Being Mindful Here and Now

How do you feel when you are walking by a homeless?  Do you feel pity or are you indifferent? What goes through your mind when one of your relatives commits a serious crime?  Can you forgive him? How do you feel when someone in your family is doing extremely well? Are you jealous?

As we always say, walking a spiritual path is more about bringing awareness into our daily encounters than achieving anything.  When we drop our expectations we become more centered and step outside of this eternal yin and yang of desires and regrets, actions and counter-actions. We become less surprised and upset when we observe that we are stingy, horny, loveless or aggressive. We don't attack ourselves when we realize that we do something that is totally against our spiritual notions. We just suddenly understand how we are at this moment and it also dawns on us where it is coming from.

A spiritual path takes time to travel so please don't be surprised if you find it hard to let go of judgement, regret and anger. Just let all the emotions come and go. You will be surprised to find out what kind of voices, demons and memories hide inside of you. When they all come out, you get a wonderful chance to take a deep look of all this stuff.  When they all come out, and once they have passed the system, you feel that you have dropped a big weight by the wayside.

Too often we try to will ourselves to be someone, to become enlightened, to be better, not realizing that it is this drive that sets in motion the yin and yang of attraction and repulsion, the battle of good and evil. Too often, we stop ourselves when we observe something that we label as bad. We create taboos and forbidden activities, not realizing that it is these value judgements that give the demon inside his energy. In doing so, we lose an opportunity to really know ourselves.  Give yourself a chance. With a pair of curious eyes and an open mind, isn't that fun to let them all come out?  How long you think your reaction and emotion can last?  

When we think of practicing spirituality this way, we experience a relief and we transcend the yin and yang of good and evil, attraction and repulsion. We feel relaxed about ourselves and about others.  We experience everything that happens in our life with amazement!  This is our life, and we are here and now!

By Christian and Su Zhen