The Two Awful Eternities

On a daily basis, I review a “Thought,” “Meditation,” and “Prayer” for the day provided in a  small book entitled 24 Hours A Day (Daily Readings for Alcoholics.  Available on Amazon and other book stores.) In my course, Living @5, I review The Meditations for July 29, 30, and 31st as support to the Living @5 Model. This model is provided by a simple photo I took yesterday of  my whiteboard presentation.  Spend a moment thinking about this simple concept.  I offer them to you with love.

 July 29:  There are two days in every week about which we should not worry; two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is Yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.  Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.  All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday.  We cannot undo a single act we performed: we cannot erase a single word said–Yesterday is Gone! 

July 30:  The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow with its possible burdens, its large promise and poor performance.  Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.  Tomorrow’s sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds–but it will rise.  Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn . 

July 31:  This leaves only one day–Today! Any man or woman can fight the battle of just one day.  It is only when you and I have the burdens in those two awful eternities’–Yesterday and Tomorrow–that we break down. It is not the experience of Today that drives men and women mad–it is the remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us, therefore, live but One Day At A Time. [24 Hours A Day.  Meditations For the Day:  July 29, 30th and 31st.] 

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(ps. My sweet wife Vickie Lee provided the sketches of the 3 sets of eyes in the photo.)

Namaste, Phil

J.A.R.

In Lesson 10 of my course, “Living @5: A Spiritual Course in Thought & Time,” I provide a plastic (teaching at the jail, so no glass bottles) “jar”  which contain three multi-colored velvet smiley face flowers (Photo Below)  Each flower represents a word foundational to the course:  Judgement, Attachment, and Resistance. Using the “Mason Jar” as a memory device, I focus students on the large “NON” written on the side of the jar. Then we read a quote from The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle: “Non-Judgement, Non-Attachment, and Non-Resistance are the three aspects of  true freedom and enlightened living.” (The Power of Now, pg 225).

In discussion, I underscore (1) that Judgement is ego centered and brings personal dissatisfaction. “Observe everything. Judge Nothing;” (2) Attachment is the desire to acquire, attach to that which we currently do NOT have. This desire brings personal dissatisfaction to the present moment; and (3) Resistance addresses the constant resistance we hold against the “present moment.” Most of us feel as if “this moment should not be.” But, because the present moment always IS, we are in a constant state of dissatisfaction.

Today’s meditation (12/30) from 24 Hours a Day addresses the Attachment part of JAR.

“People are failures in the deepest sense when they seek to live without God’s sustaining power. Many people try to be self-sufficient and seek selfish pleasure and find that it does not work too well. No matter how much material wealth they acquire, no matter how much fame and material power, the time of disillusionment and futility eventually comes. Death is ahead, and they cannot take any material thing with them when they go. What does it matter if I have gained the whole world, but lost my own soul?” (24 Hours a Day:  Daily Meditation for 12/30.  ©Hazelton Foundation 1975)

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(Photo: “Living @5: A Spiritual Course in Thought & Time” © Perfect Brightness LLC 2013.)