Speculation and the Power of Now – January 27 2019

Tomorrow’s bills are not the problem. The dissolution of the physical body is not a problem. Loss of Now is the problem, or rather: the core delusion that turns a mere situation, event, or emotion into a personal problem and into suffering. Loss of Now is loss of Being.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

 

To give up the now is to be in speculation. Speculation is one of the great banes of modern existence. Thinking about what happened, what’s going to happen, what we need to do about it, what we should have done about it, about him, about her, about ourselves and our problems. All this thinking; and all of it toward one end: to find happiness.

 

Speculation is the mind’s way of seeking happiness.

 

“If I can just think about [this problem] in just the right way, happiness will be mine.”

 

Unfortunately, the mind always is seeking happiness somewhere other than here and now. It is looking in the past – to see what I should have done – and into the future – to figure out what I should do. Always somewhere other than here and now, in spite of the fact that happiness never has been found, in the history of the world, anywhere other than in present moment awareness.

 

There’s an old story about coming upon a friend under a street lamp, late at night. What’s up? you say. Oh, I’m looking for my keys. You lost your keys? What a shame. Yes, says your friend. Gotta find them or I’m in real trouble. Well, let me help, you say. You dropped them here? Oh, no, says your friend. I dropped them down the street. But there’s no light there.

 

Seeking happiness in our speculating mind is like this.

 

Or if you’d rather, it’s like going to an hardware store and ordering pizza. No matter how clearly you order, or how badly you might want your pizza, you’re never going to find it there.

 

When our moments of happiness, bliss, joy, occur, it’s always because somehow we have found ourselves in the here and now. Through accident or design, we have stumbled into present moment awareness and experienced what Eckhart Tolle calls the Power of Now. If we want happiness (and who among us doesn’t), then it would be good to practice being here, rather than in some mythic future. It would be good to practice living in the evidence of our senses, rather than in our speculating mind. To find our way to the moment, again and again and again, as often as it takes. At least then we will have a fighting chance of finding happiness.

 

Today I will insist on being present. When I ask someone how they’re doing, I will listen to their answer. When I order my lunch or my coffee, or make a deposit at the bank, I will notice that I am dealing with another human being and I will take a moment to engage with her. And before I lay my head on my pillow, I will note for myself the places where I was able to be present, as well as the places where perhaps I could have been more so.

Chloe and Lacey, Burbank, CA