Being Here Now

A very big aloha to you,

I'm Reverend Cindy Pollos,

Or I think I am.

I am going to talk today about a very important lesson.

I first heard a phrase about,

Gosh,

Many years ago.

I think it might have been 40 years ago,

A Zen phrase called,

Well,

It says,

Only don't know.

And it's interesting,

All these years later,

I still remember this phrase,

This teaching,

This wisdom,

Because,

You know,

How much time do we spend in school and learning and then reading all the books,

Trying to learn what is going on and knowing,

Right,

In pursuit of knowledge.

And then you read the phrase,

Only don't know.

And it's a very deep Zen phrase.

And I've had the experience of living this phrase when I had a stroke back in about three or four months ago from this time where I'm speaking now.

And when I had that stroke,

I found that I think God could still talk.

But a lot of what I knew,

Or at least what I thought I knew,

Was gone,

Including being able to read.

And boy,

That was a big one.

All of a sudden,

Not being able to read and having to learn to deal with that by copying and pasting into something that will reply back in words.

It's pretty amazing how many things you learn as go-arounds when you get in a situation like this.

But it also,

Even with the go-arounds,

It slows me down.

So what used to take me perhaps 10 minutes to do can now take me an hour,

Maybe two hours to do.

Now,

This is quite an interesting process,

And I'd like to say there's some value to it.

You like to,

Oh,

You always like to bleep.

Oh,

Okay.

And there is.

There is some value.

What happens is I slow down a lot,

And I use another phrase which,

Again,

Is a Zen phrase.

It's perseverance furthers.

It actually goes back to way back,

Way back also,

The Tao,

Only don't know.

So those are the two phrases I've been living with,

Perseverance furthers and only don't know.

And it's very interesting when I discovered the difference between reading a phrase like those that stuck with me and then living those phrases.

And that's why I wanted to talk about it,

Because we all are speeding up in many,

Many ways.

I mean,

Some people think everything's speeding up.

I mean,

When we look at what AI has done and how quickly it's speeding things up,

You have to wonder as we speed up and attempt to go faster and faster and get more and more done rapidly so we can do more and more and more.

What if something is getting lost and speeding up?

What if in slowing down,

You actually are able to experience things in a different way?

Now with the stroke that I had,

I also can't drive any longer.

And that means I'm walking more,

You know,

And walking won't solve everything,

But getting places is still a much slower process because I need to get rides everywhere.

So in slowing down that way,

All of a sudden I'm finding some beautiful things along my roadway as I'm walking to meet a ride that I would have totally missed if I had been in a car.

So there is a value in slowing down,

But it's very hard to do now.

I know many people really are doing retreats and I know in retreats,

I know in retreats you slow down.

I've done retreats and it's amazing how a part of us doesn't want to stop our emails.

It doesn't want to stop our texts.

It doesn't want to stop everything we're doing and just being able to be present,

To be here.

Now,

We are very attached to our devices,

Our emails,

You know,

Our phones.

We're attached to doing,

Doing,

Doing,

Doing,

Doing,

And there's the thing is we're doing it as quickly as we can because we're doing much more than we might have done years ago.

So I just wanted to spend a little time in slowness,

In just being here now.

And I thought I'd do that with a very slow meditation.

So for a little while here now,

I'd like to be able to just be present and to be here now and to be okay with it and perhaps to even love it,

Perhaps to even go,

Ah,

As if you were in a retreat and nothing could interrupt you and you didn't have anything that you had to do except being here now.

So of course,

You know,

We start with our breath because breath sweeps mind and we start with just breathing.

We're going to do that in slow motion.

How do you breathe in slow motion?

You just allow everything else to go and you breathe in very deeply from the base of your spine and breathe up and,

Oh,

I just cracked my head there.

Oh,

That was nice.

And you hold it,

Ah,

And you breathe out slowly as if you were breathing in slow motion.

Breathing deeply in,

Holding your breath and slowly breathing out,

Letting anything go,

Letting any tension in the body go.

Is there anything you need to release in tension in the body?

Doing a body scan now as you breathe,

How is that neck?

Breathe energy into that neck and send it some love.

Let your head be filled with relaxing energy,

Your eyes just all relaxed.

If you're not driving or do anything else,

Close your eyes and just allow the energy in your head to be present and see if there's anything in your head area that you need to relax,

Your ears,

Your nose,

Your mouth,

And going down to your heart,

Just slowly allowing your heart to speak to you.

Being here now with your heart,

Ah,

How does your heart of hearts feel?

Can you feel your heart?

Breathe with your heart,

Breathing in,

Expanding,

Expanding the area,

Making sure all of your heart area and chakras open,

Ah,

Sending love,

Love,

Love into your heart and out,

Out,

Out with more love.

Sending love into your heart,

Allowing that love to be felt.

Can you feel your heart?

Can you feel the love in your heart?

Can you feel the spirit of love in your heart?

Allow that love to spirit itself around your body.

The spirit will direct it to the top,

To the chakra that you have,

All the chakras radiating love as you go down your body,

Letting that spirit of love go into the third chakra through all of your body and your lower,

Your lower chakras,

Your second chakra,

Sending love to any emotions or anything you may have blocked there,

Just letting it go and down to the base of your spine and spreading that love down your feet,

Ah,

Yes,

Down your calves,

Down to your feet,

Bottom and around and around and around,

Circling you now,

Circling love around you all the way up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

And just be here now in love.

Allow yourself to let that love expand and expand and expand.

There is only now and this presence you're in of yourself and the love.

Let that love that is present here now be enough.

Don't worry about anything else.

Just let that love completely enfold you and let it be felt by all parts of you and your mind and your soul and let your soul's pure love completely be with you here now.

You are present here now with your soul.

What would your soul have you feel?

What would your soul say to you right now in the silence?

Breathe it in.

Allow your soul to translate your beautiful inner heart's language to you in this present moment.

It's the language of pure love.

It's the language of a love that heals,

That understands,

That is present,

That forgives,

That is infinite.

What a beautiful gift this soul is to you.

What a beautiful gift this love is to you.

What a beautiful gift understanding is for you.

Breathe it in.

Absorb it and be grateful for it right now.

Say thank you.

Thank you and thank you.

Really come back,

Come back,

Come back and be 100% present with that loving gratitude in all of your whole being right now,

Recharged,

Revitalized,

Restored,

Renewed,

Re-everything.

I bow.

I bow in gratitude and I thank you.

I thank you and I thank you.

I say thank you God.

Be present with yourself.

It's one of the greatest gifts you can have and experience as you learn to love yourself and then spreading that love out to others.