It is 1.30 am, and I am alone, awake, and silent. I only hear the ticking of the clock and that of the fan working overtime (Summer!). I am experiencing complete peace. Is it because I am alone amid silence? Is peace, then, a function of loneliness and silence?
My mind is also calm. Is it because there are fewer things to distract me now? I am away from my mobile phone and am sure that the mobile phones of my contacts are also resting now. It really feels good to be free from the clutches of my mobile phone. Is that the reason most of the saints prefer to be alone in a calm place free of distractions?
Most of the time, I am fully in the present moment without any thoughts, just observing every moment as it unfolds. Time moves very slowly, and, at times, I feel it is still. It is a different experience altogether when you are fully in the present; there is no burden of the past and anxieties of the future.
I started to examine what really is the present moment. It appeared to me as just a transitory moment which erodes my future and gets accumulated with my past. When you are fully immersed in such transitory moments, there is a sense of realization which is difficult to explain but pleasant to experience; it gives you absolute peace and genuine joy. But it vanishes the moment you step out of it and get back to your past or future thinking.
Good dreams about our future also give us a sort of imaginary pleasure. But it is not real until such a time as it is realized. But for most of us, it seems that imaginary joy is filling; the very thought of thinking of something big, or thinking of ourselves as a hero, in an imaginary life situation makes us happy. A series of constructive thoughts makes us, no doubt, and vice versa breaks us. When we can’t avoid thinking, what is harm in filling ourselves with constructive and positive thoughts? At least we can experience imaginary joy rather than letting ourselves be subjected to less constructive thoughts taking control over us and making us suffer.
But to experience real joy, we need to confront reality and fully be with it, enjoy and experience every transitory moment that turns our future into our past.