I’m Here. I Just Want to Be Here, Now

The more we can say, “I’m here. I just want to be here, now fully embracing this moment” the less we suffer. The practice is to breathe in “yes“ to what is before us in this moment, and breathe out “thank you“ for the gift of this moment, recognizing that we may not see that gift for some time as we are caught in our suffering and attachments.

Breathing in, say “yes” to just being. Breathing out, say “thank you” for the gift of being. With this practice our doing lines up and we wake up from the illusion of our separateness, from the fear and greed that would lead us to cause harm to others.

We can learn to move with the sense of the sacred, with the reverence for the gift of this moment. The Bible asks us to be still and experience God. The Buddha recognizes the suffering that comes from our attachments, and the relief that comes when we let them go. When we let go of the thoughts of the mind and fully enter the body we alleviate the stress that is the cause of so much disease. Brother David Steindl-Rast eloquently speaks about the benefits of gratitude. He says that we feed our gratitude with the recognition for the gift of opportunity to participate. We can always find something to be grateful for, even if it comes down to participating in the gift of the next precious breath. When we pull the mind back, allow thoughts and beliefs to dissipate, we experience joy in the experience of the divine here and now, the experience of heaven, here and now. The suffering that comes from grasping or pushing away can be alleviated by fully entering the experience of the body and touching the sacred in all.