There is no time like the present. We have all heard this saying before, but we miss what it is really saying. Another catchy phrase helps explain this more clearly:
The past is just a memory,
The future is just a fantasy,
This moment is a gift – that is why it is called the present!
Live in this moment. If you need help read The Power of Now by Eckhard Tolle or visit his Web site. [1] This moment is the only time you can actually live your life. The future doesn’t exist, the past also doesn’t exist; the only moment that has ever existed is this moment, the eternal now.
In the gospel of Saint Thomas, Jesus was asked when the kingdom of heaven would arrive. Jesus responded that “the kingdom of heaven is spread out over the earth but men do not see it.” People often confuse infinity and eternity. Eternal life means to live in this moment because this moment, now, is eternal.
A similar sentiment was echoed by a Zen master who said, “This world with all its squalor, poverty and pain, this is the golden Buddha realm.” Do not wait for some time in the future to be happy, to be present, to be awake. It is all here right now, waiting to be recognized.
Allow, watch, act, and keep repeating these steps while expecting the best to happen. But do all this right now. Make A.W.A.K.E.N. into a habit, and you will awaken to this moment.
- — At www.eckharttolle.com.
Our exploration of our deeper koshas has reached an end. We have seen that the earliest explorations of this mysterious realm of the mind envisioned our consciousness (purusha) as very distinct and separate from the rest of the universe (prakriti). The Samkhya and Classical Yoga schools believed that the process of liberation required us to rescue our consciousness from its prison inside of nature. However, the later school of Tantra Yoga felt that consciousness and nature were simply two sides of the same coin and could not, and should not, be separated. Through practice, liberation could be achieved right now, in this very lifetime.
The Buddha shared the same realization and described a path to achieve this liberation in the here and the now. The practices that the Buddha gave us have been rediscovered and applied in some of the Western practices of psychotherapy; again we have seen the Eastern realizations mirrored in Western thought.
The first part of our journey down the Yin River has come to an end. We leave behind the waters that have illuminated for us the various models of our body mind: ancient and modern, Eastern and Western. We take with us the knowledge of why Yin Yoga is so valuable for us, and the realization that we can come back and revisit these streams of learning at any time. For now, we float on to the second half of our journey. It is time to learn the actual practice of Yin Yoga.
(Next: The Practice of Yin Yoga )