Truth about Living in the Moment
The Raw Truth About Living In The Moment from Kapil Gupta MD
1.1. Prescriptions don’t help you to get into the moment.
Let's get straight to the point. There is nothing that you can do to get into the moment with any form of consistency. There are no prescriptions like breathing methods/meditation/mindfulness. There is nothing in the world that exists ever anywhere that a human being can employ as some form of a trick/technique/hack live in the moment.
Because a human being has been led elsewhere by his belief systems and his conditioning. Where he has been led is into the realms of the mind. The mind which tells him who he is/what is right and what is wrong. The mind doesn't care what you're doing even if you're waging war with it as long as you are doing something because as long as it keeps you prescribing or doing some form of activity it knows that it has you.
It is impossible to prescribe your way into the moment with any form of regularity or consistency. Living in the moment is a complete impossibility by way of a bridge of prescription. Whenever there is an intermediary of prescription the light is shined upon that intermediary. It never leads you anywhere.
1.2. What is it like to meet the moment?
The person who finds the moment by accident which is typically how it happens, experiences the glory of the moment and in that time there are no thoughts and there are no feelings/emotions. It's this feeling of great peace probably the greatest word to say is its overwhelming peace. Everything is settled, there's a sense of floating almost that no matter what happened it would be okay. But those things come very rarely and they come and even when they come they come and they go very quickly.
1.3. So is it truly possible to arrive at the moment and live there?
Yes. Then you look for a prescription that might follow the word yes in finding the moment, living in the moment. This is what it could be called as living in the cocoon of the moment. It arrives when someone truly desires it. Genuinely and naturally as opposed to viewing it as a success. As opposed to viewing it as a form of accomplishment. It does not come because the idea that you want to get into the moment often is a very reactive idea. It is reactive to a feeling which says that one should get into the moment. It's reactive to the idea that there are healthy proper correct spiritual to get into the moment.
1.4. Everything, in the end, is empty, and leads nowhere.
The person who seeks the moment genuinely is the person who realizes that everything in his life leads nowhere. Behind every door is an empty room and no matter what the promise maybe it's always an empty room. Inside every sealed box are more sealed boxes and as each one of those sealed boxes is opened they're always empty. Don't believe that. What you should believe are the things that don't require belief and that is your own direct experiences.
One might wonder why is it that one has not come to see that if they've opened a thousand empty boxes and they have all come to come up empty and they have opened a thousand doors which promised many things and yet when they opened every one of them eventually they turned out to be empty rooms. Then why would one not come to the realization that all things in this life lead nowhere and all things in this life are anticlimactic?
1.5. Why one has not come to realize that all things lead nowhere?
The reason is because of hope. There is a belief that is created by the mind which says yes 1000 doors that you have opened have all led to empty rooms but what if 1007 is the jackpot? It is that very belief that keeps one hooked. Then even if that person opens seven thousand dollars which leads to empty rooms then there will always be that belief in that thought that 7006 might be the jackpot and if you stop now if you abandon this hope at 7000 then you might just forfeit that jackpot at 7006 if you just would have stuck around a little bit longer and this is how the mind leads human beings astray for their entire lives.
But when one comes to see that all of the things that he had hoped for in this life be it in his relationships with his family, his children, his successes, his failures all of the things that he looked forward to in his life. All of the things that he thought would pan out and that wealth would make him quote happy and that even happiness would make him happy. When one comes to the realization that he's finished that he's done that there really is no such thing as a full room behind a door then one naturally begins to retreat from the worldly domain. Though he may still continue to live in the world he lives above it because he has come to see that everything, in the end, is empty that hope leads nowhere.
1.6. Seeking to live in the moment, similar to seeking materialism, leads to pain.
For the person who views this as negative and pessimistic there are have no words of consolation for you. Then this isn't for you. There is no amount of convincing that will undo that belief from you. The cocoon of the moment is a place that one arrives at where the possibility of it arises when one has no interest in any intermediary or prescription to get there because he realizes that any trick that gets him there will trick him right out of it.
Don’t believe for one second that anyone should be in the moment. It's not good/bad/spiritual/holy. If you have a choice it isn't for you. But when one is in the moment it isn't a source of pleasure. The cocoon of the moment is a place in which one naturally forgets himself. It is not noble to forget oneself. All of these things are practical realizations. They are nothing related in any shape or form to shoulds/correctness/spirituality/holiness. It is about a human being returning to becoming a human being.
The one who seeks materialism in this world is no different than the one who seeks spiritual materialism. If one seeks a Ferrari and another person seeks a way to get into the moment they are both materialistic people and once again in the same breath is it wrong to be materialistic? There is no wrong it is just that it leads to pain, it leads to frustration.
If one enjoys pain and frustration then one is free to do so. It is foolish to try to bring a human being out of his own miseries because the implicit belief is that the person wants to be relieved of his miseries. There is great pleasure in misery because where there is misery there is comfort there is a sense of identity. It's home.
So the moment has nothing to do with any sort of doing in order to get there. Buddhist monks are not in the moment, zen disciples are not in the moment. They're too busy following their own cultural beliefs and rituals to get into the moment.
1.7. It’s only you or the moment that exists at the moment.
The person who does a prescription or is looking for a way to get into the moment doesn't see the contradiction. In that contradiction that is inherent is that a person cannot get into the moment because the moment only exists when the person disappears. There cannot be two. So how can you bring yourself into the moment when the very act of you bringing a you with you prevents the moment. If there was no you there would be only the moment there is nothing else.
1.8. The Truth about living in the moment.
What is the truth regardless of whether you are ready for it or not or are you ready to believe it or not which you should not be ready to believe it. The truth is the moment is all there really is. There is nothing else. Because the moment actually never goes away. It is the only thing that never dies. It is the only consistency. And reality is judged by that which never disappears. That is the truth. So the cocoon of the moment is for the person who was ready. Not ready to get a taste so that he can feel a dose of pleasure and come back and talk about how wonderful it felt. There's no difference between that and having a lollipop. These are for serious human beings sincere human beings who've come to the realization that no matter what they achieve in this life, in the end it is nothing. And the one who achieves the moment, the one who is qualified to live in the moment is the one who was ready to be nothing.
Reference: Summary of the solo podcast, The Raw Truth About Living In The Moment, Kapil Gupta (link).