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The only moment you have is this moment.

9. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment. 

(Osho’s Ninth New Commandment)

There is but one moment

Many look forward to a future of wealth, prestige, and good health; some look to the past when they had wealth, prestige and good health; and the rest never look at the present moment for wealth, prestige, and good health. However, you can never live in a past moment….you can never live in a future moment. All you have is this moment…the one that just began and the one that just ended.

header15A truly wondrous moment

We live in a truly marvelous moment: one that gives us the sweet songs of the birds, the harmonious rush of the mountain streams, and the gentle whir of the four winds. These natural phenomena are what we should be aware of and what we should express gratitude for…they open our souls to the spiritual, the intense wow from the depths of our very existence. The now.

The moment exists for each of us 

However, you must be aware of these things, you must be awake that they exist within you and without you. Each of us has the sacred moment in our soul: we need not be religious, we need not be old or young, male or female. There is no prejudice, there is no exclusion of a single soul based upon their gender, age, location, intellect, health or wealth. The moment is innate within each of us, and it is our responsibility to find that moment, live that moment, be grateful for that moment.

Our role in the moment

Each of us is equal in the eyes of the moment, hence, we are the moment, and if we do not acknowledge the wonder of the moment, it is not complete…the universe is missing a piece of itself because we are the universe. We are unaware of the moment but we cannot separate our soul from the universe any more than our blood can separate itself from our heart;  our breath can separate itself from our lungs; or our thought can separate itself from our minds.

Each moment dies a quick death 

This moment exists only once, and as each moment dies, we must accept the next wondrous moment. We must fully live this moment as our last moment,after all, this all there is in life.  Do not focus upon happiness and joy in the future, it can never be experienced in the future because once it stops being the future, it becomes the past.

Every new moment brings wonder 

As we die this moment, this allows the next to be born. As a newborn child arrives in the physical world, full of awe, wonder, amazement…we must also see, feel, experience our new moment with awe, wonder, and amazement. Our new moment allows us to embrace what is ours; do not keep it hidden…out of our focus, out of our awareness, out of our consciousness.

Gladfully surrender each wondrous moment to live the next, and as the death of this moment occurs, feel grateful that you have the next new moment to feel the wonder of life surging through your heart, lungs, and mind.

 

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Moses, Osho and the New Ten Commandments

According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to escape persecution at the hands of the Pharaoh, Ramses. Having escaped evil, they set up their camp at the base of Mount Sinai. Moses ascended the sacred mountain and returned with two stone tablets that listed the Ten Commandments (Thou shall not murder; Thou shall not steal). These were laws to help guide Moses’ people to lead a ‘good’ life.

Now, let’s move ahead in time where we find the New Ten Commandments penned by  Osho (December. 11, 1931 – January 19, 1990), an Indian mystic, guru, writer, and spiritual teacher. Even all these years after his death, his works are followed by a large number of readers for their wonderful messages. Recently, I read Osho’s words on an ancient theme of how to live a ‘good’ life in modern times. Over the next few posts, I’ll include my ideas about the Ten New Laws of Life.

1. Obey no orders except those within.

(Osho’s First New Commandment)

Our intuition is our most valued gift 

stairwayOur inner self, or our intuition is a direct link to our Creator, and as such the ideas we receive from our inner being must be accepted as the truth, the one and only truth in our present physical manifestation. Since there can be only one truth, and that truth comes from within, we should not listen to what comes from without. It is our inner world, the unseen world of feelings and intuition that manifests a life of joy and plenty. However, many shun the unseen only for the seen as a pathway to happiness and success in life. That’s myopic.

Intuition is irrational, not logical 

Those who only believe what they see, which in turn is something that they can measure, identify, and therefore analyze with scientific accuracy have a difficult time in believing that intuition exists. This is not a reason to disbelieve. However, as Osho (2001) points out, “Intuition cannot be explained scientifically because the very phenomenon is unscientific. The very phenomenon of intuition is irrational.” We cannot see gravity…but it exists for our benefit. We must experience a leap of faith – because it cannot be measured is not a valid reason to think that it does not or cannot exist.

We cannot intellectualize intuition 

Our problem is that we feel intuition and then attempt to intellectualize it, to fill the gap between what we feel and what we cannot see, touch, or smell. Still, the higher can subsume the lower, but the lower cannot subsume the lower, and so it is with intuition…it can subsume intellect but intellect cannot subsume it. When we obey what is without and not within, we cannot reach our full potential in life, it is so because our present is not our future…our future is malleable if we follow what we know is the truth. Ultimately, if we obey what comes from within,  and not what comes from without, we have mastered the first of the new Laws of Life.

Osho (2001). Intuition: Knowing beyond logic. New York: St. Martin’s