The disciple asked his teacher: “To
what should I give my greatest attention, to what attach the
greatest importance?” The Master replied without hesitation: “To
whatever you happen to be doing at the moment”.
The best days are seldom the ones when
we have little or nothing to do, no problems to deal with,
no challenges to meet. More
often they are days packed with so much incident that we think
at the outset, we’ll never cope, and then end up with a
sense of satisfaction and fulfilment that takes us by surprise.
Of course, we wouldn’t be surprised if we had a better
understanding of our own nature, a better “handle” on
life. We, in fact, experience fulfilment, not when our lives
are problem-free, but when we deal with our problems well; not
when we have no hurdles to jump, but when we do have but manage
to clear them! Even our burdens can be carried cheerfully and
our chores done with a light heart as long as we see them as
worthwhile.
What we most vitally need is an ability to be truly present
to life at every moment of it. If we have that ability we will
find that the most routine incidents can be as fulfilling as
the so-called high points. To discover this is to become enlightened
and so enter a state of life desired by all, sought by many,
but only attained by some.
Living in the present is much more than
living one day at a time, for even one single day can at times
daunt us with its
prospect. Living in the present means being aware of each individual
moment as we live that moment. It is a stance to life that needs
to be understood, cultivated and practised. It spells an end
to pre-occupation with past happenings and prevents us from mentally
engaging future events before they occur. It is the most wonderful
of all life’s skills and will transform the quality of
our experience of life once we attain it.
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