One of the goals of Buddhist practice is to learn to live in the present moment. Last Sunday you listened to Zen Priest Maezen talk about the opportunity in every situation to awaken to the present moment - and I’d like to expand on that.

But first lets examine what we mean by “present moment” or the “now.” In terms of time - the conventional concept of “now” is that it is some tiny point on a continuous timeline that separates past from future. That the “now” or “present” has a duration of time - a beginning and an end. But is that true? As soon as we refer to a moment of time - it has already passed. This is a favorite topic of philosophers which I shall leave for them to debate.

However is your “now” the same is my “now?” In other words is there a universal timeline or as science says is time relativity depending upon the observer?

So, if the present moment is different for each on of us depending upon the qualities of our past and future - then the experience of “present moment” has a certain aliveness, a reality of immediacy not present in our experience of past and future. However, (if you think about it) ultimately every experience is always happening

in the “present moment” - even re-living some past event becomes the present. So from a philosophical perspective we can say that the present moment is all there really is.

From the Buddhist perspective learning to live in the” present moment” is important because it is in being fully present where we will transcend suffering. But this is one of the most challenging as well as rewarding things we face. Most of us, myself included, only ever really do this on very rare occasions…most of us paradoxically cannot find the “time’ to be in the present. Simply sitting and looking at the sunrise as it creates the day, or sunset as it creates the night, a growing rose, an ant as it struggles with a load that it is carrying, fraction by fraction, moment by moment, second by second is to live in and to experience the sheer beauty of things as they are. It is surrendering to the present moment. When we can do this then we are free and will have power to create the reality we want. Reality is not what has passed or as yet waits to come into being.

All of us have the ability to be present in our own life process and the process of life, the process of everything, moment by moment…we simply have to stop and be present in it. not try to live it, not try to be “spiritual” in it, not try to be anything else in it, but simply to be in it….

Most people spend all their moments, like a dog chasing its tail, searching and seeking for a little more happiness, a little more of this and that, a little more freedom, a little more joy, a little more pleasure, and a little less pain. We try to grab onto and hold onto that which inevitably is destined to slip away - but this is samsara - this is suffering.

I want to share with you a famous Zen Koan…

“One day, while walking through the wilderness, a traveller came face to face with a vicious grizzly bear. The man did an about face and ran for his life with the bear in hot pursuit.

The man ran and ran until he came to the edge of a cliff and could not run any further. The bear being almost upon him, left the man with little option but to climb over the side of the cliff holding onto a vine that he had spotted.

Halfway down the cliff, the man looked down and saw there at the bottom tiger, baring its fangs and waiting for his arrival. He was now caught between the bear above and the tiger below… .

To make matters worse, 2 rats, one a white one and the other black appeared, and climbed onto the vine above him and started gnawing on it…..He knew that if the rats kept gnawing they would soon chew away the vine and reach a point when it would no longer be able to support his weight. It would break and he would fall. He tried to shoo the rats away, but they kept coming back.

At that moment, out of the corner of his eye, the man glimpsed something roundish and red, and to his amazement he saw that it was a strawberry growing on the face of the cliff, not far away from him. It looked wonderfully red, plump and ripe. Holding onto the vine with one hand and reaching out with the other, he plucked it.”

“In the midst of life there is death and in the midst of death there is life”

With a bear above, and another wild beast below, and the rats continuing to gnaw on the vine, the man tasted the strawberry and found it absolutely delicious.

Despite his precarious predicament the traveler chose not to let unrealized dangers immobilize him. He seized the moment and savored it.

This Koan of “living in the present moment” of course contains quite a number of metaphors. The major elements in the story, such as the cliff top represents the transition between past and present. The bear at the top represent the pain of the past - our worrying about thing that have already happened. The tiger represents the pain of the future - anticipated pain or events that have not yet happened.

The man clinging to the vine with the two rats gnawing on it represents the present moment. So he clearly had a choice - he could go back to the past - and suffer, or he could go down to the future and suffer - or he could simply live in the present moment - which is what he chose to do. And what did he do? He enjoyed the strawberry!

How often do we find ourselves, every day, just like the man in the story? We always have a choice. Last week in my Basics of Buddhism class one of the students mentioned a few days earlier his car was in the shop and he waited for the work to be completed. He said normally this is a very unpleasant experience because he is annoyed both at how long the work takes and also at the what he considers is the inflated bill. But this time he thought about his past experiences and decided this time it would be different. He was going to enjoy the experience - he was going to savor the strawberry. And you know what? He did!

Another student related being always annoyed waiting in the long line at check-out stand at the grocery. She too thought about her past annoyances and decided that this time it was going to be different. And you know what? She too enjoyed the strawberry.

The secret to being able to do this is the practice of mindfulness - and that is only possible thorough the cultivation of a daily meditation practice. Think about how often in the past you simply reacted - without any awareness of you or the present situation. However when you cultivate “mindfulness” in you daily life you can chose to respond rather than just react. Alan Wallace defines “mindfulness” as “remembering.” Remembering “what” you might ask? Remembering just as those students from my Basics of Buddhism class did that in the past they had simply “reacted” to situations - but by practicing mindfulness they could chose their response. It was a choice - and not simply a reaction.

So, you also have a choice every day. You are going to experience unpleasant experiences - I can guarantee it (and so will I). But question is: how are you going to respond? Are you going to simply react in knee jerk fashion - causing more suffering for yourself and others? Or through mindfulness will you chose to respond with virtues of kindness, patience and generosity. You can actually use unpleasant situations as the basis for your practice of mindfulness. But to do this it means you first must have the awareness or mindfulness that you do, in fact, have a choice.

Remember, the choice of mindfulness and how you respond (not react) to situations is really up to you.