So You Want To Be in the Moment

In 1975, a concert never to be forgotten by anyone who thrills to piano music and lyrical jazz took place in Köln, Germany. An American pianist sat for 66 minutes and improvised a musical composition. Keith Jarrett, totally part of every note he played invited an audience to meet him in a place where even the spaces between the notes were musical. You can hear him humming to himself at some points, tapping his foot at others and even sighing. He was there in the heart of reality—the moment, and he took those who were willing with him.

The composition he created was complete unto itself, not unconscious rambling. To my writer’s heart it would be akin to creating a novel in one sitting of a quality that smacked of an edited, proofread copy ready for printing. It is the sort of art we can create, life we can live, were we willing to leave our minds behind and instead hand ourselves over to our resident power, that which gives us breath at its most basic level and exquisite creation at yet another.

People refer to Jarrett as a genius. I think it’s much more than that. He is, for whatever reason, a human being who knows how to tap the source of life within himself, to dissolve into the moment—as Pama Rab Sel addresses it: “I mean most particularly the intense, specific moment hidden within the apparent motion of mundane activity both within and without.”

There is much talk these days of being present, living in the moment, being mindful. In most cases such talk is merely an idea we employ to assuage a growing emptiness as life goes on without any lessening of the mundane or increase in the extraordinary. So when another human being comes along who’s willing to step off the edge into the heart of the moment in a manner he can share with others, it behooves us to step off with him. As one reviewer, Jesse Kornbluth, states, “He doesn’t pay rapt attention; he is rapt attention. And so are we when we join Jarrett there.

Jarrett was 30 years old at the time of the Köln Concert. He didn’t sleep for two nights before the concert. The piano was a Bosendorfer, not his favorite. He’d had a bad Italian meal. He was, he felt, so unprepared to play that he almost sent the engineers home. But then he went home instead, gave himself over to the expansiveness of the reality that contains us, is us and sat down at the piano to make the Köln Concert history.

We tend to misconstrue the moment as some sort of heightened experience, something grand, out of the ordinary. It just doesn’t happen to be so. Rather it is life experienced when freed from mind and its constant prattle.

In the words of Pama Rab Sel: “ Whatever has been is gone. Whatever will be does not yet exist. In this space we reside. Don’t give it another thought. Expand this space. Sustain this moment….Remain steady in the Stillness.”

First Things First

It was 1994, I think. I was sitting in an audience laughing myself simple as author, Julia Cameron, shared both her life and how she’d come to write The Artist’s Way. The book was a blazing success, and she was most entertaining with the sense of humor only a recovered alcoholic has, having stripped themselves clean of the puffery most people employ to fill out the dents in their persona that denial and non-accountability whacked in there.

I worked through The Artist’s Way back  then as I was just starting to write and my life was in chaos, both of which the book addressed. The activity that Julia stressed in order to tap into our source of creativity and wisdom was what she called Morning Pages – 3 pages (8 ½ x 10) of longhand writing about anything or everything that crosses your mind done the first thing when you get up each morning.  As Julia says,

“They [Morning Pages] appear to have nothing to do with creativity, yet they are the bedrock on which my creative life is built. They are the terra firma of my book The Artist’s Way and the central, life-changing tool that guides and safeguards creative emergence.”

Trust me if you will, Ms. Cameron is not being overly effusive in that statement. The book she recently published is specifically on the topic and is entitled, The Miracle of the Morning Pages , which I heartily suggest you read if anything in this blog strikes a chord. You see this recent book was written 25 years after Ms. Cameron's original experience with Morning Pages, and the power of this practice is now time-tested. Whether you are in the arts or just living a life that has far too many issues unresolved, this simple, doable activity could change your life.

I started the Morning Pages all those years ago, but I didn't realize their power, and somewhere along the way stopped writing them. So this past February, after Bert found Julia’s new book mentioned above, Bert, friend Adrienne and I began this practice anew, and we were all amazed at the results and continue to be.

How do the Morning Pages accomplish what they do? I’m not sure I see it all, but of this I am clear. There is an elemental activity that goes on continuously in all human beings, call it an energy or force that is constantly active. I refer to it, thanks to Don Juan Matus, as our attention. We don't have a choice about whether it is active or not. Where our choice lies is in directing its focus. If we don’t take an active role in directing it, attention generally focuses along the lines of habit – paying heed to old stories, opinions, expectations—our usual habituated look at things. Or worse, it trundles through life like an early morning dog on the run, nosing into all kinds of garbage. 

If we take an active say in where we place our attention, many possibilities open up to us, not the least of which is being present. Another is awareness of our intuitive core, the home of creative instinct. That instinct can serve our artistic endeavors or direct us toward solving issues that are diminishing our lives. By the simple act of putting pen to paper and writing continuously for 3 - 8 ½ X 10 pages whatever comes up or whatever you indicate you want to understand, your attention resides in the present and accesses your creative inner core. Rumi, the Sufi mystic, referred to this aspect of ourselves as The Friend, and you will soon find out why.

Get yourself past the New Agey frame of reference that Julia comes from, if that bothers you, so you can find out for yourself what this amazing practice has to offer. Each day, Morning Pages become the first thing you do because that makes the pages easier to write. Your attention is still close by and hasn't yet gotten caught up in that infernal inner chatter or shot off to La-La Land. Get up, grab your coffee then sit back down and write.

ONE WARNING – The Morning Pages are absolutely private. Do not let anyone read then. It will inhibit you if you think someone might see what you are writing. If you have someone in your space that you fear might not honor your right to privacy, put the journal where it will be safe. You must feel you can write whatever comes to you. That is critical to the success of these pages. You can discuss ideas and insights as you wish, but don’t give anyone access to the journal itself.

I would suggest you read The Miracle of the Morning Pages before you start. Then buy yourself a journal that you like of the proper size and get started. If you hit a morning where nothing is coming, just keep writing something, repeating a question or soliciting the flow to begin, until it does.

For those of you who take me up on this, I would love to hear your comments about your experience. Friend Adrienne, who’s new to all of this, reports her results have astounded her. Help those still fence-sitting by sharing your experience of a week with Morning Pages. We’re all waiting…

A Month of Doing Anew – Next Thoughts

If you recall, what we’re about is ending up this month different than how we started, engaged with life in a way new to us which leaves its imprint sufficient to have us notice ourselves responding to  life anew. And remember, you don’t have to have a life shattering experience to create change. In fact, it is possible to have a life shattering experience which does nothing more than embeds your fears more deeply. So don’t pooh-pooh a quiet, daily pressure that births a new sense of life.

I have been a lover of Zen for many years. I’m not a follower of any particular spiritual philosophy. I pick fruit off many different trees, but the arrow-like nature of Zen observation of the world makes it a most penetrating experience. Zen focuses on a mind that is quiet, meaning not filled with the continual chatter that occurs in most everyone’s mind, night and day. That sort of quiet mind is a present mind and thus the person whose head that mind occupies is said to be present, or living in the present moment.

Now, I’m sure if you are reading this blog, you have heard that terminology often or others like it–mindfulness, presence, being present. But do we really understand what is being implied by this concept, for if the human mind banters anything around for a period of time is has the ability to suck all the sap out of it without even tasting it. So here is what the ancient Zen folk say, Master Dahui, in this case:

Buddha said that when the mind does not gasp things of the past, does not long for the future, and does not dwell on things of the present, then one realizes that past, present and future are empty (without substance, meaning or indeed existence).

Don’t think about past wants, whether good or bad, for if you think about them, this impedes the Way. Don’t calculate future matters, for if you calculate, you go mad. Don’t fixate your attention on present affairs, whether pleasant or unpleasant, for if you fixate your attention on them, they will disturb your mind.

(Now here’s the kicker) Just deal with situations as they happen, and you will spontaneously accord with these principles.

So here’s my question. How many times in a day do you deal with something that has actually happened? Don’t answer too quickly. Take a look. Maybe you just had an argument with one of your children and would take that as an example of being present and dealing with a situation as it happens. But if you are willing to look closely, you might find that what you were really dealing with were old fears, the past, concerns about your success or ability as a parent. Or maybe instead, you were dealing with future fears of what might happen to this child if you can’t get him/her to do as you wish. Or maybe you continue to play the scenario over and over and torture your present. But what likely didn't happen was dealing with the situation just as it was happening in that moment. Trust me, if you were, there would be little or no emotion, just a rational and quiet discussion of that current point.

So here’s the challenge, something truly new. Watch yourself. Catch yourself living in your mind, emoting from things you are thinking about, be they past events, future fears or dreams or present scenarios that are not actually taking place at that time.

Any success at all in this endeavor is a truly new experience for most every human being. Take it seriously, and for sure you will not end up this month the same person who started it. There will be more peace in your heart than you've felt since a child and so much less fear in any of it forms.

There it is: Just deal with the things that are actually happening and see how life changes.