The Guru Dialogues XIV (Planning and Waiting)

Seeker – Today I wanted to talk about the present moment and how it relates to making plans. You say that the present moment is where reality resides, that it is all that exists, but I have a job and need to plan ahead to be competent. At home I have bills to pay. I have birthday parties coming up and I need to figure out what to buy as a present. There seems to be a conflict between the reality of “now” and the everyday reality of life.

Guru – You make it sound very complicated, but it is really very simple: there is no reality apart from the present moment. To locate truth, you must look within the present moment. Of course, we are here to live a life. Living life in this society requires some planning, but if that planning is made with the understanding that the only reality is NOW, those plans will be informed by truth. They will be free of illusion. Such a person would understand that plans do not always work out. They would know that is part of the beauty of life. So they are not disappointed or even surprised when things turn out differently than they imagined. They have understood that life is a spontaneous and incomprehensible manifestation of being. They know this because they reside in the present moment.

Seeker – So you’re saying, make your plans, but do so from the perspective of someone who realizes that the only reality or truth is now.

Guru – Yes. The mind will make plans. This is what it does. Let it make its plans, but understand that your compass is the present moment. Simple.

Seeker – What about waiting? What if I become so caught up in the present moment that I decide to simply wait for things to happen to me? I realize that there is actually nothing to plan for because everything is now. I take my hands of the steering wheel, so to speak.

Guru – Here you would have missed the point. You would be caught up in the concept that there is nothing to do. Again, we have lives and we are here to live them. Latching onto the belief that everything is illusion is itself to get caught up in that illusion.

Seeker – I don’t understand what that means.

Guru – It is true that everything that the mind can conceive is illusory. But to believe that everything is an illusion and to cling to that belief would itself be apart of that illusion.

Seeker – That’s a bit trippy.

Guru – That’s your mind talking.





[edit on 24-7-2009 by Silenceisall]