Unconnectedness of Thoughts Leads to Living in the Moment

I often consider and write about the idea of living in the moment. I know it’s not just a concept; it’s a worthy goal and one some people achieve. I have found it difficult to do so, although it remains one of my goals.

Quieting my mind during meditation also remains one of my goals, yet I struggle with this as well. My thoughts flow one after another no matter what I do.

Today, however, I read something that connected what I think of as the flow of thoughts to living in the moment. In fact, I learned that most thoughts are not connected and when we become conscious of the separateness of each thought we learn to live in the moment. This idea intrigued me, especially since becoming conscious of our thoughts represents a requirement of conscious creations on any level–including simply (or not simply) creating change in our own lives.

I learned this while reading a meditation tip written by Swami Nithyananda. Known as the “life bliss swami,” Paramahamsa Nithyananda is a young enlightened master of Yoga and meditation who has inspired more than four million followers worldwide. He has dedicated his life to helping people overcome mental, physical and spiritual barriers to achieve enlightenment and live lives of bliss, success and peace.

He claims that when we learn that each thought is a separate entity, not connected to the one that comes before or after, we can live in the present moment. When we do that, we can experience bliss. Now happiness is one of my goals as well, but bliss sounds even better.

Rather than try to paraphrase his meditation tip for you, I thought I’d just let you read it for yourself. I suggest you not only read it but try it. Here it is:

The mind is nothing but a collection of thoughts. These thoughts rise up in succession like the bubbles in a fish tank. All these thoughts that rise in the mind also appear to be connected. But just like the bubbles in the fish tank the thoughts in the mind are also independent and unconnected.

You can do a small exercise. For ten minutes sit silently and observe the thoughts that arise in your mind. Don’t try to control or stop thinking. Just be silent and witness the thoughts coming. The moment a thought comes quickly, write it down on paper. Then, at the end of ten minutes read out whatever is written. You will see that it’s a mad man’s diary. There is utter chaos. There’s no connection between the previous thought, and the next one. Only when you write down your thoughts you come to know that the thoughts have no real connection. You may be thinking about having a cup of tea and the next moment you think about some pending office work. There is no real connection between having a cup of tea and the office work. Both are independent events. Even if there are two consecutive thoughts about the same event, the thoughts are unconnected as there is no continuity. There exists a silent gap between these thoughts of which one is not aware.

These thoughts by their very nature are unclutched. The problem begins when we start connecting these thoughts. When these independent and unconnected thoughts are linked together, we create illusions of pleasure or pain based on the nature of thoughts that we choose to combine. This is a play of the mind that is constantly happening within us.

When we perceive every incident as a new incident we will see life in a more beautiful way. Everything seems joyful and blissful. You stop taking things for granted. Once you start accepting life from moment to moment, bliss happens to you naturally.

(You can find out more about Swami Nithyananda at www.innerawakening.org and www.dhyanapeetam.org.)