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THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
sadhana is to extract us from these webs. They produce nothng but physical and mental tensions. They lead the mind astray.
Random memories bring in their train sometimes anger, sometimes pride and sometimes greed with the result that our minds become surcharged with all kinds of emotions and we cannot even have our meals. All this happens because we do not live in the present. We have not learnt to live in the present moment. To live in the present means that we should keep our minds fully engaged in what we are doing at the moment. No memory should be allowed to haunt our mind while we are engaged in our work whatever it may be. When we sit down to have meal, we should have it with the whole mind in it. When we walk we should not think of anything except walking. We should tie the mind to the act we are doing at the present moment. There are men whose minds are wandering elsewhere while they are having a meal. For such people eating becomes a mechanical activity which does not give them any joy. The spiritualists tell us that we should do nothing but eat when we are at the dining table. The whole mind should be kept busy in the act of eating. The atheists also say the same thing. They exhort us not to leave the present moment to anticipate what is going to happen in the future. It is out of sheer ignorance that we relinquish present pleasures and run after those which we anticipate. There is nothing wrong with the atheists when they insist on living in the present moment.
There is no harm in remembering the past and anticipating the future when it is necessary in order to make plans for the future, otherwise we would not be able to live a profitable life. But we should not do so when it is not necessary because it will produce tensions.
The process of time is a dialectical process. The present will resist an encroachment on it by the past or by the future. It wants to push both out of its domain. The present wants to preserve its identity. Why should we try to disturb the process of time when we do not like others to disturb us. We should not mix up the present, past and future.
To live in the present means to give rest to the mind. .Breathing is an event which happens at the present moment
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