Shalom Place

Coming Into the Present Moment

- by Philip St. Romain; all rights reserved

Sin--missing the mark. In the context of time. to miss the moment of God, which is the NOW.
- Why do we miss the Now? We are somewhere else.
- Where are we? In the past, or the future, or simply elsewhere (self-regarding thoughts and fantasies).

Fragmentation of the spirit as useless thinking/mental static. Each such thought makes a claim on our attention. For most, the ego self is more or less constantly disturbed by such thinking. This is considered "normal" life.

The True Self stands outside of this flow, but most people don't experience this except in moments of un-self-consciousness, which are few and far between.

Coming more fully into the moment calls for several disciplines, each of which reinforce the other.

1. Present moment awareness.
   * Attention can be "gathered" and brought into the NOW.
   * "Do what you are doing."
   * Much useless thinking falls away of its own accord.
2. Non-judgmental acceptance.
   * The curse of the Fall, acting like gods. We like to blame, criticize, judge motives.
   * Much of what we call evil is from the ego's viewpoint.
   * Confronting behavior without judging motives.
3. Forgiveness.
   * Letting go of the past, especially. resentment, shame, and guilt.
   * These make a claim on attention and cause us to see the now through the projective lenses of self-preference and desire.
   * May need to give attention to letting go in a formal way (e.g., counseling).
4. Benevolence.
   * Intention is not to "get" something. This would introduce anxiety about not getting it.
   * We are free to have preferences about how things go, but the problem comes when these turn into emotional demands.In the Now to give what is needed, to receive what is given, and to enjoy simply being.
5. Faith and Trust: Affirmations
   * I can let go into this moment.
   * God is with me, creating me, loving me NOW.
   * My skill is available to me, to help me do what is needed.
   * I will always have what is truly needed when I need it.

To what extent does our religious involvement help us to be more attentive, more forgiving, more benevolent, more trusting?
To that extent alone is it--even its dogmatic tradition and, especially, its moral teaching and devotional practices--spirituallv relevant. All the rest is distraction and ego-gratification.