The Bliss of Being in the Present Moment

Written by Mathew Naismith

“There is nothing more soothing than being in the moment of love and beauty void of any intentions what so ever “.

I shot consecutive photographs of a lovely sky as the sun was abating, not knowing what was actually in the photographs; I shot these photos just before Christmas and I never knew one of these shots had a heart silhouetted in the sky while taking these shots.  

The funny thing is I took consecutive shots and only one of the photos had this heart silhouetted in the sky, this was quite strange for this kind of cloud pattern because this kind of high level cloud doesn’t move all that quickly. There were no intentions by me to take a shot with a heart silhouetted in the sky, I saw a lovely sky with the sun abating quite low in the horizon and I shot consecutive photos ignorant to the heart in the sky.

The one thing to be aware of with intentions is it’s always in reference to the future; it’s only conducive to aims or plans, it has nothing to do with just being within the present moment.  

What we western people seem to do is try to use more than one spiritual concept at the same time that, at times, can be counterproductive.  Can anyone be within the present moment (now) and also be of intentions? Trying to live by these two concepts at the same time is indeed counterproductive; they can actually cancel each other out depending on what kind of intention we are using.

Because active intentions is more about forcing a plan or goal rather than going with the flow, active intentions can be highly counterproductive to being just within the moment, this isn’t the same with passive intentions. Active intentions are also more likely to be in retaliation to a situation in life like being more positive than negative; this is good except we are still being judgemental of what we have judged as having less value.

Passive intentions is more about allowing a plan to come together rather than forcing it, passive intentions allow us to mould such plans within our present moment (lives) without creating too much trauma. Passive intentions are also not about a retaliative reaction to something we have judged as unbecoming for some reason, this is why, if we need to have intentions, passive intentions works more with the present moment rather than against it.

If you are going to live by the concept of living in the now, it’s advisable not to have too many intentions.

What is also counterproductive in the west is judgment, it is a good idea to lesson our judgments and especially being judgemental, this again is determined by what kind of intentions we are living by.  A lot of people actually judge judgment as being negative therefor unbecoming in some way; this is brought about by active intentions I believe.  We are not supposed to be judgmental but we judge being in judgement quite severally.   

You don’t get this reaction with passive intention, passive intentions is about accepting judgement for what it is, just a different path to follow without judging this path too harshly as just plain negative.

Particularly in the west we need to be aware of the counter productiveness of what certain concept are going to have with each other, yes we have a huge array of spiritual concepts to follow but I think we need to beware of mixing and matching these concepts together, it is in my mind adding a fair amount of confusion into our lives rather than taking this confusion away.  

Self-empowerment is always conducive to future plans but while we are being so self-empowered, we are not living within the present moment and within this stillness of the moment.  Self-empowerment takes a lot of active intentions to bring about, this stops us from experiencing the very moment we are in and experiencing what living in the present moment can give.

Yes it might feel we are in the present moment while being actively intentional but that is not the case, you can’t live for the future with intentions and be of the present moment at the same time, just something to ponder!!   

There is nothing like living in the present moment, this is one path, there is also nothing like living with active intentions, this is another path, each path has it’s merits and is only a path for us to follow or not, they are not bad or good, negative or positive, they are only paths we can either follow or not.  It’s advisable not to try to follow two paths at the same time that can be quite counterproductive to each other, follow one path or the other for they are only paths, there is nothing to judge but of course being in judgement is but another path not to be judged.