Uhhh...is this thing on

"Do not wait for Life. Do not Long for it.
Be aware, Always and at every moment,
that the Miracle is in the here and now"
--Marcel Proust

In the corporate news today: Britain's Labour Party has won an unprescedented third term; the Pentagon says that satellite photos may indicate that North Korea may be preparing to test a nuclear weapon; an astronomer may have taken a picture showing the wreckage of NASA's Mars Polar Lander which was lost six years ago.

The sun is done for the day, and what a warm sunny day it was. At this moment the house is silent except for the clicking and tapping of my fingers on the keyboard.

Well, unfortunately I missed my weekly Buddhist meeting this week after having gotten off to a 16-straight start. On the other hand, now I don't have to feel pressure over maintaining "the streak". But it does call to mind an issue I have wondered about since before I even started attending a weekly Buddhist practice. I have read many books by deep spiritualists and mystics, from a variety of traditions within Buddhism as well as outisde of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama, Thich Nat Hahn, Koshin Ogui, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, and Brother Wayne Teasdale, just to name a few. I have read again and again about the importance of deep awareness, surrender to the eternal now, living in the moment not for the moment, and on and on. I am familiar with the variety of ways which are recommended for reaching this state, not by doing but by being. That's all well and good. And now I have been regularly practicing in a spiritual tradition for about four months. Now that's not really that long, but it's a good chunk for a novice.

So then, why is it I haven't experienced even a slight encounter with the kind of presence of moment I keep reading about? I deliberately chose the word experienced to recognize that the "moment" is always there whether I am able to appreciate it or not. I've read so many descriptions from so many traditions of people who have, even briefly, experienced such a mystical unity with their world. It typically is described in terms of being amazed at how real everything becomes, as if a new depth or dimension had been revealed. Everything appears new--it's as if the people who have such an experience are seeing the world for the first time as it really is. It is, by all accounts, quite a powerful and unmistakeable experience. I'm very sure I have no conscious memory of such an experience.

Is it possible that some people are just not capable of such awareness?