I have written several posts in the past about how to plan for the future while still being present (“As a Buddhist, How Do You Think About the Future?” and “As a Buddhist … Revisited - Planning Without Thinking”) Those posts accepted as a basic fact of life that one needs to plan how to get from point A to point B in one’s life.
But I was just writing a note for someone and was going to include this point, when it hit me! If you are present, or if you want to be present, there can be no point B that you aspire to. Period.
Now, at some stages of one’s life, planning how to get from point A to point B is inescapable. For example, you want to send your children to college. One has to plan how to either save the necessary money or combine that with scholarships to achieve that goal. It won’t just happen by itself. The phrase, que sera sera, just doesn’t apply to such a situation. My posts of how to do that and still be present the rest of the time by not obsessing about the future and planning without thinking remain relevant and helpful.
However, regarding most of the point Bs in our life, they are unnecessary and are only an object of our ego mind at work. Why do we need to know where we are headed? Because we want the sense of security that brings. But there is no such thing as security in the normal sense because all things are impermanent and changeable. One is only secure when one accepts that fact, is present, and lets go of the search for security.
You’d think I wouldn’t be surprised anymore, but I still am amazed at how many things are so deeply embedded in our habit-energies that we don’t even realize that they run counter to the Buddha dharma and need to be let go of if we want to be at peace, present, open to all the present moment has to offer, grateful, and find happiness in the moment.
But I was just writing a note for someone and was going to include this point, when it hit me! If you are present, or if you want to be present, there can be no point B that you aspire to. Period.
Now, at some stages of one’s life, planning how to get from point A to point B is inescapable. For example, you want to send your children to college. One has to plan how to either save the necessary money or combine that with scholarships to achieve that goal. It won’t just happen by itself. The phrase, que sera sera, just doesn’t apply to such a situation. My posts of how to do that and still be present the rest of the time by not obsessing about the future and planning without thinking remain relevant and helpful.
However, regarding most of the point Bs in our life, they are unnecessary and are only an object of our ego mind at work. Why do we need to know where we are headed? Because we want the sense of security that brings. But there is no such thing as security in the normal sense because all things are impermanent and changeable. One is only secure when one accepts that fact, is present, and lets go of the search for security.
You’d think I wouldn’t be surprised anymore, but I still am amazed at how many things are so deeply embedded in our habit-energies that we don’t even realize that they run counter to the Buddha dharma and need to be let go of if we want to be at peace, present, open to all the present moment has to offer, grateful, and find happiness in the moment.
RSS Feed
