Just Be

There is one thing I am told over and over again whenever I am feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or when there is not Peace in my heart, mind and soul... That is: "Just Be."

I never realized how following two simple words can be such a challenge in this life. 

My mind never stops working, asleep and awake. There is always thoughts running through it, even intruding when I meditate and pray.

The past always seems to haunt me, what has happened, what I blundered, what I could have said or done differently, what others could have said or done differently, wondering about the intentions for the past scenes that are well beyond the closing curtain of time...

The future is another fun hobby of my mind. It jumps to what is scheduled for the day, the ever-growing to-do list, the plans I have for the future, the plans I'd like to have for the future, and even wondering what I will face when I close my eyes forever to this existence and move completely beyond.

Then, if I'm actually able to push both past and future from my mind, my creative side answers the call on line two. Stories I've been working on in my mind spring to life, new ones start to burble away. Things I want to tweet dance in my head, as well as the non-stop projection of fantasy.

My fantasy facility is a huge megaplex! There are so many events, stories, even alternate lives I live in the confines of my fantasy. This is different than creating stories to tell; this is stepping through the looking glass.

When I was the outcast one, both at home and at school, I had only my fantasies to turn to. They've become quite skillful in drawing me into a world where I am loved, accepted, and shine in such a positive light. But I know, now, this is only my imagination, it is not reality until I am able to do these things in the now.

Thus we get back to the request: Just BE.

Our minds have been used to distract us from something. Our fantasies are the sweet candy to lure us from a life we despise to an illusion, rather than helping us change what we despise. Whether my reader considers this a tool of the adversary (devil, ego or dark side of the force), or just a stumbling block that is within humanity, we can overcome this.

There is a difference between "living in the now" and just being. The first step forward IS to focus on the present. We need to become aware of everything around us, people, places, events, life! We can do this intermittently when we pause and just experience life. Also when we pray or meditate, not the times we say prayers to God or focus on our breathing, but the moments when we are completely still and just listen and feel.

How little we pause from our non-stop thinking and doing? How often do we disconnect from the internet, from reading, from doing, from speaking, from thinking. Just stop in complete stillness where we can feel the air touch our skin and move in and out of our lungs, feel our heart beating in our chest, and observe all that is around us as though we are experiencing it all for the very first time?

That is part of the problem our minds present. We are constantly thinking, even when we don't realize it. When we observe something, we really don't see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, feel it, smell it - we don't fully observe. Our minds are wired in a way that the tiniest of observations will automatically draw from our vast storehouse of experience. Our minds run through all the times our senses have experienced the same, and we don't experience it fully as we do the first time.

This is the reason we naturally observe things that are out-of-place or different than we expect more, rather than all things as they currently are. We are far more likely to react to a cup of coffee where the creamer has turned sour or the sweetener is missing than just the cup of coffee itself.

For example, take your routine beverage you drink every day. Even before it sits before you, you know what it looks like, what it tastes like, what it smells like, what it will feel like in your mouth, the weight of the container that holds it, how that container will feel like in your hands. You even recall having it in the past, possibly including the first time this beverage crossed your lips. It's all there - in your mind, ready to leap from the drawer in which it was filed.

Now, try to clear your mind of all this; clear you mind completely of the past experiences. Clear your mind of future thoughts, where you anticipate a repetition of how everything will be. Try - focus - to experience it for the first time. Don't just drink it down, savor every experience, ever sensation each and every one of your senses are telling you.

That is living in the now.

That is the first step.

The next step is even trickier - the just be part. But, as I've been told, is not so difficult when one can fully live in the present moment often enough. For you see, God is not in our past; God is not in our future; (S)He is in the present moment - eternally. The past and future are in our minds; God is outside of time. The present - the now - is where God connects with us.

Yes, God was with us in what we perceive as the past - when we experienced the past as now. God will be with us when we reach what we currently perceive is the future - when we also experience that as now. But only when it's experienced as now.

Yesterday, I had several lengthy moments (several minutes of duration), where - without even trying - I was living in the now. While I have tried to reach this point through exercises and mediation for years, this just happened to naturally occur on its own.

Everything, every breath was new. Every little thing my eyes saw from the fluttering leaves, to flying birds, to the texture of walls and roof tiles - was as though I saw it for the first time. Everything I heard from the crunch of car tires, to people conversing - not just the words but the tone, timbre, pitch and pure music of their voices, to the wind rustling the leaves and stirring the air around me, all new. The scents, from the moist soil in the garden beds, the cooking from all the surrounding restaurants, even the scent of my own hair and clothes - was being experienced. I felt the wind through my hair, tugging at my clothing and brushing my exposed cheeks and hands. I felt the ground beneath my feet, the worn spots of my sneakers, the shift of my clothing as my body moved. It was all for the first time.

There was something else I observed as I experienced these moments. It was an awareness of how connected I was to everything around me. While my mind understood some concept that we are all interconnected, to our fellow human beings and everything around us, this was not at all what I pictured during those mental exercises. I'd pictured sort of a mind-shift dual picture - my body, his/her body where I'd experience both. But it's not. It's just an awareness that I'm ... beyond, for lack of a better word, the body. I experience all that the body does, but at the same time, I am completely part of all that is around me. A mental expansion, I guess. I was one with the wind, with other people, with the pavement, with the trees, with it all. In harmony.

And I experienced that too - for the first time.

I think this is a half-step toward the Just Be. For I do understand something about that. Just being isn't what I described above. That's part of it, but there is a whole other element. We must not only relinquish past and future (and fantasy) in our minds, we must also relinquish our independent will. Does this mean doing everything another person tells us? No. This means taking a step outside our own personal wants, wishes and safe place and finding that joint will - finding the place where humanity and the divine wills meet. For that is where God meets us, completely.

When we reach a point where we can Just Be, God works through us, in milliseconds or through a whole life. It will be the duration of our own choosing, how long we set aside our independent will.

I do not speak of avatars or possessions, I speak of joint-wills, connecting us with our fellow human beings and with God. For every time we make a decision ourselves, when we think about what words we say, when we plan what we will do - we think and will independently. There is a beautiful saying that sums it up nicely:

Let go. ~ Let GOD.

From there, the blessings will certainly flow.