Chi Wei

Living in the present moment is like floating downstream, it is the easiest possible way of life. Most of us, however, have developed intricate strategies to avoid the present moment. We use these strategies and apply them to present moment circumstance, some of us even obsessively.

Here is the crux of this: If you are complaining about what is arising in your life, if you want your situation to change, you ARE NOT living in the present moment.

But my grandmother is dying of cancer...

But my wife is having an affair with my best friend...

But my dog just got run over by a car...

But I just lost my job...

But my daughter is addicted to heroin...

But the world should be at peace...

Reminding one of the nature of gratitude is futile as well. Most do not even mention circumstances like the above when they consider gratitude. Reminding of the necessity for gratitude only causes one to think of the "good" things in their life which usually balance the "bad" things that they are complaining about.

Gratitude is actually a compensatory mechanism that subtly avoids present moment awareness, Other subtle diversions include acceptance, surrender, forgiveness, and letting go. We must understand that we have a limited amount of life energy to apply to any circumstance and this energy can be oriented to respond to the arising of situations in the present, or dispersed and dissipated into the past and future through the learned strategies.

How do we know if we are avoiding the present moment? The answer is effort exerted and volition.

This is almost always misunderstood to mean doing nothing. In fact it is the exact opposite. Email us for clarification of this.

Many would agree that reliving past trauma in remorse and regret is futile and a waste of energy. In fact, in a very physical sense, reliving past trauma requires a tremendous amount of energy to drag those experiences into the present. In the same way, when we have an expectation of outcome for any situation, we are expending precious energy to drag the future into the present. Many of us understand that both resentment and expectation may not be profitable, however we revere prior experience, learned knowledge, as well as goals, intentions, and hope.

There is little difference in these expressions, they also all disperse the precious life energies into the past and future.

Much of the literature surrounding this topic, living in the present moment, is obscure and does not get to the root of the issue which is, "how do I live in the present moment?" If a system or process of living in the present moment was devised, the moment it was published it would be a method which again leads to physically dragging that method from the past (where it was learned) into the present.

How can one live in the present moment if there is no path or method? One of the great mystics once stated, "Truth is a pathless land." As suggested earlier, living in the present moment is just like floating downstream, it is the easiest way. Our programmed, conditioned strategies must simply be identified and observed. This identification and observation can lead to a resolution and a realization of how those strategies dissipate and disperse our precious life energy. When we identify and observe them as futile strategies, they lose their power over us, we naturally allow them to drop away, or at least lose their potency.

The Tao Te Ching, verse 60:

When the Tao is present, dark energies lose their power

It's not that they have no power, it's that their power cannot harm anyone

When Tao is present, the people enjoy the blessings of miracle and synchronicity

They find unity

They find peace

What is this about dark energies doing harm?

The enlightened are approaching, and they are rushing in to sweep their path.

The basic understanding of this verse is that the dark energies, those energies that often have a negative effect on our mood and behavior, have no "power" over us when we allow for the absolute space of the Tao, or for example, the true meditational process of thought. In fact, when one is living in the present moment reality, these energies can actually be accessed to encourage the synchronicity and miracle that follows from a present oriented lifestyle.

The following outline identifies some of the strategies that we have learned to avoid the present moment. These same strategies tend to disperse the precious Chi energy into the past and the future. You may be tempted to cling to one or the other, affirming the virtue of those that you hold dear. Please remember that each is a strategy that prevents present moment awareness, however virtuous you believe that strategy to be.

Strategies to dissipate life energy into the future:

1. Expectation
2. Ideals
3. Goals
4. Dreams
5. Beliefs
6. Hope
7. Intentions
8. Envy

Strategies to dissipate life energy into the past:

1. Regret
2. Resentment
3. Knowledge
4. Prior experience
5. Past trauma relived
6. Remorse
7. Revenge

There are also subtle dispersions of energy even in the present moment. Just a few of these are surrender, acceptance, allowing, and forgiveness.

One of the ways to understand these strategies is to relate them to our own states of awareness. If we take anger for an example, when we become angry we will usually say or think something like. "I am angry". A simple and perhaps true enough statement, however, the truth is more like we ARE anger. Thinking or stating, "I am angry" is like taking a step away from that expression, and a step away from the present moment reality. We may go further and think, "I am angry and I should not be angry." Energetically, this is another step away from that expression and another step away for the present moment reality.

To be more specific the following strategies are listed, along with an explanation of each relating to the expression of anger:

1. Justification: "I have a good reason to be angry."
2. Condemnation: "I should not be angry. Anger is a sin that I should seek forgiveness for."
3. Identification: "I am an angry person, It is the nature of the human to be angry."
4. Idealization: "I should be calm an peaceful, non-violence is something I strive toward."
5. Extrapolation: "I have learned these angry responses, it is my strategy to cope with a violent world."
6. Rationalization: "I can express anger when loved ones are threatened."

Without going into a long discussion of dualism, the issue is that anger occurs, then thought creates an entity who should not be angry, then there is conflict and a movement from the present moment. The division itself between the anger and the "I" who should not be angry creates this conflict. When anger is "allowed" it blossoms then wilts and is over. But as long as the "I" is resisting, rationalizing, or suppressing the anger the conflict that ensues gives life and power to the anger.

If you were to fully understand present moment awareness, much of the duality that plaques our lives and causes stress, anxiety, and suffering for ourselves and others, would dissipate. All that energy that we disperse into the past and the future in seeming control, in suppression, in conflict, in resistance, in escape; all that energy would be gathered up and focused on the present moment.