The Inspiration
I have two good news: the Present is still there and the Future is not written.
Our imperturbable Present remains within reach of every moment, whatever our situation and the circumstances that have led us to be where each of us is. It sounds obvious written like that as a statement, and yet it seems to me to be the first big step towards anything else. Everything seems so complex and out of our control that the best move is to stop thinking for a few minutes, stop the machine without anger or anguish, simply take back that time that has never ceased to be ours, but that escaped us while we were doing and we thought a thousand things. This exercise of will simply reconnects us with our Present, just as one climbs a hill to be able to locate oneself and see what surrounds us. The Present is our high point in life, the only one in which we truly exist. From there, we can contemplate our Past and our Future, from a distance, without our attention being caught. We can observe what happens around us without feeling involved and, whatever it is, see life.
Probably, a voice will quickly come to break the inner silence that naturally occurs when one consciously exhales and inhales, even in a sigh; It is our mind and its creature the Ego that come knocking at the door, demanding their share of attention. From the top of my own moment, I can observe both and even ignore them. If I start listening to them, with due social distance, I will realize that they talk to me about the Future, about the dangers, about duties, about hopes as if they were certain realities, but they only talk to me about probabilities on which to try to make decisions. the control.
From the Present, I am allowed to see everything that matters, connect the facts, pay attention to the details, trace probable trajectories and, despite this, let everything flow. The Zen attitude, which I call Pointfulness (www.pointfulness.com) lies in the ability to live reality in the point or singularity of the Present, without the illusions of the Past, the Future and the Ego being immersed in the constant flow of life. The Tao describes it as that it is not I who moves in the world but it is the world that moves around me. Some will see it as for a spiritual retreat or a monk's life when, in reality, it applies to any circumstance in life; In fact, if I become a point in the Universe, what else could alter me?
The fact that the Future is not written, because it is a bundle of probabilities, takes away from all of us the burden of deciphering and controlling it. It is true that we must reasonably prepare for what is coming, but we must also accept that an infinite number of events beyond our control have led us to here and now, with no possibility of return to amend the slightest thing about that Past. Furthermore, the control that we would like to have over the Future is tremendously limited. In the face of a storm, we can only prepare our boats in the best possible way but not alter the strength of the winds or the height of the waves. Traveling adrift (in the good sense of the word) can sometimes be the only, and therefore, the best option.
Nobody here speaks from a safe place. I myself can lose my life, a loved one, my home, my job, and the likelihood of that happening has increased exponentially in recent weeks. For many years, I have maintained a certain modesty in relation to the publication of my book Singular Life and the Triangle of Illusions, published in 2015. At the end of last year, I returned to the topic with the Pointfulness website to bring the philosophy of book to a broader audience, through a blog and podcasts that were recorded before the pandemic. I always longed to dedicate myself more to the philosophical topic when the time presented itself, a kind of Plan B and now the time has come. My philosophy has not taken away my anxiety or intellectual curiosity, but it has made me accept that life flows and is not controlled, in addition to the importance of traveling light as much as possible without having to go to extremes, knowing how to let go. It is not the same as shedding.
That first breath that is taken when beginning an effort not only fills the lungs with air and the body with energy but also stops the mind for a moment so that we connect with the Present, without thinking. From that lowest moment in life we free ourselves from a weight of illusions and move forward lighter. That is the message of this article, to stop time in our mind and keep away the voices of the Ego, so that all our vital energy is available for the journey that awaits us. And it doesn't matter if it is easy or arduous, it matters that we are as present as possible, free of illusions and mental noise.