Independence from Yesterday

How many of you like reading last month’s, or last year’s newspaper everyday?

And how many of you like to know about today? 

The only time, that exists, is now.

The past has no power on our present/ Our power lies in our present thoughts. Our power lies in the thoughts we choose today.  Break the prison of past beliefs. Since years and years, your minds may have captured so many beliefs, some useful and the rest – very useless.

It’s time to break the prison of your past, and live now.

That reminds me of a story from a wise man.

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

 Empty your cups. Now.

Think…

What does it mean to live fully in the present moment?

It means that your awareness is completely centered on the here and now. You are not worrying about the future or thinking about the past. When you live in the present, you are living where life is happening.

Time, is just a concept.  The past and future are concepts, illusions; they don’t really exist.

As the saying goes “tomorrow never comes”. Tomorrow is only a concept, tomorrow is always waiting to come around the corner, but around that corner are shadows, never to have light shed upon, because time is always now.

Buddha had said – The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

That reminds me of another story I go by…

Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the roadsides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to a her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.

In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, “Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman?”

The elder monk answered “yes, brother”.

Then the younger monk asks again, “but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside?”

The elder monk smiled at him and told him ” I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her.”

So friends, stop carrying what is gone, what is over.

Welcome yourself, to your new-found independence from yesterday.

Live in Today. Live Today.  Live Now.