Quieted Mind: Dark Times and the Present Moment

James of Quieted Mind shares reflections on our current era at the beginning of 2024, and hopes that we find the peace and happiness that are available now, in the present moment.

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Transcript

Hi, James here from The Quieted Mind. Stay tuned at the end of this talk to hear another song from my EP. It’s called “Laughing At The Sky,” and is about living in the present moment in the midst of hard times, about learning to stop running and seeing the events in our life as an ongoing cycle of arrivals and departures rather than a journey toward some arbitrary ideal of a destination. I hope you like it.

“The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.”

You're listening to The Quieted Mind. 

I'm James Buckley. 

Many, myself included, have described our current era by saying we live in dark times. For some, this dark era began fairly recently. For others, this present darkness is simply a continuation of a reality that is ongoing and perhaps has always existed.

In the midst of darkness, it can be easy to forget that light also exists.

Sadness and despair exist; happiness also exists.

Lao Tzu said that "hope and fear are equally hollow." What he meant by this is that neither are rooted in the present moment. Hope and fear are projections of an imaginary future. Fear and regret are common sources of stress. 

Like fear, regret is also not rooted in the present moment. Regret is a mental formation based on our view of the past. 

The past is gone. Even our memories of the past are memories of memories. A copy of a copy of a copy.

The future is imaginary. We make plans and projections. If and when those plans and projections come to pass, it isn't in the future that they happen. Everything happens in the present moment. 

In order to fully live, we must learn to fully occupy the present moment—the only

moment there is to be alive.

I don't buy into the sort of self-help positive thinking teachings that urge people to ignore the negative in favor of the positive things in life. I think most, even many who follow this advice would admit this approach is dishonest and harmful. Indeed, it is by acknowledging

and looking deeply into suffering that we can see the cause, and in seeing the

cause of the suffering, that we may find a way through to the end of that suffering.

With that said, it is equally dishonest and harmful to ignore the happiness and peace that are available to us in the present moment while fully acknowledging only the pain and suffering.

If we fully occupy the present moment, we can see that happiness and peace are available to us even now. Thich Nhat Hanh once said that we don't have to wait until we have asthma to enjoy our breathing, and this is true. It is easy to overlook our involuntary breath until we find ourselves in the midst of an asthma attack, or pneumonia, or even mild congestion from the common cold.

If we become fully conscious of our breathing in the here and the now, we can experience the happiness of simply being able to breathe. The same mindful approach can be applied to the blue sky, or the beauty of a flower, or the sound of a bird chirping or a young child laughing. 

Again, we aren't ignoring the present suffering in ourselves and in the world; we are opening ourselves up to the reality that happiness and peace are also available in the present moment. We are becoming more honest.

This is a practice. Some might call it a discipline. It doesn't come naturally or happen overnight. Over time, however, with a sustained practice of mindfulness, we can begin to approach the world more openly and move through life in new and different ways.

Thank you for listening. Until we meet again: may you be safe, may you be happy, and may you be free.