Dear Pg,
You are interested in the present moment.
Op 22-mrt-2009, om 4:01 heeft pgd2507 het volgende geschreven:
> I was wondering if the buddha spoke on what in modern terms is
> often referred as "living in the present moment" or "being in the
> now". Mindfulness of the breath and mindfulness of vedanaa are no
> doubt excellent tools of keeping one in the present moment but are
> there any suttas dedicated to the now and how "being in the now"
> works beneficially?
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N: As Piya poinyed out, the �Bhaddekaratta Sutta".
We read in the �Bhaddekaratta Sutta�, �A Single Excellent
Night�(Middle Length
Sayings,131, translated by the Ven. Bhikkhus Nyanamoli and Bodhi):
"Let not a person revive the past
Or on the future build his hopes;
For the past has been left behind
And the future has not been reached.
Instead with insight let him see
Each presently arisen state;
Let him know that and be sure of it,
Invincibly, unshakeably.
Today the effort must be made;
Tomorrow Death may come, who knows?
No bargain with Mortality
Can keep him and his hordes away,
But one who dwells thus ardently,
Relentlessly, by day, by night -
It is he, the Peaceful Sage has said,
Who has had a single excellent night."
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To conclude:
The Niddesa (Khuddhaka Nikaya), quoted by the Visuddhimagga (VIII,
39), often quoted here:
In the Visuddhimagga (VIII, 39) we read about the shortness of the
world:
...in the ultimate sense the life-moment of living beings is
extremely short, being only as much as the occurrence of a single
conscious moment. Just as a chariot wheel, when it is rolling, rolls
(that is, touches the ground) only on one point of (the circumference
of) its tyre, and, when it is at rest, rests only on one point, so
too, the life of living beings lasts only for a single conscious
moment. When that consciousness has ceased, the being is said to have
ceased...
Life, person, pleasure, pain�just these alone
Join in one conscious moment that flicks by.
Ceased khandhas of those dead or alive
Are all alike, gone never to return.
No (world is) born if (consciousness is) not
Produced, when that is present, then it lives;
When consciousness dissolves, the world is dead...
---------
the Path of Discrimination: [Paccuppannaanam dhammaanam
viparinaamaanupassane
pa~n~naa udayabbayaanupassane ~naanam.]
284. Presently-arisen materiality is born; the characteristic of its
generation
(nibbatti) is rise, the characteristic of its change(viparinaama) is
fall, the
contemplation(anupassanaa) is knowledge(~naana).
--------
The forest monks do not lament over the past,
they neither yearn for what has yet to come,
they just maintain themselves here in the present,
therefore is their appearance so calm & serene!
Samyutta Nikaya I, 5
SN:1:10(10) "Forest",
(Bodhi transl.):
"[The Blessed One]
They do not sorrow over the past,
Nor do they hanker for the future.
They maintain themselves with what is present:
Hence their complexion is so serene.
Through hankering for the future,
Through sorrowing over the past,
Fools dry up and wither away
Like a green reed cut down."
-------
Let go of the past, relinquish of the future,
stay in the present, and cross over to the
further shore of all becoming & existence!
With mind wholly liberated & released,
you shall never return to birth & death!
Dhammapada 348
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N: Life exists in only one moment, the present moment. Let us then
understand the present moment.
------
Nina.
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