Once a Crow held on to a prey (piece of food) was flying to a place to sit & eat.
However, a flock of Eagles were chasing it . Crow was anxious and was flying higher and higher, yet eagles were after the poor crow.
Just then “Garuda” saw the pain in the eyes of the crow.. coming closer to crow he asked ., “What’s wrong..? You seem to be very disturbed and in stress?”..
Crow cried “look at these eagles!! They are after.. to kill me?”
Garuda being the bird of wisdom spoke “Oh my friend!! They are not after to kill you!! They are after that piece..”
The crow followed the instructions of Garuda and dropped the piece of meat, and there you go, all the eagles flew towards the falling meat..
Garuda smiled and said “The Pain is only till you hold on to it Just Drop.”
Crow just bowed and said “I dropped this piece of meat, now, I can fly even higher..”
Available To The Present
Unless we drop that pieces we cannot become lighter and fly higher. We are carrying lot of baggage not only of the past but future also. As we don’t don’t how to comprehend past and future into this moment. Either we resist or indulge into past and future but in that we forget that the present moment is culmination of past and is mother of future.
Life is constantly renewing itself; not even for a single moment is it the same. If it appears the same to us, that simply shows that we have missed seeing the change that has happened. Maybe the change was too fast and we could not see it; maybe the change was so quick, and we were not alert – we were asleep. Maybe we were occupied with something else. That’s what is happening: because the mind is constantly occupied with the past or with the future, it goes on missing the change that is happening right now.
Life can become a celebration, but one has to see the newness, the constant renewing energy of life. Each moment it brings something new into existence which was never before and will never be again. Each moment the old disappears and the new is born. Only in meditation can one see it, because in meditation one becomes unoccupied.
That is the definition of meditation: to become unoccupied, to be empty, not to be occupied at all. And these are the two occupations: the past and the future. The moment you are not occupied you are out of time; then you are herenow, in this immediate moment. And when eyes open to this immediate moment, it is simply unbelievably beautiful. It is a constant wonder. There are surprises and surprises at each step, with each breath. Then life takes on a new color, a new vigor. Then you are also fresh, because nothing ever gets old.
To remain in this freshness is to be spiritual. Then one is always young. Even in death one is young, even in dying one is fresh. Even the moment of death will bring only new surprises, that’s all. New doors will open, new mysteries will be revealed. Then life is a joy, and death too.
This is the alchemy of transforming life. So start becoming more and more unoccupied and available to the present.
Learning from the story Just Drop: Available To The Present
Experience Learning
How to be Available To The Present?
A serious mind can never be in the present. Only a playful mind, only children, are in the present. So be more childlike…
Religion is basically the search for childhood: the same innocence, the same joy in things, the same fearlessness those magical eyes, that heart which was able to dance with the trees, the heart that was enchanted with the moon and the stars. That space in which existence is nothing but sheer glory, pure splendor.
What is innocence, what is beauty?
To live in the moment is innocence, to live without the past is innocence, to live without conclusions is innocence, to function out of the state of not knowing is innocence. And the moment you function out of such tremendous silence which is not burdened by any past, out of such tremendous stillness which knows nothing, the experience that happens is beauty.
Whenever you feel beauty – in the rising sun, in the stars, in the flowers, or in the face of a woman or a man – wherever and whenever you feel beauty, watch. And one thing will always be found: you had functioned without the mind, you had functioned without any conclusion, you had simply functioned spontaneously. The moment gripped you, and the moment gripped you so deeply that you were cut off from the past.
And when you are cut off from the past you are cut off from the future automatically, because past and future are two aspects of the same coin; they are not separate, and they are not separable either. You can toss a coin; sometimes it is heads, sometimes it is tails, but the other part is always there, hiding behind. Past and future are two aspects of the same coin. The name of the coin is mind. When the whole coin is dropped, that dropping is innocence. Then you don’t know who you are, then you don’t know what is: there is no knowledge.
But you are, existence is, and the meeting of these two is-nesses – the small is-ness of you, meeting with the infinite is-ness of existence – that meeting, that merger, is the experience of beauty.
Innocence is the door; through innocence you enter into beauty. The more innocent you become, the more existence becomes beautiful. The more knowledgeable you are, the more and more existence is ugly, because you start functioning from conclusions, you start functioning from knowledge.
The moment you know, you destroy all poetry. The moment you know, and think that you know, you have created a barrier between yourself and that which is. Then everything is distorted. Then you don’t hear with your ears, you translate. Then you don’t see with your eyes, you interpret. Then you don’t experience with your heart, you think that you experience. Then all possibility of meeting with existence in immediacy, in intimacy, is lost. You have fallen apart.
