True Believer

The Four Agreements: Domestication & Dream of the Planet

Truth is everywhere but with the agreements and beliefs we have stored in our mind, we have no eyes for the truth. -
The truth of this moment is simple – there is no need to question or struggle with it. It is a gorgeous summer day in the city. I am sitting in a café with large picture windows that show me big blue sky and soft warm sunshine. An urban landscape of cars and shoppers criss-cross with the ample green of trees and shrubs in the headlands beyond.

There are no bindings and restrictions, physically. And if I really let this sink in, there are none mentally or emotionally either. I feel I am in a steady frame of mind. Or at least, there are no external stimuli that are provoking a wild jumble of thoughts and emotions inside me. Nothing externally can be evidenced as wrong or different or challenging. And I should be able to accept this as the truth of this moment.

But can I? Can I let this moment just be and make an agreement with myself to not question its uneventful simplicity? Can I let consciousness flow in and out of me and make me aware of the truth of the moment, in this moment of truth?

And there in lies the dilemma – since it is the “I” that assumes that it is allowing this moment to unfold in awareness, rather than the other way around. And the “I” therefore, feels responsible for working on making this moment better than what it is.

And with this agenda in place, and referring to the thick set of agreements and beliefs that it holds so dear to its survival, “I” sets about righting all the wrongs of this moment. Suddenly the panhandlers smoking and spitting outside are irritants brought to my attention. The baby whimpering on another table distracts me from my work. The music is now too loud – I can’t concentrate. The quick scan to check for ‘that’ email brings new disappointment and disillusion with this whole dating process.

“I” descends into a familiar funk. And so in the process to live up to its agreements, the truth of the moment gets clouded in a complex web of mind-bound hope, stress, anxiety and doubt.