POTENTIAL IN EACH MOMENT

Every spiritual master has declared that the present moment is the home of spirit; nothing to be attained in the form of wisdom, love, and vision has to be postponed. Yet we all postpone the day when we will be loving, wise, and inspired by our own vision. This implies that the present moment is a very difficult place to reach, despite the obvious fact that we are already there. Every second is a door to eternity. The door is opened by perception.

What makes each second infinite is its potential; what makes it finite is your view of that potential. Think of an inspired moment in your life, when you made the perfect move, said the perfect thing, had the perfect idea. What made you so different in that moment?

You were open to something new. You weren’t reliving the past or anticipating the future. You felt optimistic and open; you were not defended. You let it happen, whatever it was. You felt connected.

Now ask yourself if you feel that way now. If you did you would be in a very simple, though extraordinary state: you would be in the moment.

Let your mind go blank and allow the sensation of time and space, a single expanding circle, race away from a point. Hold in your mind both extremes – the point and the circle – without letting go of either. Don’t strain or try to visualize too hard; this should be as natural as possible. Let the circle race away from the point until it disappears and you can no longer hold both things in your awareness.

The value of seeing infinity in a grain of sand is personal. The grain of sand is important. You are using this point of focus to slip out of the net of time and space. Beyond the net lies openness, which is pure potential

Adapted from The Path to Love, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1997).