PDA

View Full Version : Vedantic Style Of Living In The Present Moment



silence_speaks
10 August 2014, 09:30 AM
Friends,
:) I am sure many of us were deeply influenced by the book "Power of Now". I read it too and I loved it.
Living in the present moment is indeed Freedom, Liberated living.

The Vedantic style of living in the present moment is what I call "The inverted style" :) ... Please see ...

Live in the present moment ... in the now ... is such a simple suggestion and yet people who knows this do not stand liberated there and then :)--- Vedanta however tackles it in the inverted style ... it asks "What takes you away from the PRESENCE"

The essential teaching of Vedanta is "YOU ARE THE PRESENCE"
and so ... you cannot be anything else.

To understand the difference ... lets try an experiment...
suppose i sit down in a room, close my eyes and decide to not move out. What can move me out of the room?

1. First of all, without a thought i cannot move out.
2. Even if there is a thought i need not move out.

The first case is obvious. Lets take point (2) and look deeper.... if there is a thought i need not move. Even when there is a thought, i need not "Accept" the thought and yet, thoughts seem to carry me away from the Present moment ...

So vedanta asks "Who is this "I" that is getting carried away by thoughts"

This is famously called Self Inquiry and is popularized by Ramana though its present at various places in Vedanta if one is a keen observer.

Who is this "I" that is getting carried away by thoughts ... inquiring ... with the aid of a proper teacher and shastric teaching ... one sees that there is none ! There being no one to move away from present moment ... what else can one be other than the presence !! :)


To live in the present moment ... one need not become extraordinarily slow ... one need not pause for 10 mins between lines ! One just has to see that there is only the Presence ... there is none else !! Thus living becomes a long holiday ... here and now living itself is meditation!

Love!
Silence

ShivaFan
14 August 2014, 11:29 PM
I have never read that book.

But for so long, I have been inspired by the old saying from the 1960s:

BE HERE NOW

It is the same.

One of the popular posters of that era, depicted two shoes empty of feet, abandoned by the curb, and a man walking barefoot down the sidewalk of a city, his back to the shoes. And the slogan on the poster below, BE HERE NOW.

Om Namah Sivaya

silence_speaks
17 August 2014, 05:49 AM
Dear ShivaFan,
:) Yes. Be Here Now is a very popular Buddhist, Zen teaching.
I presume it has spread into almost every philosophy.

Love!
Silence

ameyAtmA
18 August 2014, 02:17 AM
Namaste

Nice message.

Be here now. Certainly.

Be here now in the present
Be here now without letting thoughts drive you
Be here now without leaving the heart

Be here now with Mukunda (or one's IshTa)
might as well

'Cause Mukunda makes the NOW sparkle, tinkle, chime, shine, swing, sing and dance.

'Cause Mukunda is You

silence_speaks
18 August 2014, 05:34 AM
Dear AmeyAtma,
:) Be Here Now is indeed be here now as Mukunda or with Mukunda.
Because when a person is wholly with Mukunda, there is only Mukunda, the Presence or the Being.

This body is merely a vehicle ... its like a vehicle for the Lord to move around ... inside it is only the Lord ! This is an attitude ... much more than a mere practice ... it liberates !!

Love!
Silence