Life in the Present Tense

Life in the present tense

There has been a great deal written about the negative impact of stress. I tried to read about the subject via a few articles and books but could not get through them – By detailing all of life’s opportunities to present stressful encounters the stories and narrative became to me, self fulfilling prophesies. It reminds me of a joke by comedian Lewis Black in which he states that while on a cross country flight from Los Angeles to New York he read a 30 page article in TIME magazine about diabetes. He says that he read every word and by the end of the trip he was convinced that he had diabetes. It seems that the mind is pretty powerful and can manufacture any reality we choose or perhaps get sucked into. And when that reality seems out of our control, the natural by-product is stress.

Life in the present tense seems to be really different for each of us. I meet so many people that seem to be immersed in tension of one kind or another. And just as I write this I can also recall people that seem to be oblivious to stress. This later group shares a common principle and perspective and lives their lives with a simple understanding and appreciation for letting go. They tend to practice two basic laws of life and these laws serve them well. They are the principles of acceptance and detachment. The former is an appreciation for what is regardless of its value and detachment is the ability to separate oneself from all of the trials, tribulations, pain, deadlines, pressure and angst of life because you simply can’t control it all anyway. Application of both of these laws simultaneously allows one to be at ease with what is. Easier said than done I know, but it explains why most prayers are about some combination of changing what is to what we want it to be and secondarily wishing that what we want would be here right now – pronto.

The fact that we want wishes to come true now not later seems pretty logical. I mean what’s the point of the wish being granted or the prayer answered later than you want? I don’t know – unknown. Suffice it to say that there is an expression that goes like this: God is seldom early but He’s never late. This precept encourages faith and at the end of the day, it’s your faith in God, yourself and the universe to step up and deliver your dreams. Faith is so powerful it’s the recurring theme in all of life’s wonders. It’s in the Bible, it’s discussed in every single church there is and it is lynchpin for transformation. Without it, nothing happens and with it, everything is possible.
To apply faith to the present moment is the ultimate trick to be played on one’s current existence. By believing that it will be okay, it becomes okay, and the more it becomes okay the more it will be okay – you get where this is going. Faith then is a tension and stress reliever. Faith occupies the moment and replaces stress and tension and even despair. Faith leads the way of all virtue and is the core of every belief and religion and personal vision ever devised. Faith can and often does move mountains. Faith not only saves lives it creates them.

Faith is all about acceptance of what is, the detachment from what was, and the belief in what will be. Faith used appropriately in the present tense eliminates tension and stress because it moves the psyche into a position of awaiting its destiny. We’ve all heard coaches and parents and teachers and others tell us that we just have to believe. And all of us have believed in a whole lot of stuff but not all of the stuff we say we believe in comes to fruition. That’s only because we have not yet detached from the old and freed ourselves for the new and also we have not been accepting of what is delivered in answer to our prayers. When it is all said and done we all get what we want. How fast and to what degree is a function of how much we believe that we need it and most importantly deserve it. A negative axiom on this subject of belief states that if we don’t feel we truly deserve it, we don’t and thus won’t get it. Get it?

To believe that we deserve anything means that we have the power to deserve everything; it’s only a matter of degrees, inspiration, mindset and will. What stops us is the tension of the moment. If we can detach a bit, relax into our own self and be open to whatever, we’ll be able to realize two simple yet powerful and possibly life changing axioms: One is that we have the power to change our life and two is that we must use it wisely and before it is too late.

Now is the time.

From the Book of Szen