Living in the Present

Worrying is the other name of hope. When you think negatively about the future, you call it worry. When you think positively about the future, you call it hope. So, worrying is just as equally bad as hoping.

Conserve your energy. Train your thoughts. Discipline your little self. Time is…

The past is a great resource. It is not to be wasted away or thrown away or forgotten. If you do not really decode your past, you are bound to repeat your past. Forget all the propaganda coming from the neo-spiritual circles that say that the past is something to…

“Enjoy the moment! Go with the flow!” What is that flow? Where is it coming from? Why should I go with it? Why don’t you just pause and ask, which flow are we talking of?

The tsunamis are coming to take you away, and the great master is teaching you:…

There is a subtle pleasure in worrying. Surely you are stealing time away from work so that you can indulge in worries and anxieties and fancies of all kinds.

The opposite of this self-centered worry is immersion in action. Immerse yourself in the right action, and then where is the…

Worrying is nothing but an unauthorized concern for results. First of all, it is a concern for results. Secondly, it is an unauthorized concern for results. You are trying to speculate about something you are not authorized to think about. You have no authorization, no locus standi to think about…

You might be twenty-five today; where is the one who was twenty yesterday? Isn’t he gone? How can you stop the other from departing when you couldn’t prevent even your own old self from departing?

Remember your old self, the one that was there at the age of five, ten,…

Immerse yourself in the right action, and then where is the space and the time to worry? Surely you are stealing time away from work so that you can indulge in worries and anxieties and fancies of all kinds.

Young people fantasize, don’t they? Some fantasize about beautiful, pretty, exciting…

Why do the regular events of life succeed in deceiving you? Because you are not available to them; because you are not looking at them as they are; because you are not listening to what they are really saying right now. Instead, you are carrying images and echos—images of scenes…

Let’s assume for a while that your worries about the future are founded in facts. Let’s say some grand evil army is invading your little fortress and you can see them all coming with your binoculars, and you are estimating that they will reach you in another four hours. They…

When you say that you go to your workplace for a purpose, is the purpose ever the work? The purpose is the salary cheque. In fact, if work could be bypassed and you could straightaway reach the salary cheque, then who would want to work? Is work the purpose really?…

Attentiveness can only be to that which is present. The past is a filler. Do not blame the past. If you have nothing right now with you, then as a filler, past and future would flow in. Do you want to blame them?

The present is not merely engagement in…

The old would either turn into the new or will have to go away. And if it is not turning into the new, then it will keep you too old. If you are moving towards the new, now there can be no carrying of the old. Either the old will…

You don’t have to think of the final victory. The final victory will always be a gift immense beyond your imagination or desire. You have to think of your current daily battles. You have to think of your little daily victories. If you think of the final victory, all you…

The mark of the one living rightly is that he doesn’t have the need to think too much. Thought, in some way, is a compensatory mechanism: what you couldn’t do right you want to think right. But you cannot think right what you have done wrongly, or can you?

In…

Questioner (Q): How can we, in daily life, go closer to the Truth? Is that through sitting, walking, working, meditation, by living mindfully in the present moment? Isn’t mindfulness taught by the Buddha himself?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Which Buddha are you referring to (asking the questioner)? The Buddha of the…

Questioner: What is the exact way to live life?

Acharya Prashant: Are we right now living inexactly? Is there something wrong right now? You want to correct it?

What do you mean by exact? What is missing that you want to achieve? What exactness are you running after? When you…

Listener 1: Sir we talked about ‘now’. We look at the past, conditioning starts getting activated. If we look at the future, fear gets activated. But if we look at the ‘now’, because there is only this moment, this ‘now’, so can we say that this moment is timeless? It’s…

Question: Is it real that human beings can live forever?

Acharya Prashant: It depends on what you think of human beings. If you think that they are born, then they will die.

L1: I mean the human body.

AP: The body never dies!

L1: The body never dies?

AP: Never…

Questioner: When I am busy in doing certain activities that I enjoy doing, there are expectations from the future, but no frustrations at present. What is this state? Can it remain forever?

Acharya Prashant: If this can happen, it is a very welcome thing. There are certain actions that produce…

Speaker: Before we chase something and want to be consistent in our chase, it’s very important to understand whether consistency is a worthy thing at all. Is that not important? Before you chase something, won’t you want to know whether the thing is worth chasing or not? Otherwise, you…

Question: Sir, people these days emphasis on the idea of the ‘Power of now’. But you say that the present is different from the now. Please elaborate.

Speaker: This whole talk about the power of now is a great sham. It is deep materialism disguised as spirituality. The present is…

Question: Is acceptance of everything that comes in life is same as living in the present?

Speaker: What is acceptance? What are these things that come to life? What do you mean by ‘my life’? What do you mean by ‘acceptance’?

Listener 1: ‘Acceptance’ means that the things that are…

Question: Sir, my question is, ‘How to focus on the present?’

Acharya Prashant: Do you need to focus on the present?

Listener: Sir, that is my only problem. When I study, all the shortcomings of my past keep coming to my mind.

AP: Present is there. You don’t need to…

Acharya Prashant (AP): There is this question about direct observation and how the world when ‘directly’ observed appears muddled up, appears quite confusing. There is a question that what is all this. One of the aspects of the question is, ‘What is love? When I look at the world around,…

Speaker: The question asked is that why can’t the brain be in the present? Because the present is not. You see, your mind makes sense of the world around. Your mind continuously makes sense of this world all around. But can your mind make sense of this moment? This moment…

Speaker: Be present to life and that is sufficient, improvement will come. It will happen on its own. You know, there are people who when they want to reduce weight make great plans. When it comes to the moment of exercising and jogging, then I am absent. After that, what…

Speaker : What is the present? We keep on talking of the present, what is the present?

The present is the source, present is nothing but the Truth.

The present is that from which everything emanates. The present is all, there is nothing but the present and the present is…

Acharya Prashant (AP): You may plan to go and meet somebody, will you also plan how to hug him and what all to say to him? Will you also plan that?

Now, what is essential, the time at which you meet him, or the time that you spend with him?…

A guide to handling difficult periods, adapting to unexpected changes, learning from experiences, seeking support, and continuing forward with confidence and patience.

Short description for the E2E smoke test article.

How did the Buddha look then? Who is the Buddha? Let’s try to understand with the story of Gautama Buddha, The ‘Shakya Muni Buddha’ as we call him. So, who was he? Let’s look at his central characteristics. One, someone who is well versed in the knowledge of his time. Buddha had deep scriptural knowledge. He was born in a Hindu Kshatriya family, he was a prince and ever since his childhood he was quite talented. So, one thing about him is that he was quite well-read. Second thing is, he was deeply interested in knowing the depths of life. He did not want to remain merely at the superficial levels, so he would observe a lot, he would think a lot. https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/todays-buddha-1_4d1b6bf

Unless you have reached the heart, the sexual activity has gone waste. Sex that is just a few inches deep serves no purpose. Sex has to be infinitely deep. You have to touch not only the other’s body but really the heart. That is what you are looking for.

Questioner: In light of our topic, one thing that really comes to mind is the concept of cancel-culture.

I am just summarising what it really means. Individuals on the platforms of social media or digital platforms, in general, have a kind of justice system, where someone can be kicked out…

I had to unlearn a lot of things, and I am grateful to all the sources—the books, the people and the experiences that helped me unlearn. And I am grateful to that within me that had the courage to unlearn. A lot of unlearning is needed. I often say you need to learn love. By that what I mean is that you need to unlearn false love. And it’s one mighty task to unlearn false love, transactional love, the transactional love that both biology and society teach you.

I had to unlearn a lot of things, and I am grateful to all the sources—the books, the people and the experiences that helped me unlearn. And I am grateful to that within me that had the courage to unlearn.

A lot of unlearning is needed. I often say you…

I had to unlearn a lot of things, and I am grateful to all the sources—the books, the people and the experiences that helped me unlearn. And I am grateful to that within me that had the courage to unlearn.

A lot of unlearning is needed. I often say you…

If you are someone who cannot take care of herself, how will you be sure that your presence, your company is not becoming an influence of sickness on the other person?

Be very, very alert about cohabitation. Just don’t start living with anybody. Be very, very conscious of your personal…

If you take yourself as primarily physical, then beauty too for you would be something just physical. You will look at the woman most capable of successfully reproducing. That’s the prakritik definition of beauty.

The first thing that comes to mind is flowers. What are flowers? Flowers are the reproductive…

Whenever you will give a lot of importance to what others give you, you will be afraid, and then you will want to play safe. Make a list of all that others give you—company, attachment, reputation, and these are the things that are at the core of your fear.

Whenever…

The world is your playground. So don’t be so particular about moving only within your pre-existing circle. If your cause is worth it, show some courage and move out.

If you have a tender and precious sapling in your palm, would you plant it in a desert? No. You will…

Simple living is: when I look at somebody, I do not look at the makeup, I do not look at the brand of the clothes, I do not look at the expression the fellow is wearing; I look at the essence of the person. Direct and simple.

I do not…

“You know what, I lost money in stocks and I still didn’t get a heart attack!” Why must you get a heart attack? It is a small matter. Let it happen. It’s okay. Every day more people lose money in the stock market than what is the number of those…

The meat eater is a self-deluder. You cannot eat meat without firstly lying to yourself. He will not want to know what the reality of meat consumption is. He will not want to know how animals are kept and how they are slaughtered. He will not know what the conditions…

Even when you are identified with being the winner or the loser, still there is something within you which can neither be a winner nor a loser. It is your fundamental nature. It is your fundamental nature that gets hidden when you are obsessed with winning or losing.

The fact…

The one relationship that is of maximum importance is the one you have with yourself.

When you are not alright with yourself, obviously you will seek an alternative to your company: “Can there be somebody to relate to? Can there be somebody to sit with, fill myself up with, form…

In fact, if there is one unpardonable crime, it is bad parenting. You are not even killing someone, you are disfiguring someone and sentencing him to live an entire life. How does that sound? It’s like chopping off somebody’s limbs but ensuring that he lives—and he lives an entire life…

Have you looked at kids playing? If you look at kids playing and if you look at animals playing, you won’t find much difference. In fact, human kids go along very well with animal kids. Later on, when we cover ourselves with a lot of acquired knowledge, with a lot…

Most people never evolve beyond their psychological age of three, four, ten, or twelve years. So they have to be consoled like kids.

If a two-year-old is crying, you cannot talk reason to him, can you? What does a two-year-old need? You pick him up, caress him a little, kiss…

What does it mean to have an inauthentic relationship?

To be authentic is to be complete and secure in yourself. Anything authentic is not in need of further improvement or refinement; it is already authentic. That is the way the authentic mind functions: it does not relate with the other…