Living in the Present: Overcoming Restless Thoughts

2 years ago By Yogi Anoop

"Living in the Present: Overcoming Restless Thoughts and Finding Inner Depth"

Currently, one cannot become a victim of habits because the present is constantly changing. Whatever circumstances a person faces, sometimes they can control them completely according to their wishes, and sometimes they cannot control them at all. It is not always possible for them to control all situations according to their wishes because the present is always strange. It comes into life without warning. Humans cannot always manage it with their old rules. Perhaps this is why Indian sages have talked about taking the help of five principles to control the present. These five principles are - Sam (peace), Daam (gift), Dand (punishment), Bhed (dissension), and Neeti (policy). The support of these five principles is used somewhere or the other, at some point in time, to live well in the present.

Generally, the definition of living in the present is very common among everyone. According to them, to live in the present, one should not focus on the past and future. However, in my opinion, this is a very oversimplified definition that no one can actually put into practice at any time.

It can be understood through an example - when a driver is learning to drive, their complete focus is on learning to drive, which is present at that time. But when they have learned the basics of driving, the basics meaning here how to drive vehicles on the road is,   their mind wanders while driving. Their mind is not focused on the present. This does not mean that their mind is going to the past or the future. Their mind keeps generating unnecessary thoughts. When the mind has learned any art up to a certain level, after that, it starts generating other thoughts during the use of that art.

While driving, a truck driver forms unnecessary thoughts in his mind. This is because he has already learned the driving only but he doesn’t know the art of driving. He does not get any pleasure from this driving, which is why his mind creates restless thoughts. If his mind were to find peace and joy in his driving, then he would not even produce useless thoughts. It is important to note here that when the driver does not receive adequate pleasure from his own driving, he has to consume alcohol. The tiredness of his mind is relieved by the consumption of alcohol. The main point to be made here is that when he is driving, so many thoughts come to his mind that his mind, senses and body become very tired and he has to take the help of a substance that can relieve him of this fatigue and provide him with peace.

In my experience, if a driver is so engrossed in their driving that they are not generating unnecessary thoughts in their mind, they will not require any intoxicating substances. According to me, such a driver only runs the car on the road and does not have any depth to their driving. They have no idea how to handle the steering, clutch, or any other points with subtlety in the industry. If they delve deeper into driving, there is no chance of any kind of thoughts emerging. Don't consider the present moment as superficial because every moment has hidden possibilities of delving deeper. These possibilities must be obtained through the mind. It is true that the mind can go deeper in the present moment.

In the past, there was no possibility of depth because everything had already been experienced. So, what good would it be to experience events that have already been experienced in the past? As for the future, leading the mind there means keeping the mind busy with imaginary ideas. These two states of mind occur very rarely in common people.

The fundamental problem of common people is that when they try to live life in the present moment, unnecessary thoughts are constantly being created in their minds. This is why their minds become restless and their focus is lost. However, when a person can keep their mind focused on the present moment, they can experience the depth that lies within it. Ultimately, the goal is to reach a state of consciousness where the mind is completely focused and free from unnecessary thoughts.

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