The Sacred Moment

         It is quite common for people who are seeking, to be constantly looking for a better moment.  “I want a moment better than this one, so I’m willing to wait for the future for it to come.  I know it’s not this moment.”  We are all waiting for a better moment.  But, this is the moment.  It is always THIS moment that needs to be met. It needs to be met with your love, with your tenderness, with your caring, with your life. We say, “Well, I am reserving that for a better moment.”  And we kind of hold back a little bit. “This moment isn’t worthy of that.”
 
I was thinking, “What if John F. Kennedy was a Satsang Teacher, what would he say?”  He would say, “Ask not what this moment can do for you, but what you can do for this moment.”  That is a John F. Kennedy Satsang Teacher. We think it is about the content of the moment. We think the moment has got to have the right content.  It has nothing to do with the content. It is what you bring to it. It is what YOU bring! 

A student shared the other evening that she walked up the same driveway every night and had to lug a lot of stuff. Some days she brought love to the moment, and some days she did not. She could tell the difference. It was the same moment in terms of content, but a different moment in what was brought to it.

We suffer a great deal comparing moments; comparing this moment with the other moment that was better.  Particularly, we get into complaining about the content of the moment. We complain these people or this moment did not behave properly. There was not enough joy in this moment. “I don’t feel the way I want in this moment. This isn’t the enlightened moment that I wanted.”  What if you realized that it is not about the content?  It is always this moment.  It needs all your love, all your caring, and all your tenderness.
 
Just imagine if I, as your Satsang teacher, had said, “I don’t think I like the people that came to this retreat very much.  I had better ones last retreat.” I started making all kinds of judgments about the people on the retreat. I know that is everybody’s fear.  But that is not what Satsang is. Satsang is this moment. It is the only moment. It is always the best moment. This is the best group. Everyone is the best one.

When you go to Adya’s Satsangs, the group leader often says, “This has been such a great group. This is the best group.” This is the feeling. It is a feeling of great respect. It does not matter who you think you are, or what your struggles are. It does not matter. There is a tremendous respect that you came here. There is a tremendous respect that you are willing to take this time to look into what is true. There is a holding of all, with love. For me, there is a gratitude that anybody came at all, because it is just I, rattling on. The rattling on that I do is how I remember.  It is how I keep my freshness for the truth. Teachers need Satsang, too. They need people willing to come. 

I offered a Satsang a number of weeks ago and only one person came, and that is ok for Satsang. It is always the willingness to bring your very best; no matter what it looks like, no matter what the people look like, or the contents, or the weather, or the stuff.  Awakening is about letting go of all the complaining, all the judging, and all the comparing.  I gave a talk quite some time ago that awakening is the end of judgment.  It is the end of condemnation and judging. Some people would rather keep Complaining Mind, Judging Mind, and Comparing Mind, because it keeps the “me” alive.  It keeps the “the egoic me” alive. This is the illusion. As long as I have something to complain about, to judge about, or can compare or contrast myself to someone else, I come out slightly ahead. I am getting some benefit out of this.

         To awaken, I have to give it all up. I have to shed all those characters that have become very familiar friends. Complaining Mind is a very familiar friend. I have to say, “Complaining Mind, you’ve been a faithful companion for a long time. I have to say good-bye now.”  “Judging Mind”, I say, “I’m not going to put myself above someone else. I’m not going to rank people, and rank myself in some hierarchy. Such nonsense! Judging Mind, you’ve been with me all my life and you’ve been very, very good at what you do. I’m afraid I have to say good-bye. There’s something that I’ve seen that’s better.” Comparing Mind is skilled at comparing this moment with another moment. I tell Comparing Mind, “ I know that comparing has seemed to be lot of fun, and I seem to get some vicarious thrill out of remembering something that was better than this. I see clearly now, you’re not really of any value. You’re making me miserable. So, I have to say good bye to you too.” These characters are just dark clouds. When the clouds are released, I awaken to the brightness and warmth of the sun.

         Imagine I am convinced that all my life has been a really bad, never ending winter. I have a heavy winter coat and big Canuck hat, with its big flaps and big mittens and boots, and I’m trudging around. I notice, “Gosh, some other people are wearing shorts and tee shirts. But it’s so darn cold. I don’t see how they do it.”   They say to me, “Don’t you know it’s spring?”  I respond, “Oh no!  It’s winter and it’s very, very cold. I need my heavy clothing: the clothing of complaint, the clothing of judging, the clothing of comparing and wanting it to be better and all the rest.” What if I were willing to awaken from this hypnosis—that this is somehow valuable to me? Do I need this? Does this define me? I have been defining myself by whom I am better than. This is how egoic identity stays alive: “I’m better than this person; this can define me. I’ve known better moments; this defines me.” At some point, I give up and chuck all the clothes. There I am in a bathing suit and tee shirt ready to meet the moment. Then I find, “Hey!  It’s not cold after all!”  It is sunny. It is spring. I did not need all the clothing that I thought I needed. I feel kind of naked because I am used to wearing lots and lots of clothes. I feel more vulnerable, but I can hug a tree and feel it. I could not with all that clothing on. I am not wearing shoes, so I can feel the grass under my feet. I could not feel it with my heavy boots.

         At one point, I see it is not about the right moment. I do not need the moment to be the right one for me. I need to be right for the moment. I am that which colors it.  If I bring complaints, the moment will start looking pretty ugly, very quickly. If I bring love, even to what appears as really bad circumstances, there is sweetness in it.  There is a sweetness in the courage to bring love to meet difficult moments. How beautiful is this courage, to bring heart to that which seems to have no heart. Yet, although I am afraid at first, I bring my heart anyway because that is the only thing I know how to do. My reaction to the moment is not creating me anymore. In the complaining, judging, comparing, the wanting, the wanting a better moment, I was creating a “me” that was unreal. When I bring all my heart to the moment, I discover the simple peace of “being.”
 
         This is a poem that I wrote as a student.  It is about meeting the moment—how we can meet the moment and what happens to the content, as one keeps meeting the moment.  It is called “The Great Embrace.” 

         The Great Embrace
         The State of Grace
         touches each moment with a tender kiss

         The me that thought it was
         and found it was not
         disappears like the morning mist
         it was loved but it won’t be missed

        
         As new me’s arise…
         it matters not to which body they think they belong.
         There are fearful me’s, lonely me’s, angry me’s,
         ambitious me’s, spiritual me’s,
         hopeful of enlightenment me’s

         they are but dreams, that will disappear like the morning mist
         they are loved and kissed so tenderly,
         but when they’re gone, they won’t be missed

         Awakening is the knowing
         I am the Great Embrace
         I am the State of Grace

         and choosing to live fully
         that which only knows one thing—
         to love and touch each moment with a tender kiss.

 

The classical thinking is “I am waiting for the super moment to come to me.” Enlightenment is going to be about the moment that comes to me. Not this moment, obviously.  Some moment is going to come to me in the future. That will be the moment I will be graced.” 

To touch each moment with a tender kiss, whatever it is—even if the moment doesn’t seem pleasant. Love what you have. Even if the moment does not seem to meet the expectation of mind. Remember, This is the Moment. Because “This is the Moment”, I give it my heart. It is what I do. When you know yourself, it is the only thing you know how to do. You lose the ability to live in the old way. It becomes a total turn around. Become the grace that you are, and live from that. You can be the grace of this moment, and the moment will appear transformed. You have the power, with your love, to uncover what looks like a pretty ordinary, not very exciting moment—maybe even an unpleasant moment—and then see it revealed as The Sacred Moment.

 

Norman Scrimshaw - August 2008