Transcript: Living in the Moment
The following transcript is taken from Track 09 of the ‘Happiness’ double audio CD, entitled ‘Learning to value the moment’.
This presentation was recorded as the foundation for our message of personal power, happiness and wellbeing.
Key: JB = James Blacker, DH = David Heard.
JB: Are we saying really then, erm, over that last conversation, five or ten minutes, that any moment that we’re not enjoying, that we’re doing for a future cause, or if we’re particularly… well just simply if we’re not enjoying, there’s something there that we’ve got wrong, that we’re not quite understanding what the moment is for… or what we actually want to be doing in that moment, or… there’s something around that, that we’re either not enjoyng it… we can’t be doing it for the right reasons, we might be missing what the moment’s about, or approaching it somehow.
DH: We’re not valueing it. You see there is no sort of iddyllic state where you go around with a simplistic grin on your face enjoying everything, even the fact that you tripped over a curb stone. Don’t get… you know, we don’t believe in that kind of naivety. What I’m saying is, that there is an intrinsic value in living. And that means every moment. Every moment that we’re drawing breath is in a way its way its own little miracle. It’s its own miracle. And there’s always something to be enjoyed. And to be savoured. But that’s all about understanding where you are at the moment…
JB: Well the joy can come from anything can’t it? It doesn’t matter what’s going on…
DH: Absolutely.
JB: …you have these moments where you get the joy, and that, when that joy comes its never for a massive reason, like you’ve earned… won the pools or anything.
DH: No, it might be just a robin coming down in the garden.
JB: But it’s allowing it in, whereas, you know, most of the time we just shut it out, but I guess its always there available as a resourceful state that we can go to.
DH: Well exactly, because its like the traffic jam. If you’re so focussed on getting from A to B, that you’re only obsessive moment is that “I’ve gotta get to B, and I’m being prevented by this idiotic traffic jam,” You’re already starting… the temperature is starting to rise inside, and you’re obliterating your reception to anything else. Whereas if you’re sitting there going “Well this is a pain, but nevertheless, what have I got on Radio Four? I’ve got this lovely play.” Or “look at the hedgerows, hey that’s amazing … I can see a vole.” You know, you may start to see the world through slightly different eyes.
JB: Well, and also its about being attached to the outcome isn’t it, if you’re talking about being in a traffic jam you literally want to… you’re attached to getting to the meeting on time, that you need that feedback, that reward, that result, to actually get to the meeting. So you probably, if you’re in that state of mind, you probably live in it all the time. (DH: Yes.) Probably when you get to the meeting, if it’s an hour meeting, for example, the purpose of the meeting for you then is to get the deal, so you don’t enjoy the meeting until you get the deal right at the end of the deal. Then you’ve obviously, if you get the deal, for example, that’s at the end of the meeting so you’ve missed another hour. You haven’t enjoyed that hour, that’s been, again, hooked up on the outcome of the purpose. Then you’ve got to get home, you want to have your dinner and celebrate, and what have you, and then whatever deal it is, you’re not happy until you’ve put that into operation, that’s got to be carried out, and make the money from it, and then get the rewards, whether you’re going to eventually use it to buy a house and spend some time with the family, or whatever!
DH: Yes, it’s all about deferral. Its all about deferring the act of living actually. The act of living. How many of us really, when we walk up our high street… think about the high street? We don’t! … We don’t think about, “Well I wonder what these shops looked like a hundred years ago?… I wonder what… when this was horse drawn carriages?” We don’t. We don’t observe what’s going on. We’re only intent in rushing to the shop… because we’ve run out of lemons! We needed to get some lemons. Or whatever. And so we’ve found the whole pre-occupation is rushing there to get that, rush back, because now we’ve got people coming to dinner and we didn’t… etc, etc. And all the time we’re deferring the act of living. It seems to me this is what most people get caught on, this treadmill of deferring the act of living, by working towards task after task after task. And, somewhere in the back of the mind is the thought that, ultimately, it’ll be okay ‘cos I’ll have attained everything I need to attain to reach Nirvana, my happiness. But that doesn’t work. That never ever happens.
