Finding the Present Moment

Here's a scene from Dan Millman's Way of the Peaceful Warrior movie.  If this blog post interests you, I highly recommend reading Dan's book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and all of his later books.

An old zen story

There was once a samurai warrior walking through the wilderness.  He heard a noise behind him, and looked back to see a lion creeping up on him.  The samurai looked around, and ran to a cliff he saw nearby, climbing up as fast as he could to escape the lion.  As he got about halfway up, he looked down to see the lion jumping up, and clawing just below his feet.  The samurai caught his breath, and then began to climb to the top of the small cliff to escape the lion. 

Just then he heard a noise above him.  He looked up to see a bear looking down from the top of the cliff.  The bear had heard the commotion below, and swung its massive paw down to get the samurai, just missing his head.  The samurai hung there on the side of the cliff, with the lion jumping up from below, trying to get him, and the bear swatting at him from above. 

The samurai took a deep breath, centered himself, and looked around.  There, growing from a crevice in the rock next to him was a strawberry plant.  There was a big, perfectly ripe, strawberry hanging from the plant.  The samurai picked the strawberry, ate it, and said, "Aaaahhh, delicious."

So what's the point of this little story?

The lion chasing the samurai represents thoughts of the past, trying to stay in the samurai's attention.  The bear on top of the cliff represents thoughts about the future, also trying to stay in the samurai's mind.  By stopping, taking a deep breath, and focusing on the center of his body, the samurai was able to stop thinking about the lion of the past and the bear of the future, and become aware of the present moment.  By paying attention to what was happening right at that very moment, the samurai was able to see the strawberry and enjoy eating it.

In our everyday lives, we spend most of our time either thinking about something that happened in the past, usually something we wish we could have done differently.  Or we are thinking about something the MIGHT happen in the future, usually something we're worried about.  By bringing ourselves back to the present moment on purpose, we can escape the thoughts that often hold us back from being our best selves.

How do you do this?

Personally, it helps me to touch something near me.  I'll touch the table in front of me, the chair I'm sitting on, or maybe the nearest wall.  It also helps to take a deep breath and let it out slowly.  I'll pay attention to the sights, sounds, textures, and what's going on right at that instant.  You can also focus on the center of your body, a point an inch or so below your belly button (called centering).  When you're paying attention to what's happening as it's happening in the present moment, you escape the thoughts of the past or the thoughts of the future.  If you're depressed, panicking, or feeling serious stress or anxiety, you can CHOOSE to think about something else.  Or you can just ask yourself, "How are things right now?"  Most of the time, things aren't that bad at all, but it was your thoughts that were freaking you out. 

If you practice bringing yourself back to the present moment when things are going OK, then you are more likely to remember to bring yourself back to the present moment when you get stressed, depressed, or are feeling anxiety.  This practice is called "mindfulness" in the Buddhist tradition.  But this isn't a Buddhist practice, it's a human practice, the Buddhists just see the benefit of it, and it has become a big part of their religion.

I've personally been using this practice for over 20 years, but not as much as I should.  Shortly after I first heard the story of the samurai above, I was working as a furniture mover.  We had a job where three of us had to get a 550 pound, antique, player piano up a flight of 26 steps.  Yes, 26 steps in a row.  One guy was pulling the handles of the dolly from above, and two of us were literally under the piano, pushing from below.  We'd all go, "1-2-3 aaauuuuugh" and get the piano up one step.  Then we'd catch our breath and do it again.  And again.  It sucked.

But I remembered the story of the samurai, and I started saying to myself, "Strawberry.  strawberry.  stay in the present and find the fucking strawberry."  We had the piano about halfway up the steps, and I caught my breath after the push, and looked around at was happening around me.  Suddenly I saw an amazing, bright orange dragonfly zipping around nearby.  It just hovered there for a couple of minutes.  It was the coolest dragonfly I'd ever seen.  I'd never seen one that brightly colored before.

Moving that heavy piano was one of the more dangerous things I've done in my life.  If any one of the three of us had slipped, the piano would have rolled out of control and crushed the two of us below it.  That would definitely have put us in the hospital, and could easily have killed one or both of us.  But by focusing on the present moment, I got myself away from the thoughts of "Fuck, this sucks.  Fuck, this sucks," that were racing through my head.  I pushed when I needed to push, and I watched the dragonfly, and then the nearby flowers as we caught our breath.  It taught me just how much this simple practice could help in a really gnarly situation.  But it can also give each of us a break from the stress of everyday life, at any time. 

Bring yourself to the present moment right NOW.  Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.  What's around you?  What is the texture of things you're touching?  What can you hear?  What can you see?  What can you smell?  Are things pretty tolerable right now?  Can you handle this moment right now? 

Now you know how to do this.  If you practice doing this when you're not in crisis, you'll be much more able to do it when you actually are in a crisis.