Jul 2

Jul 2 what is the present moment?

what is the present moment? / words and pictures #10

Do familiar words and phrases ever suddenly become meaningless to you? As though you’ve just woken up from a nap at the back of the class, and have no idea what the teacher just said?

Wow that is such a coincidence, me too!

My sister and I used to play with words as we walked up our long dusty driveway, some afternoons after the school bus had dropped us off.

We’d say simple words like ‘the’ ‘it’ ‘is’ over and over until they seemed like strange alien soundbites. Or we’d repeat longer words, emphasising different syllables and notice how that seemed to change their meaning.

If you’ve ever tried to meditate, you’ve almost certainly come across the phrase - Become aware of the present moment.

But what does that actually mean?

My meditation teacher instructed this during a class recently, and I had that sensation I mentioned above of waking up and feeling like I wasn’t sure what that phrase actually meant.

Words and meaning are slippery suckers when you really examine them. And the really tricky thing about the present moment is, as soon as you think you’ve found it, it’s already gone.

I mean yes, it’s the flip side to ruminating on the past or fantasising about the future, but what exactly is the present moment?

So I asked... "Swami Jasraj, what does the present moment feel like to you?"

“Like holding something really delicate in your hand, which if you squeeze just a tiny bit, will pop. You’re holding it so softly that you’re not distorting any moment, you’re just letting it be, and you’re just there. It’s a constant flow of being aware and letting go at the same time.”

Then I mentioned that it had sent me off into a stream of thoughts, and then thoughts of frustration about thinking thoughts.

“Thinking is not a problem. Just don’t get attached. Be open to something that is constantly unfolding. When it’s really happening, you’re not trying, you’re just letting it happen, like you’re in a cinema.

When you’re making it happen, it’s not really meditation. That’s okay too, as long as you’re not forcing it and you’re getting with the moment.”

We had a bit of a laugh about how obviously difficult it is to give the 'present moment' or 'meditation' definitive meanings.

“It's like the Buddhist saying, 'Don’t mistake your finger for the moon'. Which means don’t get caught up on the method, thinking this or that, doing this or that. Just let go and let it happen.”

He tried some analogies...

"You know how to ride a horse... It’s like horseriding - you just have to relax and let it flow. If you think about your posture, you get all stiff and it gets harder and harder. But if you just let yourself move with the horse, then it flows and it’s beautiful. It’s the same with meditation.

Techniques are useful and the practices are useful as a guide, but ultimately you have to let it go and let it happen.

And strangely that’s harder to do than you might think!”

I wonder why letting go and not trying is so hard?

It should be much easier than holding on and trying to achieve something specific.

I think it's hard because it requires surrender, and that challenges our deeply encoded survival instincts - of body and identity.

But have you ever had the experience of something going really well when you don't try? It's as though you're just the body and something else is doing the doing...

"So is it a bit like typing or writing or playing an instrument? Those moments when you're not trying, you're just doing it without thinking about it?"

"Yes, the real music comes when you know the technique so well that you can just let go and express through those techniques without having to think about them at all...

Meditation is also like that. You come into such a connection with yourself, balanced with breath that it just starts to come of itself.

Techniques are the scaffolding, not the practice.

The Yoga Sutras call the techniques ‘ālambana’ which means a support. Like the stake that you plant a tree with when it’s young. There comes a certain point when the tree doesn’t need support anymore."

Then he shrugged, laughed and said, “How to describe the taste of butter!"

"It’s the eternal question, which if you think about it, thousands of poems, texts and scriptures from all different traditions have tried to explain. But how do you explain it? You can explain how to get there but you can’t explain it, because It just is!"

Swami Jasraj’s explanations and analogies painted a tangible picture of what it is to be in the present moment, and also highlighted two things…

First, that words and meanings are a personal experience, not a universal fixed code.

Second, that there is no one word in the English language to accurately express the seemingly simple act of being… now.

My mum commented that Shakespeare added 700 new words to the English dictionary, and maybe we need a new word to encompass, ‘being in the present moment’.

Any ideas?

Leonie x