PEACE

"There is nothing to do but be." Stephen Levine

 

Living in the present brings the one thing most people spend their lives striving to achieve: Peace. Relaxing into the present moment puts you in the mental and physical state of calm, quiet, and tranquility and finally gets us off the here-but-gotta-get-there treadmill. If you are in the moment doing whatever you are doing, then there is no time to examine the gap between where you are and where you think you should be. You are too busy being in the moment to analyze it and find fault with it.

One of my favorite movies is Being There, in which Peter Sellers plays the lovable idiot savant Chauncey Gardener. Simple-minded Chauncey lives his life only in the present moment, with absolutely no awareness of anything other than what he sees before him. When an odd twist of circumstances transports him from his beloved garden, which he spent most of his life tending, into a position advising presidents and powerful business moguls, Chauncey merely offers the wisdom he gleaned from tending the flowers and soil. Of course, the rest of the world interprets his simple statements as wise analogies, and he is hailed as one of the greatest minds of our time.

Chauncey is peaceful in his simplicity. Life is simple and easy for this man, to whom past and future references have no meaning. He is focused completely on the present moment.

Many of us race through our lives, always on our way somewhere. If you ask ten drivers on their morning commute what they are doing, nine of them will most likely respond, " going to work ". The tenth one - the one who responds, "driving my car" - is the one who has learned the lesson of present-moment peace. Chances are he does not arrive at work any later than the other nine who spent their commute focused on where they were headed as opposed to where they were. He probably even enjoyed the ride.

Of course, I am not suggesting that you float through your life, completely detached form the past and blind to the future. Only that you pause from time to time to be fully rooted in the moment and feel the peace that results.