Over the hill

Movement is a curious thing when taken in perspective of Consciousness and the Present Moment. Normally, movement is just that: a change in position. You go from one place to another. That could be going from one time to another time as you watch the seconds tick by on the clock, or it could be going for a job around your neighborhood, watching the houses and picket white fences rush by you. In that "normal" state of consciousness, movement means change, or at least it means something.

Often the problem with this is that after we get to where we are going, we either want more movement, or we become disappointed because we now feel like we haven't really moved anywhere.

Those moments and movement itself are key to pointing your way towards the Present.

Consciousness occupies everything. It is fullness and form, and simultaneously it is emptiness and space. The Asian traditions refer to fullness as yang and emptiness as yin. At first it is tough to grasp both fullness and emptiness simultaneously. Often you can just settle for one of them in a particular moment, but it does not matter. Either way, Consciousness is just there, in all its fullness and/or emptiness. When you pay attention to this awareness, you realize something: the awareness is still... ultimate stillness and calm.

Movement still exists! But it is contained within the stillness. When you are jogging through that neighborhood, your space is stationary. The neighborhood moves around you, but at the same time, the neighborhood is also contained within your stationary space.

Time is the same thing. In the passing of time, there is a stationary moment that does not move. Time moves around that moment, but also within it simultaneously. There really is no "inside" or "outside" of the moment.

This stuff gets difficult to explain with words.

Still, if it is difficult to internalize what I just wrote, understand at least then the pitfalls when it is not being internalized.

Do you ever expect to get somewhere?

Do you ever get disappointed when time passes and you don't get the results you wanted on something?

Do you ever get to where you are going and feel unfulfilled?

This is part of the illusion that the ego sets up, and is in turn always disenchanted by it. The thought that something other than here or now is necessary and you must get there or feel some sense of failure if you do not is a trick used by the ego, once again, for self-preservation. The ego has problems with the Present, because in the Present it does not exist. It can only exist as long as it can fool you about putting your mind and emotions into some time or place other than here and now.

A sensei once told me, "Without expectation, there can be no disappointment."

This sounds like a cynical phrase when applied to some things, but it really is about a deeper meaning. The ego expects things and is disappointed when they don't turn out as expected. When you anticipate something and identify with that anticipation and expectation, you will be disappointed invariably.

Ideally, feelings of expectations can arise in you as normal things happen in your life, but instead of identifying with them, you watch them happen as an observer. Then later, when the results do not match the expectation, you can watch that too. Even if there is a feeling of disappointment there, you will not be identified with it.