EMBRACING RIGHT NOW

[Pravin Kumar]

Embracing Right Now:

Embracing right now is a choice that solely puts your life in your hands. This has nothing to do with your circumstances, but if you don't have awareness of this you will continue to push life away as situations arise...

Being present for what occurs in your life (embracing right now) is living life as it unfolds without excluding any part of it. It's easy to push away what's not wanted, but to include everything even though it may not be wanted is truly living. If you want to exclude something find out what it is and why it's being pushed away. Obviously on the surface it would look as though it's just not liked, but if it's what's happening, what good is it doing in pushing it away and not liking it. This becomes a defense mechanism that keeps you from truly enjoying life. If you only enjoy life when the things happening are liked, there will be much suffering because of the fluctuations of things. If you go on a vacation to a beach resort and it's cloudy and rainy and you expected it to be sunny, therein lies your suffering, but if it's sunny everything is great. This is but one example, I'm sure you can find your own that fits your life.

In the situation described, why it causes suffering is because what's happening is being pushed away, maybe not consciously, but since it's not wanted it causes a mind agitation. The thing about this is it's totally out of your control, there's nothing you can do to change what’s happening as you can't change the weather. You can pray for the rain to stop, but I doubt that will work. You will either embrace life right now or you will continue to push it away by wanting it different, these are your choices and it solely puts your life in your hands. It has nothing to do with anyone else or your circumstances, but if you don't have awareness of this you will continue to push life away by not embracing right now, and one day there will be nothing to embrace because life in this form will be no more.

MICHAEL CUPO