We ignore the present and live from the known 

Yoga means union with the authentic, with the real… Our experience of life as thinking beings is from a past and towards a future, ignoring the present. We live from the yesterday and towards the tomorrow, from what no longer exists, towards what does not yet exist.  But we lose the now. We live from that stale world of the known, towards a world of hopes, expectations, fantasies, dreams and illusions, which draws us into an interminable search for aims and results.

Life is only the present, only this moment…

As ego, we are the known… we are the yesterday projecting itself as the tomorrow… we are nostalgias projecting themselves as hopes.  However, the past lacks a concrete existence, while the future is nothing more than imagination without solidity. What is, happens here and now. Life is only the present. Our life is not 20, 30, 40 or 50 years, but only this moment…
This yogic path reconnects us to the physical; it brings us back, to breathe and move in the present.  The average person has a body, but is not consciously present in it. In his daily life, he ignores it almost completely. In terms of consciousness, we could say that we live absent from our bodies. To situate ourselves in the present is synonymous with situating ourselves in our body. It is impossible to move a leg tomorrow or raise an arm yesterday…

Living from the hypothetical world of ideas and conclusions

As minds, we are accustomed to move in a theoretical world of ideas and conclusions. From the egoic perspective, life is hypothetical, supposed, imaginary, filled with theories and concepts. Most of society experiences dissatisfaction, because the theoretical or hypothetical does not bring satisfaction on the plane of the practical. When we situate ourselves in our physical body, we reconnect to the world of facts, and we return to function in the vital.

By Swami Ramakrishnananda

Swami Ramakrishnananda is the founder of the Ramakrishnananda Yoga Vedanta Centers. He is a yoga master and an enlightened monk who follows the mystical paths of Hinduism.

Follow @Gurudev_English

Swamiji's website