{"id":4357,"date":"2014-08-08T15:50:19","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T20:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2014-08-05T20:16:55","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T01:16:55","slug":"whats-so-great-about-%e2%80%9cthe-moment%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=4357","title":{"rendered":"Whats So Great About \u201cThe Moment\u201d ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been sitting for meditation with a Zen sangha in the White Plum lineage<\/a> for a little over 4 years now, and in that time I’ve listened to quite a few talks by various teachers about \u201cthe Zen way\u201d (they usually don\u2019t use that expression, but that\u2019s what it amounts to). One important aspect of the Zen-life (you might even call it a philosophy, although they don\u2019t) is \u201cliving in the moment\u201d. The Buddha allegedly said that<\/a> \u201cthe secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.\u201d <\/p>\n

A recent article<\/a> found on a British news site says that \u201cemphasis on the present moment is perhaps Zen’s most distinctive characteristic\u201d. And that Sounds groovy<\/a>, despite the fact that the Buddha may not have really<\/a> said that the present moment is so great.<\/p>\n

As I’ve said before, I am something of a Zen critic despite my loyal participation at zazen every week. I love to meditate, but I’ve come to conclude that \u201cthe present moment\u201d is over-rated. To be honest, I believe that modern Zen teachers’ fixation on \u201cthe moment\u201d represents another example of a modern group trying to gain credibility with some “greater tradition\u201d (real or imagined) by defending the relevance of its ancient and outmoded writings and concepts, doing as much bending and contorting of logic as needed to accomplish this. In this respect, Zen is about the same as most any other religion with an ancient scriptural legacy to defend, such as the New Testament, Torah, Quran, Vedas, et al.<\/p>\n

As to the idea of \u201cliving in the present\u201d, focusing your mind on the now: I think this philosophy is very good for driving, and for interacting with other people. We should keep our eyes and minds on the road, and we should give others our whole selves when talking or listening to them. But an exclusive focus on the present is not so great while being a pilot in a 787, or working as an investment adviser. People are betting their lives or fortunes on your knowing about the past and anticipating the future. There\u2019s plenty of Buddhist double-talk which tip-toes around this quandary, an example of which we will examine in a moment. But why keep harping on a concept that requires a lot of double-talk to be taken seriously as a blanket rule for living?<\/p>\n

Well, Zen people often aren\u2019t big fans of God and theistic religion, but they still want their lives and their \u201cpractices\u201d to have some greater relatedness to \u201cthe whole\u201d. I guess that sex is the epitome (often more imagined than true) of living in the present while feeling a lot of cosmic relatedness. Many American Zennies seem to want life to be like sex (which makes sense given all the sex scandals<\/a> involving Buddhist and Zen teacher-leaders). But life mostly isn’t like that.<\/p>\n

Also, the modern students of the East like the idea that \u201cthe power of now\u201d is a nostrum for anxiety, which there is plenty of in modern times. Just stay focused on the present, and forget about what bad stuff might happen down the road. Sounds great . . . until that bad stuff finally arrives. <\/p>\n

According to Bodhipaksa<\/a>, another American dude who gave himself an exotic Indian name as to make a living as a Buddhist wiseman, \u201cliving in the moment\u201d is about not being a zombie, even while remembering the past or planning for the future. \u201cBeing in the moment does not mean that we are stuck in the moment. We can mindfully and creatively call to mind past events, or imagine what might happen in the future.\u201d Thus, so long as you are mindful and creative, you can try to remember where you left your coat, or plan what you will have for breakfast tomorrow. Phew, what a relief!!! But wait, it doesn\u2019t sound so easy to be mindful or creative when getting ready to shovel snow from the driveway on a cold winter morning. <\/p>\n

According to Mr. B, \u201cwhen we are thinking about the past or future while being in the moment, we are conscious that we are reflecting and we\u2019re not lost in thought. We don\u2019t confuse fantasy with reality. We don\u2019t stray from thinking about the past in order to construct imaginary pasts in which we said or did the right thing \u2013 or if we do so then it\u2019s part of a conscious thought experiment to see what we might learn from the experience. We think about the future, but rather than it being idle daydreaming we\u2019re thinking about the consequences of our actions or otherwise reflecting on where we want to go in life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hmm, so it\u2019s as if we constantly need to have a therapist on our shoulders, prodding us back when we idly daydream or construct imaginary pasts. Well, actually, Bodhipaksa will allow us an occasional daydream. \u201cBut it\u2019s generally far more useful to have a part of our conscious mind standing by, observing, watching for any sign that the creative expression of the unconscious is turning gray \u2013 turning into the repetitive and reactive expression of old and unhelpful emotional patterns. The conscious mind can intervene at such moments with a light touch, a gentle redirection of our mental energies so that we stay in the present; aware, mindful, and creative.\u201d Sounds like he wants the \u201cawareness police\u201d to be ever vigilant!! But just how does this help to alleviate anxiety, if we have to be ever-anxious about becoming anxious about the past or future? Can\u2019t we ever just relax with ourselves?<\/p>\n

Eckhart Tolle\u2019s bestselling \u201cPower of Now<\/a>\u201d tries to help readers to apply \u201cthe moment\u201d to overcome anxiety<\/a>. Tolle\u2019s book is a self-help guide for day-to-day living and stresses the importance of living in the present moment and avoiding thoughts of the past or future. Tolle basically says that an individual should be aware of their “present moment” instead of losing themselves in anxiety about the past or future. Interestingly, another famous white-boy guru, Ken Wilber, tries to piggyback on Tolle\u2019s commercial success here by offering advice<\/a> (for a price, after the \u201cfree preview\u201d) on \u201cgetting to the now\u201d even better by working against \u201cthe shadow\u201d. According to Wilber, the shadow is something that was formed yesterday, and so it continually pulls you back into the past. You meet someone who reactivates your shadow and all of a sudden, you\u2019re out of the now! Tolle alone doesn\u2019t do enough<\/a> to get you past \u201cthe shadow\u201d, so that\u2019s why you need Ken to complete your voyage to the present. Again, it sounds like it takes a lot of angst to get past the barriers of anxiety separating you from \u201cthe now\u201d!<\/p>\n

So you can see just how thick the layers of BS can become when trying to make literal sense out of the ancient (and possibly inaccurate) injunction from the East to \u201clive in the moment\u201d. IMHO, the \u201cliving in the moment\u201d message could be better conveyed if bifurcated between two modern mental-psychological concepts: directing and focusing our attention when needed, and occasionally self-questioning ourselves. The two may sometimes be related, but sometimes aren\u2019t. They are just guidelines, not strict rules for living. There doesn\u2019t need to be any competitions to see who can better focus their attention and who can better self-question their inner motives, as seems to happen sometimes in Buddhist communities with regard to \u201cliving in the moment\u201d. <\/p>\n

We have the power to intentionally direct our attention, and to amp it up or tune it back towards a more sleepy state. Often the boosting of attention happens automatically, usually for a threat or other sudden change in one\u2019s environment . This can be good, e.g. when driving and someone runs a stop sign in front of you or a kid juts out into the road on his bike; you stop listening to the radio or talking to your friend, and quickly focus on how to avoid a collision. (And hey, you shouldn\u2019t have been on that smart phone in the first place \u2013 and those of you who text and drive can burn in hell!!). Sometimes our attention is also grabbed and kicked up a notch by the chance for a pleasurable “peak moment”, e.g. the smell of savory food. Depressed attention can occur because of depression itself, but can also happen because of a legitimate need for rest and sleep \u2013 the body does gets tired sometimes!! <\/p>\n

But focus shifts can also be voluntary, of course. That\u2019s where we have a choice, that\u2019s what we have to think about \u2013 how our discretionary mental energy should best be used. Attention can be divided between outward attention on sensory input, and on inward attention from imagination, memories, and cogitation \u2013 i.e. stuff originating mostly in the brain. We need to strike a good balance between living in the world and living in our heads. And that balance won\u2019t be the same for everyone, one size does not fit all.<\/p>\n

As to questioning ourselves as to why we feel a certain way about someone or something — this can be both good and bad. We can’t constantly question ourselves regarding our subconscious motivations; we cant always have a therapist on our shoulders, as suggested by \u201cteachers” like Bodhipaksa. Most of the time we just have to trust ourselves as we get thru the day. Real life is often \u201cshoot first, ask questions later\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it is good sometimes to question our motives, to look for unhealthy hidden motivations and agendas. We should look back on our actions as to detect negativity, and thus try to change this and be less negative and more understanding in the future. We should also ponder the future, to see where we can eliminate negative agendas, better understand others, and try to make things better for ourselves and everyone else going forward. In doing all of this, however, we need to live in both the past and the future. <\/p>\n

So much for pure “living in the moment”. I think it’s time for the Zen roshis, senseis and other self-proclaimed “teachers” to junk the simplistic and delusional preaching about “living in the moment”. Maybe Buddha, Dogen and the other old masters weren\u2019t always as informed as we can be, with the benefit of centuries of accumulated knowledge about behavior, psychology and brain science. We definitely do need to think about how to best use our mental resources, and how to keep ourselves honest regarding our motivations and emotions. The two aren\u2019t always the same, and aren\u2019t always \u201cright here in the present\u201d. It’s time to put aside the \u201cwise-sounding\u201d doubletalk from an ancient millennium, for some good common-sense advice about getting by in the 21st Century — present AND future!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been sitting for meditation with a Zen sangha in the White Plum lineage for a little over 4 years now, and in that time I’ve listened to quite a few talks by various teachers about \u201cthe Zen way\u201d (they usually don\u2019t use that expression, but that\u2019s what it amounts to). One important aspect of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4359,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions\/4359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}