Being in the Moment
Do not confuse Being in the Moment with a disregard for your past. Of course we are influenced by our entire interpretation of the past. The subtle difference between letting go (being in the moment ) and actually thinking you can BE IN THE Moment is whether your emotional memories are driving your response to whatever is happening now. Or, you are fully experiencing what is happening now. Your past emotions nor your anxiety over the future do not overpower your awareness of the moment and make it into something it is not.
The TAO has taught me that virtue is how I behave now, with awareness, with compassion, with integrity. When you are consumed with yesterday's pain you cannot be here now especially when your interpretation of the moment is clouded by your history of pain, joy, or anger.
Technically we all have a 500 millisecond delay in our respone to the moment. That is the interpretation and recognition phase. When we have a witness (our inner observer) to what we have retrieved from our past in order to understand and act appropriately to the moment, this observation helps us, in a conscious state, to let go of all heavily charged memories and emotions and focus on what is required now.
What is required now is our full attention.
FREE WILL (yes we are responsible, no we are not)
Hi, this was in response to a question raised over the idea of free will vs all outcomes are predetermined.
But first I recommend the ramblingtaoist.com
The arguments for or against "free will and the "outcome" has been preordained" mislead us into a position of absolutes. i am responsible for what I do, i am not responsible for what I do. While we all publically assume the mantle of responsibility a casual look at our behavior strongly indicates real confusion and discomfort with this concept.
We cannot ignore the immense programming inherent in our DNA. Genes are triggered to trigger other genes that influence the entire complexity of our biological structures, themes about how we respond to the outside world, internal brain structures that interpret our relationships to everything and everybody we come in contact with.
At some point in time our development allows us to choose while at the same time influencing those choices with our past experiences and how we interpreted them. We not only store a vast amount of comparison data "{deja vue") we create a "self" that is governed by its own survival and "self" satisfaction.
Those who believe that awareness and being "intensely in the moment" allow us to respond to the moment as it is and not as we "wish it to be or not to be" come closer to the reality of our dilemma. For within this sandbox of consciousness we are better able to choose from the paths available and not depend so heavily on our past. That past of course being all of our accumulated love, hate, pain and life experiences. In choosing to "let go of the past or future" we take a new step toward free will in the moment.
But there is no such thing as pure free will, just as the outcome as predetermined does not exist. What we have to take seriously, beyond philosophical debate, is the notion that we choose our level of consciousness. This choosing is not a given but must be directed from the outside or by significant changes on the inside. Once this other side of "the self" has been recognized then the responsibility of "free will" within the limits of our humanity becomes the total responsibility of the individual. Everything done or experienced now carries with it total ownership. You now choose with the full awareness that it is an imperfect choice, but a choice non the less.
So allowing our emotions full expression, allowing our past to dictate the present, allowing our imagined future to determine our response to the present limits our choosing and supports the "deterministic view" the outcome was inevitable. We live in a world dominated by unconscious individuals, the outcomes of their interaction with the world are relatively predictable.
The "free will" discussion cannot ever be effective until it is recognized by all that full consciousness is a prerequisite for "free will". Everything else is deterministic or appears to be..
Dick Carpenter
