The Present Moment in Context

There are some fanciful ideas along the line of people saying to themselves, “okay I get this, from now on I’ll get hold of my life and I’ll do the right thing, and that’s that. After all, all spiritual disciplines tell us to live in the present moment. That’s what we have; I will change my habits right now and be done with it.” It’s true, we must live in the present moment. But we also know that life is a process. In the northern hemisphere, we are approaching the winter season; there’s nothing we can do about it. There is a cycle: only after winter, will spring come, and it will be a different season. And so it is with our expression. It is offered in the moment, and yet each moment is in the context of something large with which we must learn to become aligned. Superficial affirmations have little or no bearing on any of this.

For example, if we’ve kept a bad diet for a few years and we have not exercised, can we snap our fingers, say now we recognize that this has not been good, do the right thing now, and instantly find the ill effects from the prior years of neglect are gone? The answer is of course not. We reap what we have sown. What is true is that we are planting new seeds in every moment for future harvests. Everything emerges from our rightful expression now, which will in season bring a resulting harvest.