If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard somebody say, “Live in the here and now.” or “Just be in the present.” … well … I would have quite a chunk of change!  Seriously though, it has always seemed like some sort of vapid catchphrase to me … like a cookie-cutter, religious cult kind of thing … “Be in the Present!” said with a Shiny-Happy-People vacuous grin.

Well, I am hoping that I can explain the concept as it was revealed to me this weekend, while meditating on one of my prior posts (“Transformation” … as well as a further quote from the post, “Stands on tiptoe“).  It really was a pretty big spiritual breakthrough for me, in the sense that I spent the entire weekend working on changing my own perspective … or rather changing the way my mind works … in this regard.

” … truth is a thing that must come moment to moment …”

So, I focused on trying to make myself stay “in the present” for this entire weekend.  It really was amazing to me how OFTEN I went out of the present to go to the future, or the past … without even trying!!  I would actually be focusing on making myself be in the Present … and, boom, there I would go … off into some tangential place that was either future or past!  It was surreal!

As I did this more and more over the course of the weekend, I started to notice some things.  First of all, when I was consciously keeping my heart chakra open?  I was in “the Present”.  In keeping my heart chakra open, I was enabling myself to commune with God.  The times where I slipped up (either knowingly, or unknowingly)?  I was not communing with God in those times … I was either worrying about some future potential calamity, or remembering one thing or another and allowing that to affect my reactions.

What I ultimately came to see is that whenever I am in either “The Past”, or “The Future” … those are times where I have disconnected myself from communing with God.  It happens without you even knowing it!  You can be totally focused on communing with God, and then suddenly … you are remembering how your heart was broken, or some wonderful vacation, or who knows what.  None of those things are horrible in and of themselves … it’s just that, when you get to a place where being separated from communing with God … becomes your norm?  Well, that truly is where most of the world lives!

I personally was amazed at how MUCH I would end up in either the Future, or the Past … even while I was concentrating on being Present!!

The really nice aspect of this whole experiment of mine is that … when I WAS in the Present??  I was completely happy … totally satisfied, and seeing things around me that I normally just would ignore, or miss.  Nature became full of literal toys that God gave me for my delight.

So … being in the Present is NOT some sort of “cult-like” thing … it is simply ALL about communing with God.  God is here, NOW … God LOVES you in the Here and Now.  Spending time worrying about what a co-worker will say, or what your spouse will have forgotten, or what one of your parents did, or didn’t do, or anything else?  That is where God is NOT.

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!

There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.

By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach