When stories about past, future and present are recognized as imaginations, it gives a sense of freedom and fluidity.
For instance, I am free to go into stories about the three times, and also find what these stories are about here now.
I am free to go into stories about the past, future or present, and also recognize the stories and what they evoke as happening here now.
I can ask myself, what is the seed of these stories? What are the feelings evoked by these stories? What are the needs and desires behind these stories?
What do I wish for? Can I find it here now? Is it true it is not already here? How can I bring it more into my life?
A friend of mine has a wish for community, and I notice I have the same. I have lived in intentional communities in the past (Zen center, housing cooperative) and have for a long time wished to live in a co-housing type community. All of those stories are about the past and future, and it can be very helpful (and fun) to go into those stories, elaborate on them, see what’s there. It helps me clarify my dream and wishes, and where my heart is drawn right now.
Afterwards, or at some point during the conversation or fantasy, it is also helpful to find it all here now. I notice the images as happening here now in my own imagination, and the feelings evoked are also here now. Where is my heart pulled? I find that it is pulled towards a deeper, fuller and more real sense of connection with others. Is it true that is not already here now? Hm. I do experience a sense of connection with myself and many others right now, sitting here. That experience of warmth and nurturing connection is alive here now. How can I bring it more into my daily life? By recognizing this impulse, through nurturing existing connections and make these more nurturing for me, and see if I want to make some acquaintances into closer friends (I find I do).
So I play with stories about the three times. I find what the stories are fueled from and what they evoke. If there is a desire or longing there, I ask myself, is it true it is not already here? And I can find strategies for bringing it more into my daily life, starting right away.
It doesn’t mean that I don’t take the stories themselves seriously. In my example above, I still have the wish to live in an intentional community in the future, and it may well happen. At the same time, I enrich my life by asking myself if what I desire is not already here now, and also find strategies for bringing it more into my current everyday life.
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– play with stories about past, future, present
– then bring it back here and now
– what’s the seed? the feelings? needs/desires?
– what do I wish for? can I find it here now? how can i bring more of it into my life?