The Choice

To be a full awakened Being, grounded in the present moment is your natural state. But most people have disconnected from this awakened state and become absorbed into the world of the mind. The mind is meant to be an instrument of expression. If we are grounded in the present moment, the mind allows us to express from that deep and eternal silence, without disconnecting from Presence. The mind also makes time possible, because with the mind we can remember the past and imagine the future. This gives us the impression of time and that is the great illusion. In truth there is only the present moment, which reveals the Eternal Now. There is nothing wrong with thinking as long as our thoughts don’t take us too far into the mind so that we become absorbed into that past and future world of illusion. When we go too far into the mind we enter a world of separation and we spend the rest of our lives trying to escape from that feeling of being separate.

When you disconnect from the present moment, it can dramatically affect your life and your relationships. You become burdened with limiting beliefs like “I am all alone, I am not loved, I am unworthy, I am not good enough, I am not safe, life is a struggle.” These limiting beliefs form in early childhood and if allowed to remain unconscious within you, they will affect you for the rest of your life. You can also be filled with repressed emotions like anger, hurt, sadness, unfulfilled needs and fear, which also originate in the past and severely limit your enjoyment of life and your ability to be all that you are. You can spend your whole life looking for love and acceptance, but you never find it, because at a deeper unconscious level you feel unloved and not good enough.

What is the way of liberation?

The first step is to know that you have a choice. In any given moment, you can be present or you can be absorbed in thought and lost within the mind. That is the choice. To recognize that you have that choice is the first step in your awakening. You will gradually emerge from the illusion of separation and your life will be filled with joy, love, truth and freedom. You will open into Oneness.

But it is not enough to know that you have that choice.

The next step is to experience Presence for your self. Presence is transcendent of the mind. It cannot be known with the mind, but once you experience it for your self, then you will know what I am speaking about, and it will not be an understanding from within the mind. It will be a direct experience of Presence and silence.

You will discover that it is remarkable easy to be present. It is as simple as bringing yourself present with something that is actually here in the moment with you. If you can see it, hear it, feel, taste, or touch it in this moment, then you can be present with it. The moment you are truly present with something that is here in the moment with you, thoughts will stop, your mind will fall silent and you will be in the present moment.

But that does not mean that you will be established in Presence. We are so habituated to living within the mind and we are so addicted to thinking that we are very quickly pulled out of Presence. It is not so easy to free our selves from that prison that is the world of the mind.

That is why we need a second step. We have to go through a process of recognizing all the ways that we are pulled out of Presence. We have to become aware of all the obstacles to Presence. This includes the resistance of the ego, judging ourselves and others, all the limiting beliefs from childhood, all the repressed emotions, and all the ways we lose ourselves in others as we look for love, acceptance, approval and recognition.

These two steps are interdependent. The first step leads to Presence. The second step leads to Mastery of the mind and ego. Both steps are essential for true awakening.

To live an awakened life requires a deep commitment on your part to be present. Every moment of your life you have THE choice. Will you be present with what is actually here now, or will you choose to remain in the world of the human thinking mind, which is an illusory world of thought, memory and imagination? The choice is yours. The more you choose Presence, the easier it will be to remain present. It is up to you and it is helpful to know that consequences inevitably flow from the choice you make. The choice to be present will lead to the revealing of Heaven on Earth. The other choice will lead you further and further into Hell on Earth.