When we most need the ability to stay present is when we are are going through a difficult time.
Yet this is precisely when many of us find it the hardest to stay present!
Lots of people who have been on a spiritual path for years are even struggling right now.
The economic downturn has people worried. The global weather situation is also precarious, with perhaps as many as 20 million affected by flooding in Pakistan, over a thousand dead in China in floods, flooding in central Europe, with fires raging in Russia and pushing up the price of wheat on the world market—not to get into the political and military tensions all over the planet.
So why, when we most need a calm presence, do difficult times tend to throw us off our spiritual equilibrium? What is it about such times that make it tough to stay centered, peaceful, and present?
The answer lies in the fact that it’s one thing to have a mental concept of what presence is and what it means to be conscious, and quite another to actually be a conscious person who can stay present without even trying.
Consciousness is a state of being, not a concept.
Though to be conscious affects our thinking, it’s far more than an improved way of thinking. Indeed thought is often what blocks our ability to simply be in the present moment continuously.
To be enlightened, conscious, and present in each now moment is actually the most natural thing in the world.
It's a completely relaxed state of mind that doesn't require "efforting" to bring about. On the contrary, it arises spontaneously, effortlessly, and naturally.
But first we have to be in touch with our natural self, not just with a concept of who we are supposed to be.
David Robert Ord is author of Your Forgotten Self Mirrored in Jesus the Christ and the audio book Lessons in Loving--A Journey into the Heart, both from Namaste Publishing, publishers of Eckhart Tolle and other transformational authors. He writes The Compassionate Eye daily, together with his daily author blog The Sunday Blog, at www.namastepublishing.com.