ONE MOMENT AT A TIME
- Ma Medhanandi
Why are we here? Contemplate what it is that brings us to stop, to watch, to listen. Trusting our pilgrimage into truth. A journey into the unknown. The present moment unveiling itself before us, bringing we know not what -- pain perhaps, sadness, awareness of an anger locked deep within us. Recognition of a terrible grief that keeps our heart in a grip of despair. But in the present moment, we can be with it and let it go. Moment to moment. Not being frightened of it. Just feeling it. Breathing into it, whatever it is that arises in consciousness. Pouring the water of love and forgiveness into our hearts.
We are so small. How can this great love, this great emptiness, the whole vastness of the universe be found within us? How is it so? How to go deeply into the vast spaciousness of the mind?


Bringing awareness, fresh awareness, tender awareness, merciful awareness to each moment, opening slowly. A flower blooms in its time. The heart opens as it is able. If we force it, we destroy the flower. We can not peel open the petals of a rosebud before their time. Be that bud. Be that rose. Opening gently, holding our pain just for this moment. Not frightened of all the moments that we may have to hold it. But, just this much. Now. That's all we have. No yesterday. No tomorrow. This is all we have.
We die to our pain and we heal into life. Accepting it all. Not separate from any pain that may arise. But being wholly with it. Being completely with it. Becoming whole by finding peace with it. Be aware if you're sliding back into the past, or tipping into the future. It's a question of balance. Like walking a tight rope. Staying in the present moment.
Listening to the silence. Hearing the rain gently tapping on the window panes. Listening to our own heart beating, and the incessant chatter of the mind. Listening to the grinding of our sinews, to that finest detail of our own being. Breathing our breath. Receiving the thoughts. And letting them slip through, like visitors, temporary guests. Arising. Ceasing. Coming in one door -- the mind door and leaving again. If we engage, if we believe our thoughts, if we invite them to stay, we will become lost. Going back into the past, and the future, or analysing the present moment. No, we let them go. Knowing their impermanence. No matter how interesting, how intriguing, how absorbing -- we let them go. We know thought as thought. Not my thought. Just thought. Like bubbles. Like the foam on a wave. Like a mirage. They're born and they die. Just as this body.


All that arises, all that takes birth ceases. That is the law of dhamma, the natural law and we abide with it. We find our refuge in that. We fully accept. We make peace with it. And in that acceptance there is true happiness to be realised. The joy behind the sorrow. Hidden and revealing itself to us moment by precious moment. To be fully alive. If we are not alive now in awareness, we are as if dead.
Listening we reflect. Not thinking. The thoughts come and go. Reflecting we understand. the phenomena of body. Body as body. The physical phenomena. The mental phenomena. Thoughts, feelings, perceptions, moods arising and ceasing. Memory. Mental objects. Moods. Weariness, sleepiness, restlessness. Boredom, regret, anxiety. Anger. Sadness. Joy. Whatever we feel. Feel it with all of our humanity. Breathe into it. Allow it to wash through us.
Fear. Feeling it. Knowing it for what it is. And letting it go. And if it arises again, we feel it again. Taste it. Tremble with it, allow it to pound through us. Breathing deeply into that fear. The pain in the body. The pain in the heart. Whatever it is. Letting it be and being with it completely.
What a great burden we can put down. We don't have to hang onto the past. Or be lost in our hopes and dreams. Just coming back to the knowledge, the knowing of this moment. That's all there is to know. Truly. Opening to the mystery of what is arising and ceasing within us. Allowing our hearts to really open. So we can be that rose in the sun awakening to the dawn. Live. Feel. Know. Trust. A pilgrimage of trust -- Trust and insight into our real nature. Is there anyone there? Anything solid to stand on? Just the constantly changing flow of phenomena in the body and the mind. No One there. Just One-ness, the unity of the mind, knowing, being with.
And the flame of awareness, a loving light shining in all directions. Unmasking every hidden crevice in our hearts. Oh pilgrim, please wait. Don't even wait, just listen."The world will roll in ecstasy at your feet."