Thought for the Day
Topic: Thought for the day
A Thought for the Day From Sri Eknath Easwaran
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February 21

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the
past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles,
but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. - The Buddha

When the mind is stilled through the practice of meditation, we are
lifted out of time into the eternal present. The body, of course, is
still subject to the passage of time. But in a sense, the flickering
of the mind is our internal clock. When the mind does not flicker,
what is there to measure change? Time simply comes to a stop for us --
or, more accurately, we live completely in the present moment. Past
and future, after all, exist only in the mind. When the mind stops,
there is no past or future. We cannot be resentful, we cannot be
guilt-ridden, we cannot build future hopes and desires and fears on
past experiences; no energy flows to past or future at all.

Past and future are both contained in every present moment. Whatever
we are today is the result of what we have thought, spoken, and done
in all the present moments before now - just as what we shall be
tomorrow is the result of what we think, say, and do today. The
responsibility for both present and future is in our own hands.
If we live right today, then tomorrow has to be right.

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>From Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By" (Nilgiri Press, 1997)
http://www.nilgiri.org/Html/Thoughts/today.html

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