PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

A person of Tao uses the past skillfully by learning from it instead of living in it or dwelling on it. Think about the past few weeks for a moment. What were some things that worked well for you? Did your spiritual cultivation create new insights, or perhaps point out aspects of life you had not noticed before?

How is your present-moment awareness right now? Take a deep breath and center yourself. Turn your consciousness on itself. Is it not an incredible miracle how one can experience kaleidoscopic thoughts moving through one’s mind?

Look ahead to the future. As it is with the past, we cannot live in the future, hoping for or even expecting some reward that may never appear. Using the future skillfully means being prepared. What are some things you can do now to plan for what is to come?

The Tao Today

Visualize the yin and yang of time. Half of it represents the past while the other half is the future. The curving line down the center means the two halves affect one another. The future affects the past for the simple reason that future moments continuously transform themselves into past moments. The past affects the future because the karmic seeds we planted long ago will bear fruit at some point in the future.

The Tao of Joy Every Day

~ Derek Lin