The First Facet

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Embracing the Present Moment

The husband replied, "Well, in reality, darling, the only difference is that I got up early this morning and cleaned the window."

Each of us has been looking through a window all our lives. Tainted by the beliefs and ideas we have adopted from the past, its distorted surface creates our world and governs our perception of the universe. In most cases, our windows are covered in the grime and dust of a lifetime, clouding our vision, blocking the light of the truth from view.

The window of the mind becomes dirty when the subconscious is full of self-criticism and fear-based opinions. Unfortunately, this is the case for many of us — erratic, incessant thoughts are our constant companions. Our adult minds are in perpetual chaos and contradiction. Our thoughts jostle endlessly for our attention, as we jump from one distraction to another. This incessant thinking affects our entire nervous system.

How does it do this? The answer lies in vibration. Our thoughts have a vibration, just as any sound has a vibration. Those vibrations resound within the nervous system, affecting our inner vibratory rate. When our thoughts are erratic and conflictive, they create a dissonant vibration in the body. When our thoughts are harmonious and creative, the vibration of union envelops us, and everything that is not vibrating in that frequency begins to fall away naturally.

The Restlessness of Humanity

We seldom feel complete in the present moment. In the modern world, people at all levels of society and in every walk of life struggle with a feeling of underlying dissatisfaction and unrest. We often find ourselves yearning for something more — no matter what we have achieved in our lives, the fulfillment we so desire remains elusive.

Many of us find that our attention constantly gravitates toward what is wrong with our lives. We hardly ever focus on appreciating all the wonderful things we have; instead we habitually criticize our surroundings, blaming the outside for our discontent. We are seldom in the present moment long enough to embrace the magic of the now.

I have always been an overachiever, putting all my heart into everything I do. But for much of my life, it was never enough. I felt dissatisfied with myself, always expecting more. Incapable of fully appreciating the things I had accomplished, I was incessantly focused on what was missing.

In fact, although I appeared to be a powerful, successful, and confident woman, deep down I always doubted myself. I criticized myself constantly, and although I was not aware of it, beneath my self-assured personality lay a great deal of fear.

To some extent, we all experience this disillusionment. No matter where we are on this planet, we can feel discontented, though we blame our inner torment on our location or circumstances. It can happen in our great cities; despite all the constant distractions of our push-button world and the pervasive presence of people in our metropolises, individuals die of deep depression and loneliness right in the heart of places like Manhattan and Buenos Aires. And it can happen in the country, to those surrounded only by the natural world and the people they love. Wherever we are, we feel intense regret, guilt, and pain as a result of things that have happened in our lives, and we yearn for things we wish would happen. This is the insanity of the human condition — our minds' tendency to always be dwelling on the past or projecting into the future, thereby making us miserable.

Most of us have an idea of how happiness should look. We tend to see happiness as a future moment — when we can afford a bigger house, when we can buy a new car, when we find the perfect partner, when the children grow up, when we retire.

Have you noticed that when you achieve your goals — the better job, the bigger house, the new partner — there is always something more for you to set your heart on? It seems that no matter what we achieve, fulfillment is always beyond our grasp. Why is nothing ever enough?

We are waiting for something to happen, anything that might bring us the satisfaction that has eluded us for so long. The future seems to hold our only hope for true fulfillment, while the present moment — where we are all along, without any effort — is where we least expect to find it.

What prevents us from discovering the beauty of life lived in the now? The cause is not external, as we may have often thought, but internal. It lies within our own minds.

The Matrix of the Mind

The intellect is one of the great treasures of the human experience. It provides the means for constant evolution. Scientific discoveries and recent advances in communication and technology pay homage to its brilliance, and on a more personal level, it provides essential abilities, such as discernment and comparison, to help us make decisions in our daily lives.

Yet the scope of the mind, although varied and fascinating, is limited. It cannot fully understand the complexities of love, for example. Instead, it tends to focus on the mundane and flits incessantly from thought to thought. Even in the midst of great beauty — watching the sun set over a golden hillside, for example — the mind wanders to other times, other places ...

"Wow! That sunset is amazing. They say a sunset like this means we'll have a clear day tomorrow. I sure hope so, because it's my only day off and I have so much to do. I should really go to the gym first thing in the morning — I've got to lose some weight! And then I have to go to the hardware store to buy paint, do laundry, get the house ready for the guests to arrive, and figure out what to cook for dinner. The last time we had people over, they really liked that pasta dish — maybe I should make that again. Too bad the birthday cake our friends...