No Problems

I was once asked What's been your path in life? This was my response:

“Through our thoughts, we create a past (a starting point) and a future (a destination). But in reality, there is just this moment — complete and whole. Are there paths to choose, or is there just the illusion of such choices brought about by conceptualized thinking?

When we truly embrace the present moment, without any concepts, all “paths” disappear. The only “road” is the present moment, continually arising out of the Great Unknown.

The trick, however, is in trying to “live in the present moment” which, obviously, is the only moment we can live in. But our thoughts always lead us to some imaginary past or future — that is when we lose sight of what is. 

What’s my path in life? This one.”

The following is a paraphrased dialogue I had with some readers who commented on what I had written.

R
Yes, but life is a challenge and my present moments are being stolen away by the mundane chores and problems of everyday life.

Z
Life presents challenges, but the “mundane chores of life” only become mundane and/or chores when we make them so and label them as such.

The present moment can only be “stolen” if we let our thoughts and desires allow it to “slip away”. It is undeniably always here, always now. Dealing with life’s challenges is a part of the here and now.

R
As long we are a biological reality outside the Garden of Eden, we will have problems and the present will be stolen.

Z
It’s your thinking about those problems that steals away your present moments.

No situation nor any person can steal away the present moment. Only you can “do” that by allowing thoughts to pile up and to become overwhelmed by the idea that they have to be dealt with all at the same time; and to worry about the outcome of each situation. It’s the desire to make a situation different than it is that creates anxiety.

The situations are there, no doubt. But if we approach them and deal with them as they are — one at a time — without worrying about an outcome, then they lose their power over us and are no longer seen as “problems”.

R
I hear what you say. But I was never bothered by those mundane chores until after a near death experience. I felt the peace of death and of being Home. But when I came back, my thought was “Now I have to brush my teeth!” I had given that up! Why did the chores of daily life become a burden for the first time? I would have thought, in soul terms, it might be the opposite?

I find it irritating as heck that death would have an effect on me to suddenly make me aware of the dross and drudgery of daily life. Why after awakening from the Light should I suddenly be in the first truly dross and drudgery state of my life? I long for Home and 'this' life suddenly seems so much work. I want to go back Home.

Z
We talk about Heaven, being Home, and the peace associated with "death": all these are expressions of the Selfless State and have alternatively been described as Emptiness or Nothingness. When we are empty (i.e., free from ego-mind and thoughts), the state of Heaven is our natural state.

The ego-mind or “you” obviously do have to die to reach this Selfless State. So, when the ego-mind is concerned with trivial matters (and making them into a great concern) — such as brushing your teeth — then of course you feel burdened by life.

But the burden had nothing to do with “coming back” from the death of the physical body and everything to do with being re-occupied by ego when you awoke (which was really no awakening at all).

When we are truly absorbed in any present moment activity, then it is what it is. Brushing your teeth is just that, plain and simple; no concerns or worries — just an activity in and of itself.

I suppose those who have felt they were Home and are now able to contrast that feeling with “the dross and drudgery of daily life” would have an even greater sense of alienation and frustration.

You say, “I want to go back Home.” That could be the definitive answer to the question Why do we have religion and philosophy? The fact of the matter is you already are Home. There is only the illusion that you are not. What drives that illusion? Want. It’s the desire for something other than what is that turns daily life into “dross and drudgery”.

There is nothing partial and incomplete about this life — quite the opposite. It is complete and whole. Only desire and want make it seem otherwise. As you said, “it just seems like so much work” — seems being the key word.