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You can imagine that there are two ways of moving through life. In the one, we live in a world of fixed ideas, while in the other, we live in a world of pure existence. In the first way, our lives are full of anxiety, because the real world never quite matches up with our fixed ideas. In the second way, our lives are vibrant and alive, because we’re free to move with the currents and tides of life.

The following writing helps us to see the difference between living in the present moment, and living in the world of ideas. It’s important to remember, however, that what follows is only another idea. The actual experience of the present moment is spontaneous, pure, and quite beyond words. Don’t get trapped into trying to force a state of being which can only emerge naturally.

Still, it’s possible that this writing will help you become aware that there is a way of living which is profoundly different than the one we’re normally used to.

Your State of Wealth

Are you wealthy? Sit with that question for a moment before you go on. Your answer is important.

–o0o–

Whatever your answer was, it probably reveals that you have a fixed idea of what wealth is, and also how that fixed idea applies to you.

What if I told you that no matter what your bank account says, you can be immeasurably wealthy one moment, and be completely penniless the next? I don’t mean that you can lose your wealth. What I mean is that you can be penniless even if you have a million dollars, and you can be a millionaire even if you don’t have a cent.

Right away, we rebel against this idea. Why? Because we live in a world of fixed ideas. Either we’re wealthy or we’re not. We may qualify this by comparing ourselves to others (or to our own goals and aspirations), but the point is that we’re no longer able to experience our true state of wealth. Let me explain.

Dumpster Diving

Rebecca and I have been lucky enough to experience a wide range of wealth. We both came from well-to-do families, but we’ve also experienced times when we were scrounging for food in dumpsters, and walking along the sides of the road looking for potatoes that had fallen out of farmer’s trucks. During my time in the woods, I was also able to experience a situation where almost all of one’s food came from foraged wild edibles.

There have also been periods of great abundance, when we felt like we had more wealth than we knew what to do with.

The odd thing? We don’t look back on either of those ‘states of wealth’ as preferable to the other. And when we look into our future, we don’t feel a driving need to move toward either of those two states.

Momentary Wealth

The reason is this – when we’re able to experience our present moment, we discover that wealth is momentary. I may have a million dollars in the bank, but when I’m walking down a country road barefoot, I’m a man without any shoes on an empty road. How much money do I have with me? None at all. I’m absolutely penniless, and the funny thing is that I could walk down that road just as easily regardless of how much money I had in the bank. In that moment, I have no money, and amazingly, I can enjoy life regardless.

Or perhaps I have only a hundred dollars to my name, with bills looming at the end of the month. I go down to the local diner because they are having their $4.50 All-You-Can-Eat special, and the waitress is so polite that I decide to leave her a $10.00 tip. In that moment, I’m exceedingly wealthy, both in my own experience and in the eyes of the waitress.

Look at the psychology here. If I’m walking down the country road, I’m walking down the country road, regardless of whether I have a billion dollars or one dollar. It is only my fixed ideas about wealth that can affect the quality of my experience (for instance, if I think I’m lacking money, I could spend the whole time worrying about how I’ll pay the bills and miss out on the entire experience of the walk).

And in the case of the ten dollar tip, ten bucks won’t make a real difference in my actual finances (for instance, if I have $1,000 in bills looming at the end of the month, what difference does ten dollars make?), but most of us, when we feel we are in financial troubles, cling tightly to every dollar, living in a state of fear and anxiety about money. What if we saw that wealth is a momentary state, and could experience abundance or lack of money in each moment?

Our minds would soon begin to release the pent-up anxiety we’re so used to feeling. Instead, when we actually have physical money in our hands, we would be wealthy, and when we don’t, we would be penniless.

Living in the Moment

The magic of living in this way is that we find ourselves able to relate to the world as it is presented. Consider other people. If I think of myself as wealthy, it’s easy to frown down upon those who are in poverty and to look with envy at those who have millions or billions more than me. If I think of myself as poor, I might feel intimidated by wealthy people or helpless in getting the things I want out of life.

However, if I think of myself as immeasurably wealthy and simultaneously penniless (depending on my moment), I suddenly find that I need not compare myself to anyone. Most importantly, I don’t have to compare myself to my own preconceived ideas. My anxiety about money evaporates, and my need to box myself or others also evaporates.

This is the magic of living in the moment. It’s not just wealth that this applies to, but all of our ideas about ourselves – our health, our happiness, our intelligence or creativity, our talents and goals. For instance, if I think I am a healthy person, I’ll be frustrated when I’m injured or sick. If I think of myself as sickly, I’ll ignore my moments of health because I’m dreading the return of my illness or disability.

We also play this game in our relationship with the world, seeing the world as chaotic or predictable, cruel or kind. When we box the world, we soon find ourselves frustrated because the world doesn’t always move according to plan.

Our Amazing World

The world is alive, vibrant, and appearing right before us in every moment. This experience is amazing – not only do we find the world to be beautiful beyond comprehension, but we find ourselves strangely free – unbound by our usual ideas of who we are and how we have to behave. Freed in this manner, we discover a talent that we have long forgotten – an ability to move with the flow of each moment to elicit a perfect outcome. This ability is stifled the moment we decide that we, or the world, has certain qualities or must behave in a certain way. Then we interrupt the flow and find ourselves fighting the current of life.

Immersing ourselves in the vibrancy of life requires a switch to a whole new way of living. For lack of a better word, I call this way non-dualism. It’s not about acting a certain way or trying to get a new perspective — it’s about looking at the roots of our world-view and seeing them for what they are.

When we do this, the change happens automatically, and we find that our old world of symbols was covering up the most wondrous thing we could ever imagine.

This.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 2:04 am and is filed under Being Present. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be queued for moderation and posted as quickly as possible.