Thich Nhat Hanh a contemporary Buddhist monk, writes with great elegance of the joy to be found in bringing our awareness to the present moment. He encourages us to be so completely immersed in the task at hand that it becomes to us the most important thing in our life.
In The Miracle of Mindfulness, he writes, “While washing the dishes, you might be thinking about the tea afterwards, and so try to get them out of the way as quickly as possible in order to sit and drink tea. But that means that you are incapable of living during the time you are washing the dishes. When you are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in your life. Just as when you’re drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life.”
When I look into the lives of spiritually awake people across spiritual traditions, there seems to be a common thread. Each lived or lives deliberately with an appreciation of the uniqueness of each moment, each circumstance, each person.
Each of us can let each moment become a moment of deliberate, conscious living. Each of us can learn, with practice, patience, and perseverance, to greet the Presence of God, of Consciousness, of Spirit, of Shakti and welcome that formless Presence regardless of the form. Each of us can let each moment’s experience become a way of seeking out God’s Presence and increasing our love for that Presence.
Living in such a way, we become the artists of our own life. We can sculpt, paint, and dance our way through each day. We need only to pick up and use the tools at our disposal and one of these tools is the practice of the present moment.
Of course, we cannot shape each circumstances of our lives, though there is debate about that. We can, however, completely shape our response to Life circumstances and embrace the Presence in each unfolding moment. With Grace, we step aside from the thoughts that lead us to believe Grace is somewhere other than the present.
This may seem obvious, ridiculous or perhaps overwhelming. Yet, in practice it becomes sublime and poetic. It may be that searching out the sacred in each day, looking for holiness in a single moment over the course of a single day feels more attainable than the seemingly monumental task of recognizing the sacredness of each and every moment.
However you approach such a practice, the practice is one of slowing down for the moment, by doing one thing at a time. A neighbor of mine once summed this up for me with beautiful simplicity, “when walking, walk.”
The integration of centering practices is a meaningful way of enriching your experience of the Presence in the present. If you are interested in deepening your experience of centering practice, consider investing in my new 21 day audio program - Reclaim Your Life and Learn to Live in Balance.
