There is in us feeling, sometimes stronger sometimes weaker feeling that there is a better world somewhere else... or it was in the past... or it will be in the future... The greatest of our teachers point in the quite opposite direction. There is here and now. Jesus said that Kingdom of God is already among us, Buddha said that true love lives in the here and now. Rumi said that this moment is all there is...
There are more contemporary teachers that encourage us strongly to live in the moment: Pema Chodron, Richard Rohr, Willigis Jager and others...
But for us, ordinary people the most important question is: why should we live here and now? Why shouldn't we worry about our future or future of our children? Why can't we celebrate our past successes or our happy childhood if we had one?
To answer to this important question let me give you an example. Let's say that you sit with your family, is Christmas or Diwali or Eid Al-Fitror or Hanukkah or Vesak or just Sunday afternoon and all members of your family look at the pictures from ten years ago when you were younger and slimmer and you were on your holiday. Instead of focus on the pictures here and now, instead of enjoying happy memories here and now your brain starts wondering... Hmm I was so slim, and much healthier... not any more though... happy days but... Do you understand? Your mind pulls you out of the present moment and starts gathering all the information from past and future, especially the upsetting ones...
The present moment brings you enough joy or enough sadness, just right... to move forward with gratefulness for your life...
Everything added to the present moment brings us overjoy which make us insensitive to suffering of others or over-sadness which makes us depressed and unable to see light in our world...
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