Late Night Chat with Jeff: Present Moment, March 17, 2024, live on Baba Zoom

The Topic: The Present Moment, the Challenge of Staying in It

A friend of mine jokingly refers to what she imagines is the ticker tape of thoughts passing through many people: “I would rather be somewhere else, with someone else, doing something else.” This captures the unfortunate mental life of many people today, the inability to remain in the present moment. Baba says, “Live more and more in the present which is ever beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.” What pulls us out of the present? Why do we so often go back to reliving the past or anxiously anticipating the future? What keeps us from being content and even accepting the present as it is? Is it our attachment to mental comfort, that we don’t like to have to face physical, emotional and mental distress? What if we were to build up our tolerance for mental discomfort? Would we then be able to remain in the present no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in?

Baba has said, “Be content with your lot.” Have you experienced, when you find yourself going over the past or envisioning the future, that you lose the feeling of completeness? Is it possible to remain in the present and not go energetically into the past or future? Is there a distinction between going energetically to the past and future rather than letting the past and future come to you in the present?

Eruch and Dr. Kenmore, both Baba’s intimate mandali, were once discussing the subject of completeness, and Eruch explained that with Baba, “One feels complete. The feeling of completeness overpowers us. Nothing is wanting, absolutely nothing.” The doctor understood that if a Perfect Master came by and offered Eruch God-Realization, he wouldn’t even take it. What is that state of completeness which Eruch must have been in to not even be tempted by realization?

Baba has said, “From childhood to old age we always live in the present.” Without being aware of it, we are constantly leaving the timeless present every moment and habitually stepping into our imagination. And then from there, we wander out into the finite world of time and space, and leave the spontaneity and completeness of the timeless present. From completeness to incompleteness in an instant. We think that this is only natural; this is life. It is our old, old habit. Completeness is love—who we actually are—whereas striving to get something outside of the present commits us to the finite world of cause and effect.

Early one morning recently, this question arose in me: why don’t I always feel whole or complete? Baba responded to me with an entire discourse in a millisecond. In trying to put His momentary flash of insight into English, I understood Him to convey, “It is because of one fundamental attachment, the one underlying all your other attachments: your attachment to 'mental comfort'. If you could bear extreme mental discomfort in the present, you would remain whole. But, when you find yourself ‘uncomfortable,' you always try to escape this moment into thoughts of the future or the past, or you seek some distraction in the present. You leave the timeless present where I am truly found and enter the passing world of time and space, what you call life. You do not fully embrace what is, and so you remain incomplete.”

I am reminded of an earlier experience in the mid-1970s with Eruch. One day, with many young Baba lovers gathered in Mandali Hall, Eruch was telling stories of being with Baba in his casual and relaxed and loving way. At one point, when there was a pause in the sharing, I observed Eruch and unexpectedly saw him through a different lens within and blurted out, “Eruch, I have a feeling that if I were to inhabit your body for half an hour, all I would want to do is go unconscious and asleep!” He gave me a momentary flash of acknowledgement, so instantaneous that I may have been the only one who caught his look. He said nothing in response, but I felt sure that I had stumbled upon something profound. I had felt for some time that he was bearing tremendous inner suffering for Baba while always appearing relaxed and easy-going with us. I knew that if I were to inhabit his body, I would be absolutely crushed!

There is a Zen saying, “If you want to know where eternity is, it is no further than this moment. If you fail to find it in this present moment, you will not find it even in a thousand years.”

What situations in your life keep you from staying in the present moment? What methods do you turn to to remain in the present moment and not always be pulled energetically into the past or future? Do you find that thinking about the past or future robs you of your wholeness or completeness? What was your experience of time in early childhood?

In His love,

Jeff

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