How You Can Actually Become Present in Each Moment of Your Life - The Little Prince Series

People often tell me, "I wish I could stay present. I'm trying to
get there, but how do you stay in the moment? I find I manage to be
present only at moments in my average day."In the fifth chapter of the
story of the Little Prince we are given one of the most powerful keys
to living consciously on a continual basis.The story uses the image of
baobabs, a large African tree that, in the case of the Little Prince's
tiny planet would, if allowed to grow, take it over and even split it
in pieces.The image is powerful. To not be present in our life causes
us to feel fragmented, torn, at war with ourselves.The narrator says
of the Little Prince, "But he made a wise comment: 'Before they grow
so big, the baobabs start out by being little.'"Would you like to know
how to become present continuously, so that you pretty well never move
out of a state of presence?A baobab represents everything that
distracts us from the presence that's the natural state of our true
being. To become continuously present, you catch the baobabs that
distract from this natural state the moment you recognize them.How
does this actually work in everyday life?Sitting in front of a large
audience in Mumbai, India, Eckhart Tolle is silent for several
minutes. His eyes are open and one has a sense that he's alert and
very present.When he begins speaking he invites, "Have a look inside
yourself and see if you're waiting for me to speak."The ability to be
present begins with self-inquiry.You begin noticing, paying attention
to, whether you are present in all of the little moments of life, such
as waiting for something to begin.Are you waiting, which isn't a state
of presence, or are you enjoying being just where you are, as you
are?Eckhart goes on to explain that in the normal human state of
unconsciousness there's a deep-seated psychological need for the next
moment, the future.Consequently when we are waiting for something to
happen, our emotions begin to churn. As Eckhart goes on to say in this
Mumbai, India talk, "Perhaps even some impatience is arising, or
irritation. Or your mind is taking you to some completely different
place and time-tonight, later, tomorrow."Self-inquiry reveals when we
are drifting from our normal state of presence. This leads to an
opportunity for self-confrontation: recognizing the emotion that's
arising.I am saying that becoming present begins with the tiniest of
moments and the most mundane of situations.Suppose you are sitting
waiting for Eckhart to talk, a concert to begin, dinner at a
restaurant to be served, or a movie to get rolling. Self-inquiry
allows you to spot when your mind begins to shift from simply being
there to wandering elsewhere, either in location or time.Self-inquiry
is to look inside ourselves and see if we are waiting for something to
happen. I want to emphasize that we practice it in the tiniest of
moments, the most ordinary of circumstances.Once we realize we aren't
present, we engage in self-confrontation.Self-confrontation is to sit
with any emotions of impatience, anxiety, or frustration that
arise-instead of venting them.When we sit with unpleasant feelings
instead of talking to others about them or fuming within ourselves, we
practice containment.Containment doesn't mean we deny what we are
experiencing. We don't try to push the emotion out of our mind.
Instead we bring presence to it-awareness.We sit with it, allowing it
to be. But we don't wallow in it, don't "make it into something."As
the story of the Little Prince explains, a bad seed has to be
destroyed "as soon as possible, the very first instant that one
recognizes it." This way it can't take root and become a habit
pattern.It's in all the ordinary little moments of our day, whenever
we notice our attention has drifted, that we learn to be present.The
Little Prince explains that it's very tedious work pulling up baobab
shoots, "but very easy." In other words there's nothing difficult
about being present, for all that's required is consistency.Start in
this moment, right now.Are you fully alert, aware, present as you read
these words? Are you sitting with them, allowing them to have real
impact on you? Or are you dashing through the blog because you feel
you have to get on to the next thing?The feeling of needing to get on
to the next thing is exactly what we need to sit with.Confronting this
psychological need we have means not rushing on to the next thing, but
staying with the emotion that arises when we don't rush on, breathing
through it, until the energy generating the emotion gradually
dissipates and becomes integrated.Self-inquiry, right now, will reveal
what's happening inside you.Then self-confront any emotion that arises
by simply acknowledging it, sitting with it, watching it-but doing
nothing about it.You will be amazed what begins to happen. It's not
about becoming present for your whole lifetime right now. It's
incremental, moment by moment, because life is incremental. It's a
series of moments that happen from moment to moment.As you begin to be
present in this moment, then another moment, gradually the moments
come together to form a complete picture just like the pieces of a
jigsaw puzzle.You discover that present moment awareness is exactly
that: not some amazing miracle of presence that descends upon you from
the sky, but a lifetime made up of moments in each of which you are
aware.