{"id":6086,"date":"2013-07-26T07:59:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T13:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manyvoices.soundstrue.com\/manyvoices\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2020-04-07T19:54:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T19:54:44","slug":"there-is-no-there-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources2.soundstrue.com\/blog\/there-is-no-there-there\/","title":{"rendered":"There is no \u201cthere\u201d there"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of course, like most people with even a rudimentary exposure to spiritual teachings, I have heard that the only moment is the present moment. I thought I understood this. But I have to tell myself the truth: I might understand this theoretically and even deeply in certain moments of heightened aliveness, but all of me doesn\u2019t live this way. I know this because I have just uprooted a portion of my being that has been orienting toward a future \u201cPromised Land\u201d, a promised land that turns out is totally fictitious (I even have a new motto, \u201cThere is no promised land\u201d).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I discovered this: We have a new leadership team at ST and some part of me has believed that this new team was like \u201cheavenly super stars\u201d or a basketball team destined to win the championship and set all types of new world records in the process. And the fact is we do have a powerful new team that will bring the company forward in all kinds of new ways. But this new team is made up of HUMANS not heaven-dwellers. And there is no end to difficult business challenges and the complexities of human dynamics.<\/p>\n

There are people in my mediation community who often take an attitude \u201cdon\u2019t you know nothing ever really works out?\u201d  And I have had a response inside that goes something like, \u201cthat is such a negative attitude\u2026.maybe it doesn\u2019t work out for you because you are so negative in the first place.\u201d But I think I understand now what is being pointed to in a statement like \u201cnothing ever really works out\u201d — not that wonderful things don\u2019t happen but that our fantasies of some perfect future are just that \u2013 fantasies.<\/p>\n

I was sharing all of this with my partner Julie before we were going to sleep the other night, sitting up in bed together on our new bright turquoise silk sheets. And I said \u201cThere is no promised land\u201d. And she said to me \u201cThe promised land is right here.\u201d And at that moment, our eyes met and the space of the room opened up, and it felt like we were melting into eternity. The edges of Julie\u2019s body started dissolving into the space of the room and she looked like a deity to me, sitting on a bed of turquoise silk with pink and gold curtains behind her. And I knew she was right about the promised land, that if it exists at all, it is only because it is right here, relaxing into the beauty, brightness and space of the moment.<\/p>\n

So now I am asking myself these types of questions: When I build up some vision of a promised land, why am I doing this? What ego need am I trying to have met by this or that fantasy? What is it about the present moment that I just can\u2019t bear such that I need to create a vision of some idealized future? Why do I continue to invest in \u201cthere\u201d when there is no \u201cthere\u201d there?<\/p>\n

I remember listening to Thich Nhat Hanh<\/a> teach walking meditation<\/a>. He offered the teaching that with each footstep touching the ground we could say silently to ourselves \u201cI have arrived.\u201d He pointed out how most people are always rushing ahead to some future moment, and he said, let\u2019s look at this logically, the future moment you are rushing to will eventually be your grave. What\u2019s the big hurry?<\/p>\n

And what amazes me about the dharma is how endlessly deep it is (I heard Thich Nhat Hanh teach on this almost two decades ago and I thought \u201carriving in the present moment\u201d was something I understood). I feel humbled (from the root word \u201chumus\u201d or earth) to have a fantasy bubble popped in such an obvious way, and to be returned to the earth, arriving right here in the groundless space of this moment, in the only promised land there is.<\/p>\n

\"footsteps\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course, like most people with even a rudimentary exposure to spiritual teachings, I have heard that the only moment is the present moment. I thought I understood this. 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