January 2014 Newsletter

Hello, Everyone

This time of year can be quite hectic, with the hustle and bustle of Holiday gatherings, shopping for gifts, traveling to get together, or just getting away. There never seems to be enough time. People say “My life is passing before I know it.” or “Where has all the time gone? My kids are all grown up.” We lose so much of what is most important by allowing ourselves to miss this moment!
Philosophers say that time is an illusion. However, Eckhart Tolle perceives time as a manageable commodity. He suggests that we can end the delusion of time. Remove the parameters of “time” from the mind and time stops unless it serves some specific purpose. To identify solely with mind is to be trapped in time.
Our compulsion is to live almost exclusively through either memory or anticipation, creating an endless preoccupation with past and future, and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment the NOW. The compulsion arises because the past gives us identity, while the future holds the promise of fulfillment, in whatever form. Both are illusions.
Nothing ever happened in the past; it occurred in what was (then) the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in (what will be) the Now. What you think of as “past” is a memory trace, stored in the mind, of a former “Now.” When you think about the past, you reactivate a memory trace and bring the “Past” to this “Now.” The future is imagined, nothing more than a projection of the mind.
The great Zen Master Rinzai, in order to divert his students’ attention away from time, would often raise his finger and slowly ask, “What, at this moment, is lacking?” The question is designed to focus attention deeply on the Now. A similar question in the Zen tradition is, “If not now, when?”.
The time we spend FULLY PRESENT with family and loved ones is truly important. Life can change at any moment. Learn to bring full attention to the one thing you are doing in the moment wrapping a present putting the little ones to bed writing that letter to Aunt Gertrude. The best present we can give is the gift of being Genuinely Present. No expression of life on earth is anything like you; you are unique and a Gift to yourself and to the world!

Blessings,
Daniel

Thoughts for the Day

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking.
It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein

“It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future.
Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now.
We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it;
and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.” George Harrison

“The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Lite Thoughts

“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.” Anthony G. Oettinger

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” Coco Chanel

The 2nd time it’s a mistake,
the 1st time it is a learning opportunity.
Uknown