Hanging on is an activity of the powerful mind that we use in a very limited way. We hang on to repeated patterns of thinking—regardless of the negativity they bring—because the repetition comforts us. How can our thinking apparatus be both powerful and limited?

Easy. Imagine a flashlight beam on a dark-of-the-moon night. It illuminates only the tiniest part of the whole, yet that is where all the attention goes—down that narrow band of light. So it is with the mind. The focusing power creates a compelling but narrow finger that draws all of the mental attention into stories of the past and future. Consequently, we miss where life actually happens: now. The grandeur available in the present moment is usurped by that skinny bandwidth that has no root in reality. So caught up, we miss the truth altogether, and live a mind-fiction instead.

If you are reading these words, it’s likely that you have noticed the limitations of the mind, and realized that if you continue to stack the deck the same old way, you get the same old result. At some point, our restless search for something better finally turns us toward home. Then, more and more often, we can enter the present with open hands instead.

© Amrita Skye Blaine, 2013
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