JORGE RODRIGUES SIMAO

PORTUGAL - ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS 2015

RTP - ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS 2015

If you want to be one of the conscious minorities, then you must live in the present and master the moment. Unfortunately, most of us don't live in the "now." We live either the "before," or the "then," in place of the "now."

The notion of living in the now isn't an overly profound idea - yet few of us do it. Not only is it insane to live in the past, it is just as insane to live in the future, thinking about how much better life may be if certain great things happen to you. The key to having great things happen to you in the future is to make the most of the present. As an unknown wise person said, "The future belongs to those who live intensely in the present."

Spiritual teachers tell us that we corrupt the beauty of living by thinking too much about the past and the future. They say happiness is the practice of living in the moment; it's in everything we do. In other words, all you can experience is the now, so why aren't you there?

Believe it or not, THIS IS IT! Now is all you will ever get in life. Such being the case, the degree to which you live in the past or the future determines how many of life's most precious moments you miss in the present.

Contrary to popular belief, the present moment - not the future – holds the key to liberation and enlightenment. But you cannot experience the present moment as long as your mind is occupied with the future or the past. Thus, you should make it a practice to withdraw your attention from the past or the future whenever you do not need to be there - this should be at least 95 percent of your waking hours.

Zen masters emphasize the importance of going through life without carrying around problems and regrets from yesterday and worries about the future. The essence of Zen is to be so intensely present that no problem, no worrying, no suffering, can affect you. The Zen master Rinzai would ask his students, "What at this moment, is lacking?" If you are living in the present, you will realize that nothing is lacking.

Other Zen masters ask the question, "If not now, when?" Enlightened students react to this question by being drawn deeply into the present moment without having to give ego-driven answers. This is because enlightenment that intensely alive state that is free of burdens and free of problems – cannot happen in the past or the future. It can happen only in the present.

The Zen experience of living in the now is doing something with so much fascination and enjoyment that you lose all sense of time and place. When you are mastering the moment, nothing is important, except what you are doing at that time.

Mastering the moment means experiencing numerous sensations including a feeling of freedom, lack of focus on oneself, and enhanced perception of objects and events. When you learn to master the moment, you will be possessed by energy that carries you away from your normal concerns into a state of optimal satisfaction - enlightenment, in other words.

The importance of living the moment should be as clear to you as a Zen master's moment of truth. If you postpone the chance to live life, it may slip away altogether. The time to start living is now.

In short, at this moment you can't celebrate yesterday; you can't celebrate tomorrow either. So that leaves today as the only day you can ever celebrate. Thus this old adage: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that's why it's called the present." It follows that you should accept the past, forget about the future, and surrender to the present moment. Your life will magically start working for you instead of against you.