Choose your fate

You have a right to fully savour your present moment and no one can take that right away from you. That is your first and fundamental spiritual freedom — sacred and precious. Why precious? If you don’t live in the present you don’t really live at all, and you might as well have not been born because you aren’t really living, for what else is the use of being born in this planet as a human being otherwise? Why is it sacred? The present moment is the gateway to worlds outside and inside. It’s the only way you’ll ever experience the vastness of the infinite that resides in your tiny heart. That’s why it’s sacred and cherished.

So, who takes your present moment away? Yourself, who else? Who do you have to fight with for your rights? With yourself, who else? How and where does that fight begin? That’s the only question worthy of a long answer. Well, the reason why you can’t live in the present is because your mind is packed with thousands of unnamed fears, anxieties and worries — all coming from just one or two sources — so it’s basically just one or two big worries or fears.

First, isolate those big worries and take a long cold look at them. Tell them to go away. They usually wont. Well, then watch them come back and torment you. If you tell them to go away and watch them returning several times, you will begin to notice the route of their arrival. You will see where they are coming from and if you can observe calmly you will notice something very strange — they are coming from just three fundamental sources — a fear of disease or dying, a fear of being shamed and humiliated or a fear of losing someone or something you cherish. These three basic fear sources account for all the surface fears.

Once you have gained this much intelligence about the enemy and you are your own worst enemy, have no illusions about that you are armed and equipped to fight her (okay, him). It’s not going to be an easy conflict, for the enemy is well entrenched and powerful. She has deep resources, she gets her energy from well laid out supply lines, she has all sorts of tactical weapons that can be deployed in a second and knock you cold. She has the cunning of the ancients, for the roots of her fears have been coded in her DNA through hundreds of generations of non-stop worrying. Her speed and slyness will startle you and take away your appetite for war.

So gather your strength, summon your courage, take a deep breath and prepare for battle. Watch this space next week.