The Constant Unfolding of Now

"I stand before you in the joy
Of my soul’s awakening
With the fresh taste of my heart’s ripening, sweet on my lips"
- excerpt taken, with permission, from Untitled, Aaron Stiner 2005

As of late I have been feeling a shift of attention, a shift of my energy to a returning to the now, returning to the moment. I find myself very comfortable in my skin, sitting in the energy of who I am. I am unsure if I believe that the universe teaches us lessons. More I believe that we can find lessons in the moment. Given that, one of the lessons I have opened my eyes to of late is that I am who I am. That I belong where I am right now. That this path is mine and it will always be mine. Each of us has our path; simply the unfolding of our lives. And for each of us, that unfolding happens in the moment. I have been blessed for some reason to have my eyes opened to my own unfolding. I have been lucky enough, on my path, to stumble on the trick to my happiness, to my peace, to my balance and equanimity. It is the moment.

I believe we can find anything we want in the moment. I believe the moment is the only true reality. That life happens in the now. The now is the fixed point in the constantly moving energy of the universe. It is the filter through which all of reality must flow so that future can become now in order to be past. There is nothing that is not contained in the now. It is infinite and infinitely expansive.

I can touch infinity by focusing on my now. By bringing my attention to my-now I bring focus to the all-now.

And then, by focusing on the moment, by bringing my attention to the now my eyes are open to its unfolding, to its flow. I touch the flow when I focus on the now.

Why is all this important to me? Why this meta-physical diatribe? Because, when I bring that focus of attention I can then choose. And, there is so much to choose from.

I can choose what to to look at in the now and all it contains - including you and me and everyone and everything else or I can choose to just look at me.

I can choose how I look at things in the moment - I can look at things as good or bad, as a blessing or a curse. I can look at things that reinforce my worldview or contradict it. I can look at my characteristics as positives or negatives or both. It can be beautiful or ugly. I can look at you in all the same ways.

In the moment, when I bring my attention to the moment, I am aware, I am concious. I can decide that the universe has lessons to teach me and I can seek those lessons, I can be angry at the universe, I can be happy or sad, I can think it is all meaningless.

Because it is all there. The moment, the now, contains everything that ever was or ever will be, it contains the wisdom of all humanity and it contains the wisdom of my life and my soul.

And, when I open my eyes to what is in front of me right now, then I see more of reality. The scope of my lens is larger, the focus clearer and I become amazed by all the complexity of reality. I become amazed by all the human history that went into creating this moment, this now, all that has happened to bring me and each of us to this moment in time. I am swept up by the enormity of it all and give thanks that I have been born me, into this world. I celebrate my brief existence in the vastness of time and space. There is so much to reality, so much contained in the now, all the intersecting lives, energies, forces seen and unseen all colliding, melding togehter into what each of us sees in front of us in each moment. It is dizzying and beautiful and I learn to not take it for granted when I return to the now.

It is freedom. It is freedom from envy and it is the path to balance. Because in the moment, I know that I am more than my ego, I see the entire scope of reality and know there is much more reality that just mine. And it opens my eyes, it returns me to a state of balance.

What I am trying to do is to describe something that is difficult to put into words. So, I invite you to come to the moment. Take a breath and follow the breath down. Focus your attention on the breath. It is the anchor of the now. Breath, in through the nose, feel it down through your throat, into your heart center and follow it down into the belly. Follow it back out and again and again and again. Let the breath bring your attention to now. To what is in front of you, to what you see. It is the first step in the path to freedom.