One time a friend and I were caught in a snowstorm in farming country in the midwest and slid off the winding road into a snow-covered cornfield. I mean, really out in the country where houses might be a mile away from each other. The more we tried to get the car out of the snow-covered cornfield, the worse our situation became. Right when we gave up all hope of getting it out, and resigned ourselves to our fate of having to walk miles to find help, around the bend in the road came a tow truck. An honest to goodness tow truck.
If we would have just sat there and waited in patience a few minutes longer, the truck with the chain would have come along anyway. All our struggles were for nothing but frustration. Nothing we did speeded up our rescue or the arrival of the tow truck. This is not to say we shouldn't have tried try to get ourselves out of the snow-covered cornfield. It means that our thoughts stimulated emotions which led to frustrations at not being able to do anything to change our situation.
Wouldn't it be great to learn to feel when the Infinite Intelligence is telling us to have patience. Of course it would. We did not take even one moment to sit and pray to feel the direction of our rescue. Since we had plenty of gas and our car heater was working, we had no one waiting for us to arrive at any particular place at any particular time, we could have relaxed into a prayer-state of receptive inquiry of what we should do in our situation, but we didn't. We did not unconditionally accept our seemingly stuck situation while attempting our best to change the situation. Sure we tried and tried to change our situation but remember, the first proposition is, in all things, unconditional acceptance of what is has priority because what is - is. Very simple. Learning to subjectively balance the polarities of action/waiting, with unconditional acceptance of what is, is the key to evolving in understanding and communication with the transcendent/immanent intelligence of the universe. We had a very important spiritual lesson to learn on that day. It took us to be stranded in a snow-filled cornfield, miles and miles away from any human life for us to be offered the lesson. It is like the Universe waited until we gave up before it sent the rescue truck.
Life is a process. A process is a chain of events infinitely divided. An eternal process, without beginning and without end. We cannot experience an event as an event. We can only experience an event as a process. We can exist a whole lifetime and never live life since we are trying to live an event. We can go through the forest and never see the trees that are part of the process of going through the forest. Our physical body is an aggregation of individual events in harmony - a process in the eternal present. We can live life in the present only - the eternal present that is constantly passing while always being present. To understand the paradoxical statement of "the eternal present that is constantly passing" means to subjectively integrate the polarity of "the eternal present" with the awareness of the constant change of the manifestation of the universe. Conscious integration of what seems to be a contradiction involves our understanding that singularity is the essence of what seems to be the polarities of existence. This singularity is the essence of the reality of the NOW. We can experience the future only in our mind as a concept until it actually gets here and is the present. We must live in and for the present while balancing this polarity with the polarity of planning and living for the future.
Since we can live only in the process of the present, our best choice is to embrace and appreciate the present we have first and foremost.
Relax in the present, ask what should be our next thought, ask what should be our next step in the process of life, and be shown the next step in the process of being ourselves - even if it means to do nothing - just relax and just be what you are - part of the process. Truly desire to know the next step the Eternal Process wants of you, and the eternal process will let you know what your next step, or non-step, is to be.
