7 Little Known Ways to Enter the Present Moment
7 Ways to Realize God within Yourself
Why is your mind swinging between thoughts of past regrets and anxiety about the future instead of staying in the present moment? To stop this negative momentum of your mind, you need to surrender to inner being and realize God within yourself.
If you don't like the word God, you can replace it with Being, Higher Self, Kingdom of Heaven, Universe, awareness, etc.. Whatever you like to call it.
In this video, you will learn how to experience God by surrendering your mind inward and letting that higher power use your mind-body instrument for its purpose. So the Universe can use you to manifest its purpose.
Once you know how to surrender within, you will realize inner peace and become free from all day-to-day suffering. Your life will flow very smoothly without your mind's unnecessary judgments and dysfunctional thinking.
There are seven ways to realize God and enter the present moment that no one tells you explicitly.
The first five methods are spiritual gateways, and the last two are physical gateways. From the first five gateways you need only to use one. The last two physical gateways you can use all the time.
(1) First Present Moment Gateway: Rest in Being - Realizing the Kingdom of Heaven
Rest in Being. If you are on a spiritual path, this is the only way you require and nothing else. This is the end of all your seeking and searching.
You need to surrender your mind to inner being.
One of the greatest enlightened sages, Ramana Maharishi, and ancient scriptures said that our spiritual heart is slightly on the right side of the chest and it's the "center of our being". The spiritual heart differs from the physical heart and is the seat of spiritual experience. This spiritual heart consciousness or awareness. The Spiritual Heart is not an organ you locate physically; it is the Source of life itself, and one can only be aware of its real nature by being it. The spiritual heart is Being or God or Atma, whatever you call it. It's the essence of the whole Universe.
Don't try to locate the spiritual heart with the mind's concentration on the right side of your chest. The spiritual heart is beingness, awareness, and it's everywhere. If you want to abide in the spiritual heart, just let your attention rest in the inner chest all the time while engaged with the world.
How do you do that?
While doing worldly activities, you need to keep 80% attention on your inner chest. As long as you stay rooted in your chest while interacting with the world, you will be like a tree deeply rooted in the earth or a ship anchored in the seabed so the storm will not destroy it. You can increase putting your attention inward with practice while engaging with the world. First, start with 50% attention anchored inside your chest, and increase it to 80% until you fully surrender within. Once you are not doing anything on the outer level keep 100% of your attention inside. This is the most significant spiritual practice. Once you sincerely practice this, no spiritual practice, scripture, or Guru is required, as while resting in Being, you are ONE with God all the time.
Iron Man is very unlucky. He has a small finite source that can exhaust at any time. You are very lucky. You have this eternal and infinite source within you that has limitless potential. And you can just anchor your attention inside.
But Remember This: Your mind will create noise that, without full attention to the outside world, you will not be able to perform on an optimal level. But the opposite is true. By keeping your mind on God, which is your being, God will be the doer of all your worldly activities and not your mind. He will use your mind-body instrument to manifest whatever you require. Then the Universe will act through you to manifest its purpose. God leaves nothing undone. The ordinary man is always doing things, yet many more are left to be done.
Keeping a minimum of fifty percent of attention in your inner chest while engaged in the world will ground you and connect you to your inner divinity. With this practice, your mind will not be successful in making you identify with thousands of things of the world, and you will not get lost in the world.
You See, The Greatest Myth of Living In The Present Moment Is:
Myth: "Living In the Present Moment is Attending to Outer People & Circumstances in a focused way and Relishing All Mind's Pleasure By Being Fully Engrossed in Them." So, you usually keep your mind outward instead of retaining it inward into your being.
But the truth is Living in the present moment is first realizing divinity within and then engaging with the world from that divinity. Authentic living in the present moment is the awareness and feeling-realization of the inner Being. When you become aware of Being, The Being becomes aware of itself. When Being becomes conscious of itself – that's Presence, and only then you will be able to establish yourself in the present moment without swinging in the past and the future.
Hence most crucial thing is to retain your mind inward into your being and let it rest in your being. It also means connecting first with God within while doing your worldly duties.
(2) Second Present Moment Gateway: Breathing I AM
Sometimes, your mind is in tremendous momentum of thoughts, so it’s hard to surrender within. It's jumping like a monkey everywhere. So, you first calm your mind with this practice of "I AM.
You say, "I am" silently.
Say “I,” taking in a breath, and “AM,” taking out a breath. Just breath from your nose, not from your mouth. (See the video above for how I do it)
So, I, one "in breath", am, one out breath, silently, only through your nose. What this practice will do it, it will ground you, like a tree, to its roots. So you get essential nourishment. So once this practice grounds you in your being, you are aware, you're conscious. The consciousness is your nourishment. Then, go inward and "rest in your being," as shown in 1st method. Please see the first method in the video or read it above.
Now let's come to the third gateway.
(3) Third Present Moment Gateway: Conscious Doing - Manifesting Purpose of Universe
The third gateway is “conscious doing”. Now as we already discussed in the first method, By surrendering inward we become conscious. Now our being-that is God will be the doer of all our worldly activities and not our mind. He will use your mind-body instrument to manifest whatever you require. Then the Universe will act through you to manifest its purpose. In Conscious Doing You are intensely present with whatever you do. Let's say you are doing a million-dollar deal, or you are washing clothes, or you are washing the dishes, or you are changing your child's nappy. Be fully conscious by first putting your mind inward in being and secondly putting it on outer task. So the first focus on God within and then attend worldly activities. Then just be ONE with any job you take in your hand. Now, you see, we have this myth and the myth says that enjoyment comes from outside activity. No, the enjoyment is coming from within you.
The joy is coming within, from your being. So when you enjoy something, you are pouring your joy towards that activity.
And you can only enjoy it when you are conscious. Be conscious. Let your attention be anchored on your chest, and from that attention, by being grounded in the present moment, bring the joy from you and put into the task, and the task will be performed beautifully.
Whenever you are doing any work by being conscious, pls understand that you're not the doer, but God is the doer through you. Also enjoy the process without getting attached to the result or fruit of your action. Just offer the fruit of your efforts to God. This way of doing work is also called karma yoga.
(4) Fourth Present Moment Gateway: Surrender and Acceptance
This 4th way of surrender is allowing and accepting everything outside of yourself. On the outer level, you allow and accept everything as it is.
Something happens outside; you don't resist it. Let's say you are doing meditation, and somebody barges on your door. Your child comes and makes noise. Now your meditation goes out of the window; you cannot accept and allow whatever IS.
Our internal mind gets disturbed as soon as this kind of small disturbance happens outside of ourselves. We always want things in our own way. The alternative is you are surrendered to the inner being in a way that whatever noise comes from outside just passes through you as if you are transparent to it.
It doesn't mean that you cannot change. In fact, change happens beautifully.
This is how Infinite intelligence brings change through you once you surrender to being
First, it allows and accepts what it IS!
If those life situations are not suitable for your spiritual evolution, they will be changed effortlessly without the involvement of unnecessary mind judgments.
If acceptance and change are not optimal options, infinite intelligence will remove you from the situation.
(5) Fifth Present Moment Gateway: Hearing Silence & Feeling space
Hearing the silence outside and feeling the space. Now I'm hearing the silence outside me. And hearing the silence outside me activates the inner stillness in me. Let's hear. (See the above video to understand this Gateway)
I'm hearing the silence.
You can hear also.
You will become still inside as soon as you hear the silence outside. Immediately, you will be connected to your inner being.
Hear the silence and then feel the space. Everywhere there is a space. Now, in the space, there are some objects, like there is a table and chair, and there is this painting outside. Now, these are like thoughts in our mind. So, just feel the space.
And when you feel the space, you activate that inner spaciousness within you.
Feel the space.
The fifth gateway is hearing the silence and feeling the space. Now these are the five gateways. You can use any one gateway, and I would say use the first gateway as explained before
Now next two gateways are a bit weird. These are the physical gateways. Buddhist monks, or realized yogis, use them.
(6) The Sixth Present Moment Gateway: Physical Intimacy
The 6th gateway is physical intercourse. Now you might be feeling it’s very weird. How can somebody use sexual intimacy to enter the present moment and realize the divinity within themselves?
Let me explain. Some of the realized yogis who are married and with family used this act of physical intercourse in a very sacred way. As if they are conducting prayers. You see, everything is sacred in the Universe. It's upon us how conscious we are.
Physical intimacy or making love can be a tremendous spiritual awareness process. How? If you have reached a certain level of maturity and are not abusing this act of intercourse, you can intensify your awareness while doing this physical act. In the climax of your act, be extremely alert and aware in the last few seconds and feel the sensation of the inner body of those specific body organs. In the climax of the intercourse, your hormone hijacks your mind for pleasure and you tend to be unconscious as you are craving that high ecstasy feeling. But if, in those moments of the climax of intercourse if you become conscious, you will be aware even when you are angry, fearful or lustful. Because in Anger, Fear and lust, the same hormone is hijacking your mind and making you unconscious.
By being conscious during the climax of physical intercourse, you will also remain aware when you become angry and fearful. In this way, you are dissolving lots of mind conditionings when you are conscious while doing the act.
Sexual energy is the fundamental instinct of the body. But occupying your mind with it all the time is the most harmful way to live.
When you remain conscious while doing physical intimacy, next time, you are dissolving your mind's identification with the unnecessary thoughts of lust as you become more aware, and those hormones don't hijack and occupy your mind.
Try this conscious way in the next physical act of yours. But please don't abuse it. Don't understand that this is the only act where you can be spiritually aware. Use any of the other five previous gateways. The intention is to use all the opportunities and acts of life to awaken spiritually.
(7) The Seventh Present Moment Gateway: Nature's call, Body Bath and Physical workout
Nature's calls are Excretion & Urination. When you are relieving yourself from the waste of your body. According to Buddhists, this Biological process can dissolve so much mental conditioning when you are conscious while doing this process.
So when you go in the washroom and you are relieving yourself. Just be fully present with the sensation of the body. Feel the contraction and expansion of your inner body. This is a great opportunity to come out of your mind and become present.
Just be there. And again, lots of conditioning gets dissolved. Also, while you are bathing, be absolutely present with all the body sensations while Scrubbing your body. Feeling water on your body. The fragrance of soap etc. Let's say you are in this process for five minutes or fifteen minutes. Just be present while taking bath and relieving yourself. Some people read the Newspaper or book or they are on their phone.
What a waste of an essential day-to-day opportunity! This same process you could have utilized to awaken.
When you do your physical workout like weight training or running, you can feel your inner body instead of listening to the music and become intensely present. For me, an intense physical workout is a form of meditation that makes me one with God and lets me come out of mind’s thoughts
- Aby Vohra
Everything is sacred in life. Everything is a stepping stone towards spiritual awakening and realizing your divinity.