Why Does it Feel Tough to Be Present?

Fear.

Fear bonds you to your attachments. Your fear attaches you to things, people, places and circumstances.

Example; I sit down to write this post now. But I hesitated for a few moments because I feared my oatmeal and coffee getting cold. I am fairly detached from food. I eat beans for lunch, for the past goodness knows how many years. But I am attached to food a little bit. My attachment to food – warm food especially – pulled me out of the present moment to anxieties of the future. Future food means cold food; meh.

I get it. I am not the Dalai Lama. Nor am I a Kriya yogi master. I revere Kriya masters because I deeply respect the commitment required to become enlightened. Imagine giving up all of your attachments? Imagine facing all of your fears? Imagine being present for your entire human existence?

Be Realistic

Adopt a realistic approach to facing, feeling and releasing fears fueling attachments. I suggest meditating on waking to observe your mind as it is. Meditate to expand your awareness. Expand your awareness to observe fear. Observe how fear pulls you out of the present, nudging you to illusory futures and illusory pasts.

Observing your fears-attachments allows fears-attachments to dissolve a little bit in mind. Dissolve fear-attachment to be a little more present.

Logically, nod at these statements. You understand. I understand. But emotionally, be gentle with yourself on waking tomorrow because sitting to meditate likely reveals what appears to be madness, chaos and a descent into insanity. Why? Observing your mind as it really is tends to reveal an addled, frenzied, defiant, petulant mind.

“COFFEE! I NEED COFFEE! I NEED TO WATCH THE NEWS! WORK! I NEED TO GET TO WORK!”

Each thought-feelings-fear-attachment arises in mind. Be with the fears. Allow the attachments to fade. Enjoy coffee when it is time to enjoy coffee, in the present. Enjoy work to when it is time to enjoy work, in the present. Turn off the news. For good. You cannot enjoy something completely designed to turn your fears against you because fear is not real; no one enjoys anything not real.

Live Worldly Lives

Live your worldly life but do not be pulled, prodded and enslaved by your fears. Do not be pulled around by your attachments like a puppy being yanked around on a leash.

Be present more often. Be out of the moment less often.

Be here and now as you live a worldly life. Allow yourself to fully experience things, people and circumstances. Never make it a goal to rid yourself of attachments because trying to live a worldly life while attempting to shun a worldly life makes for insanity. If you feel it in your heart to turn your back on a worldly life, think deeply about visiting a temple and learning to live how monks live. Rest-assured, virtually none of you will take that drastic path. Few beings give up living a worldly life to seek a solely spiritual existence.

Being present is not punishment, but enrichment. Enjoy the coffee. Love your job. Have fun working your business. Being in the moment allows you to fully experience whatever you do because since you remove much of the fear-attachment, you remove the identification, tension and other resistant energies that eat into your enjoyment and diminish your experience.