Last night I had a dream, and in that dream there was a billboard that contained the following message:
"Do not let the moment take you out of the Now."
Now usually I do not remember such things but in this case it was clear enough that upon awaking from the dream I repeated it and so was able to still remember it in the morning. Then, in my usual morning meditation, I focused upon this phrase to see what understanding would come forth.
The result was a vision of Existence and experience in a sort of cross-section, where Existence was a mirror and experience the reflection that rests upon that mirror. Now for some time I have understood the relation between Existence and experience to be like that of a mirror and a reflection, but I had not before seen their relation in this exact way, i.e., in cross-section, and with this degree of clarity.
And so as I usually do, on the days I do not have to go into work, I spent the morning writing.
Below is a drawing of the relation between Existence and experience seen in cross-section.
Drawing 1 top
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Now - the Mirror - Existence-Consciousness -The Self-
The More Fundamental Individuality
----------------------> Flow of the Self
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The moment- the experience- the reflection apprehended by the Individual
________________________
wanted experience
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Now - the Mirror - Existence-Consciousness- The Individual
--------------------> allowing - aligned flow
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Drawing 1 bottom
Drawing 2 top
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Now - the Mirror - Existence-Consciousness -The Self-
The More Fundamental Individuality
----------------------> Flow of the Self
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The moment- the experience- the reflection apprehended by the Individual
________________________
unwanted experience
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Now - the Mirror - Existence-Consciousness- The Individual
< ------------------- resistance- oppositional flow
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Drawing 2 bottom
These two drawings depict all that is happening in the creation of anything we experience, because everything we experience is the product of our Individual flow in relation to the flow of our More Fundamental Individuality, and that relation is always either one of aligned or oppositional flow, depending on our chosen mode of being as allowing or resistant. Experience then is created as the boundary or reflection that arises where our Individual flow meets the flow of our More Fundamental Individuality or Inner Self.
Very few people understand how experience is created and its actual cause. Most see only experience and know nothing of the Underlying Actuality of their own Existence and of the relation of Existential flow that creates experience. Lao Tzu knew and he wrote about it, and about the flow. He called the Now the Tao, and he said that pushing against something only creates more of what you are pushing against. And he also said that to be like the Tao is to be allowing.
Seeing only experience one reacts to experience rather than proactively creating experience by consciously choosing to allow. And in reacting to experience one becomes bound because one is then choosing unconsciously rather than consciously their mode of being as allowing or resistant. One is always free to choose one mode of being or the other, allowing or resistance, but if one is reacting then to some degree they are letting that choice be made by not by themself, but by the previously created experience, in which case then the next created experience simply mirrors the last created experience and on and on. It is as if one decides what color to paint their house not based upon the color they want to paint it, but upon the color that was used to paint the last house.
That is how we live, painting our houses not according to how we ourselves want to paint them, but according to, i.e., as a reaction to, how the other houses have already been painted. That is, that is how we create experience, not according to what we want to create as experience, but according to how the last experience was created, as we react to that experience, unconsciously rather than consciously choosing our mode of being, and so unconsciously rather than consciously creating experience as wanted or unwanted as a reaction to the last experience created, as a reaction to the experience of the moment, in which reaction we are letting the moment take us out of the Now, letting the experience of the moment divert our attention from the way in which we are flowing our Being in the eternal and timeless Now that is not different or other than what we Are.
That is what is meant by saying do not let the moment take you out of the Now.
Do not let the experience that you are having in this moment take you out of alignment with your Self.
Experience is secondary to how we are choosing to flow our Being. Experience is always secondary to how we are choosing to flow our Being. Our Flow is causal, experience is its effect. However, when we see experience as primary, as causal, we then allow our Flow to become an effect of that misperceived cause, and in so doing our view of reality becomes turned upside down from its actual relation. And so we apprehend an unwanted experience and we react with resistant Flow, and in that resistant Flow we create more unwantedness, which we react to with resistant Flow, and on and on. It then seems that we feel bad, that we experience unwanted emotion, owing to what we misapprehend as cause, i.e., owing to external unwanted circumstance, and so we try to modify our emotional experience not by changing our Flow from resistant to allowing, not by changing the actual cause, rather, we try to modify our emotional experience by acting upon what to us appears as causal, which is external circumstance-experience. And the way we act upon unwanted external circumstance is almost always with an attitude of resistance, by trying to push it away or eliminate it, which unbeknownst to us, is itself the actual cause of experiential unwantedness, both emotional and external.
Unwanted emotion precedes unwanted thought, and unwanted thought precedes unwanted external circumstance, i.e., unwanted physical experience. Likewise, wanted emotion precedes wanted thought, and wanted thought precedes wanted external circumstance, i.e., wanted physical experience. And all of this is caused by oppositional or aligned Existential Flow. Experience is the effect, We are the cause. But we treat experience as the cause and so we react as effect to that misperceived cause. But no matter how much experience seems to be causal, it remains always an effect of the actual cause, which is how we are flowing in relation to Our Self.
What happens at the surface, in the moment, as the experience-reflection, depends on what is happening Now, depends on what is happening within the Mirror, and specifically depends on how Existence in the Now is flowing in relation to Itself, i.e., whether that flow is aligned or oppositional.
When you are in the Now, conscious of the Now, it is easy to maintain aligned flow. Actually, the only way to be in the Now is to already be flowing in alignment. When the focus is on experience alone, one loses sight of the Now, and then one simply reacts to the experience of the moment. But when the focus is on the Now, then the reflections that come and go are less likely to distract one from the underlying Reality of their own Existence.
Most people are not aware of the Now, of the underlying Actuality. For them the reality rests solely in the reflection, in what they experience, not knowing that the more fundamental Reality is that which apprehends experience, and through relation to Itself creates experience.
Most people spend their lives simply reacting to the reflections that arise on the surface of what they are, which reflections arise owing to the relations with Themself in which they are involved, and which reactions create further relations that create further reflections which they then react to and on and on and on….. Unaware of the actual causation of the experience-reflections, they seem to be random or caused by forces outside of one's own self. And so a reflection arises that is unwanted and we reflexively push against it, and in that resistance flow in opposition to our Self and in so doing create more unwanted reflection-experiences. Likewise, a reflection arises that is wanted and so we reflexively allow it and in that allowing flow in alignment with our Self and in so doing create more wanted reflection-experiences.
When I remember what I am I do not react to experience and so do not let the moment take me out of the Now. When I forget what I am, I react to experience and in so doing let the moment take me out of the Now. My days are a mixture of both of these situations, in varying degrees.