW.  So he comes back the next day and asks for his free beer.  The bartender points to the sign and says, "Whatsa matter, buddy, can't you read?  It says, 'Free Beer Tomorrow.'"  It's never the future.  It's never the past.  The ancient Greeks had no idea they were ancient.  They experienced themselves as living now, on the cutting edge of modernity, wearing the very latest styles in togas.  And the Jetsons, or whoever lives in what we picture as the gee-whiz future, will also be living now.  Back in the 60's or 70's someone came up with the refreshing slogan, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life."  But we can go further and claim our freedom from the future as well as the past by saying, "Now is the only moment of your life."