How do you stay in the present moment?

Hi, Spirit Being. I would like to share with you a dream i had, that relates to much on what you have spoken.

I am in a car with four other men, we are driving along, we are all young, these young men are all dressed differently, one with a funny hat on his head, each one dresed the way they liked. They are just being themselves, accepting each other for who they are, they are clowning around, talking to each other in a carefree way, chatting on just about anything, and passing lollies around. I am both the observer and participant in this dream and I realize how other people could view these men as unusual or even wierd and could also be embarassed to be in their company but for me I am comfortable and find pleasure in their company and find it so easy to be with them, it is enjoyable. Then a thought enters my head, I want to know where a certain woman is, I want to find her, I wonder what is she doing, who is she with, will I find her.

I awoke to this dream and slowly the insight came to me on what it was letting me know. One was the pleasure found in letting others just be themselves without the judgements, and to also be ourselves, and enjoy this whole game of just Being. This was like a re-inforcement of what life has been showing me, to take it on board at a deeper level. An offering of confidence.

The other was the unconscious things in our life, like the thought of where my lady friend was, it moved me from out of the Now and away from the pleasure of the whole experience, I realized how often I indulge in these thoughts about a certain person, with hardly or not even noticing that they take one out of the Now, and the realization came that these thoughts had come from a place of fear, another reminder of how fear holds us back and how we can be so blinded to it. With this understanding I was able to let go of this fear and be more aware of it in my daily life so as to embrace the living moment.

One more thing I saw was the innocence of it all, dressed the way they enjoyed, passing lollies around and chatting about anything. We were all young and with the innocence of youth. None of them saw anything wrong about the other. No conditions being made of any kind and being put on each other. The lollies symbolised the sweetness of life when we live like this. The chatting about anything is to be open to all of life. The different dress of each one was to show we are all unique individuals. The driving of the car with it's carefree passengers, or maybe concerned free is a better description, was showing a way we can journey in life.

The spirit of gratitude is with me in the contemplating of this dream and it's message. Life once again has shown it's never-ending support towards our unfoldment of the Spiritual Beings that we are. Only a simple dream but it is often the most simplest of things in life where we find the insight to take that extra step to move ever so deeper into the Now and into embracing who we are. It's as simple as just being ourselves.

Thanyou Spirit Being for your kind and insightful reply . May the Blessings Be.

Accepting others for who they are is very Important, sometimes as people we tend to control, which i believe also stems from our fears. Have i gone through this, yes many times. Control is never the answer, we have to allow people to express their Higher Expression, but if we control, we may never allow for a certain person to Express themselves fully. Living in society amongst others, it can be quite difficult with the pressures of the world to living a certain way. Its as if swimming up river against the flow.

Ekman wrote:
The other was the unconscious things in our life, like the thought of where my lady friend was, it moved me from out of the Now and away from the pleasure of the whole experience, I realized how often I indulge in these thoughts about a certain person, with hardly or not even noticing that they take one out of the Now

I can totally relate to what you said above, i'm experiencing this Now and it is all consuming. Been working on a way to calm my mind, as to not think so much about her, Breathing Exercise helps quite a bit.

Ekman wrote:One more thing I saw was the innocence of it all, dressed the way they enjoyed, passing lollies around and chatting about anything. We were all young and with the innocence of youth. None of them saw anything wrong about the other. No conditions being made of any kind and being put on each other. The lollies symbolised the sweetness of life when we live like this. The chatting about anything is to be open to all of life. The different dress of each one was to show we are all unique individuals. The driving of the car with it's carefree passengers, or maybe concerned free is a better description, was showing a way we can journey in life.

Very good interpretation of your Dream, the Joy of Life is to feel Free, as you said "to be yourself" to enjoy every moment Life has to offer aside from all the stereo types that are created in the world. I think once a person gets past that point where they finally Express Themselves for who they are, a new awakening most likely will happen. I haven't got to that point, but i Hope to.

I myself have a difficult time being myself when i'm around a woman i really like, something i'm sure will get easier, im really shy and have a difficult time expressing what i'm feeling, without being to clingy. Writing is the best way i express myself. Writing & the Spoken Word is Freedom.

This post was Truly Helpful Ekman, after reading it i was Amazed that everything you wrote i am experiencing Now. Thanks for Sharing

Many Blessings

Hi Spirit Being, Now it is my turn to relate to much of what you have said. I have struggled over the years with the very things you have mentioned . The shyness and so forth. It is good that you have been guided to using the Breath and Writing, these same things have helped me immensely, it goes to show the Universe is working for you and you are opening to It's guidance. And thankyou so much in reminding me of Freedom. This is what I needed to be reminded of at this time in my life. The experience of freedom has been very real for me but sometimes I forget and fall back into old ways of seeing things. I want to relate a story to you that speaks of some of what you have written and how a dream and then a waking dream was used for me to make a leap in life. Another example of how the dream state works in harmony with our waking life. And what you say is so true, that these types of things do get easier.

There was a time when it would nearly be imposible for me to talk in a group or even to certain individuals and my stomach and throat would contract and sometimes my voice would come out like a strained squeak when I spoke in these situations. I new I had a problem here and so listened to the inner and outer guidance on what to do. One day while meditating I realised how my throat was rarely relaxed during these sessions. I had also read stuff written by different Masters and all of them spoke of the Heart. So in my meditations I started to not just tune into the Heart but to also focus on relaxing the throat. This is all I did for a few weeks and then when I felt I was getting somewhere with this, then the head region became involed in the meditation, around the 3rd eye region and the top of the head. When in the peace and silence of the meditation a number of options were open from here, I found these options were usually not very effective until in this peace and silence. Option one is to just remain in peace and silence and soak it in, the next option is to gently contemplate on something, like a problem and it's solution or some insight into something, chanting a sacred word also was good to do, another option is to take the meditation into an imaginary visualization, it may be a Master having a conversation with me or light surrounding me and moving through me, whatever. It can be amazing some of the insight we recieve by just imagining talking to a Master like this. This was all working fine for me but I get side-tracked and got involved in other types of meditations, jumping from this one to the next. Doing this wasn't working so well for me but I remained stubborn and kept going from one to another, even though a little voice was saying to continue with the Heart and Throat Meditation, I chose to ignore it at the time. The Universe or Life knew that I needed to continue on with this Heart and Throat Meditation, so this is what it did to get me to do this, to get me to drop my stubbornness.

A dream was given with a Master of last century in it, his name is Ramano Maharshi. He is the one of the Master's I had been reading about and also the main one that gave me the idea of being with the Heart at all times. In the dream he is laying on a couch and looking so at peace, he is cradling an old tennis ball in his hands on his lap as if giving all his love to it. I wake up wondering about the dream and what's with the tennis ball. I felt this was a significant dream, the Master, and Love, and that something in my waking life will be triggered with the apperance of a tennis ball and for me to be on the alert for this. Over the next couple of weeks I came across 7 or 8 tennis balls in the yard where I live. I knew these were from the children that used to live here but I had never realised so many were lying around the place. I found this interesting but I felt there is still more to come, then about a week after this when I'd nearly forgotten about it all, it happened, I am at a meeting with my children's teacher, at their school, and while the teacher is talking I notice that all the chairs in the room had a tennis ball under each leg to prevent the floor from being scratched, someone had cut a slit in each ball for the chair legs to fit in it, eighty or so tennis balls altogether, I knew straight away that I needed to be totally aware, a gift was going to be given this night. I listened intently on every word the teacher said, maybe some Golden Tounged Wisdom will be spoken from her on whatever it is I needed to know, but nothing was coming, I listened intently on what my partner also had to say but nothing still, and then I saw it, behind the teachers head on a large blackboard was a large drawing of a human Heart drawn in chalk and then next to that was a drawing of a throat. There was no doubt for me then that the Heart and Throat Meditation was the most useful meditation for me to be involved in at this time of my life. This meditation comes with me throughout my day and not just while I'm in my chair meditating. And I believe that also through this meditation came the breakthrough for me to comfortably talk while a group of people are listening, no more squeaky voice. And, yes, you are right, these type of things do get easier. Everything is available for each of us to take the next step, all we have to do is be open to it and make it available. As you have found with the Breath and Writing, Spirit Being.

The new Awakening you speak of Spirit Being is happening Now. We open to Life gradually and Life opens to us gradually. The breakthrough comes when we stop seeking and waiting, this is when Life is able to reveal itself in greater splendor to us. The space that is filled by seeking and waiting needs to be emptied then Life fills this void with it's magic, it's a filfulling emptiness, one way to empty this space and let life flow is to live as it is already so. No more seeking and waiting. Notice the Masters use words like, Emptiness, Nothingness, Stillness to describe the state of Being that they are living, they have Emptied themselves, and everyone of them says it's All Here Now, they don't wait for some future time to experience the majesty of Life.

Here are some words of Osho from an article titled "Say Yes to Life"-- The mind is telling you continuously, "Postpone it. There is always tomorrow". And the tomorrow never comes. The person who postpones any good act for tomorrow is postponing it forever; he will never be able to do it. If you postpone it to-day you are learning a habit of postponing. To-day you say, "Tomorrow". You are creating a pattern of life, a style of life. Tomorrow will come as to-day again and the habit will say, "We will do it tomorrow.
The mind always goes on giving you great promises, but tomorrow, not today. And tomorrow never comes. And slowly, hoping becomes your very life, just hoping and waiting, and death comes--- and no hope is ever fulfilled. Osho

Every difficult time we come across is an opportunity to move beyond ourselves. To break through our barriers, move beyond them. And we feel the Freedom each time we do this, , we have dropped excess baggage, , phony beleifs. Much of humanity today is under the illusion that they need another person to be happy. When a lover leaves us or does not give us the attention we seek, we feel hurt, and if we become identified with the pain and live it regularly we are then attached to the belief that we need that person for our happiness. While we continually live pain we attract pain. One of the most difficult experiences in my life led me to breaking through this barrier and the result was immense Freedom and a very valuable lesson in Unconditional Love. Thankyou again Spirit Being for this reminder and the sharing of the wisdom that is moving through you and for the opportunity to share.

May the Blessings Be.