Wanting More | Catherine Weser

4/30/2020

​There is Nothing Better than Right Here Right Now

At times you may entertain the idea that you “want more” from your life. You may be wishing that things would change and get better. You may be wishing for events to be over and for an old reliable reality to kick in again. Yet, amidst all you are experiencing, the deeper realization arises that the “grass is always green.” There is no such thing as greener grass somewhere else. There is no such thing as bluer skies somewhere else. There's no such thing as a better, bigger life experience, existing anywhere else but right here right now.

In this time of a pandemic, and really at all times, it becomes clear that you have to stay completely in the moment and maximize the potential of this moment. You do that by trusting that you are always operating at your maximum level of awareness, and that One Life is meeting you in that same awareness. What you realize is that it is impossible to have gratitude for your life as it is if you are in the throes of "wanting more." When wanting more is at the center of your experience, your experience is limited and cannot include attributes like acceptance and presence.

Thinking there is “more” which is somewhere else, but is not here right now, is a huge thought trap. These kinds of thoughts have no resolution, they can go on forever. When you get trapped in these thoughts, you get stuck in always seeking and never finding. Also, you stop enjoying the experience at hand, as you always look to the next experience in hopes it will exceed whatever is currently occurring. You can’t enjoy the moment if you are always running ahead of it, you’ll completely miss the potential held in the right now moment.

There are some ways that wanting “more” can ignite a drive to create. This can be beneficial and can promote change. Using desire as fuel for creativity can take you deeply into One Life Awareness, it can propel you into a next moment with a lot of energy. This energy is the potential of the right now moment being maximized. It is different than ignoring the potential of the right now moment by trying to get to the next moment as quickly as possible. Using the potential of the right now moment emerges from a realization or awakened sense of groking that moment. When you are not fully engaging in the right now moment, you are likely to assume that “more” is out there somewhere and all you have to do is to try to get there. In this realm of thinking, “more” is something elusive and seductive, yet we would suggest that the “more” you seek the less you will find.

When you know you are engaged fully with right here--right now One Life Awareness, there is no sense of wanting more. You naturally discover greater meaning in your life, you feel like your gifts are being utilized, and can find that who you are has significance in the world. Not egoic value, but a feeling like you are a treasured part of a larger whole. Often the desire for “more” is really a call to uncover the value of the right here—right now moment. Everyone wants to feel significance in their actions, everyone wants to know that life isn't hollow. That kind of wanting “more” can be a call to dive deeper, and to discover what lies underneath things. Not because there is a desire for something else bigger and better to happen in the future, but because there is a sense that there is “more” already happening right here--right now and it's just under the surface.

Sometimes you get distracted by thinking there is a plan for your life. You jump ahead of the moment to capture the plan, convinced there has to be more. A sense of a divine plan for life is usually a momentary experience of One Life Awareness. The only plan that exists is the plan unfolding right now. The plan is what was meant to be. How this plan was meant to unfold, was never known until now, as it unfolds. When you look at things from the point of reference of a deeper meaning, when you allow that to be a guiding principle for you, you won't get stuck in wondering what to do or what's coming next seeking an elusive sense of “more”. You will be able to stay focused in the present, with One Life Awareness and the world around you meeting you in One Life Awareness.

Wanting “more” is at the root of the Buddhist Noble Truth that suffering is an unavoidable accompaniment to physical life. And the way out of suffering isn't a new car or more money or a house on a hill. The way out of suffering is coming to the deep wisdom that wanting “more” takes you deeper into your illusions, and cannot relieve you of your suffering. Coming to the deep recognition that everyone suffers no matter what they possess or what they acquire can remind you that your suffering is nothing special. Your thoughts about who is suffering the most, or where it is the worst, or what should be better, are all conjured up by you. These are ideas that are illusions, and these ideas are often used by you against yourself. There truly is not a single person alive, who has not suffered, or who will not suffer in the future. You will have a life of profound liberation from pain when you start to accept that the suffering is just there and it's not there to berate you or to beat you down or to take you out or to be overwhelming. You'll have liberation from pain when you accept that it just is another color in the rainbow of life. Suffering actually defines human existence, and every pain that you have endured, every suffering that you have experienced, has served you far more than anything else.

But you see, only if your life is dedicated to the deeper understandings and meanings of things will pain ever be accepted. If you can't see meaning and depth, then your life is going to be about keeping track of how much suffering you've had and how much joy you've had and always wanting “more”. Freedom from pain, freedom from suffering requires no more looking at life with the ledger sheet in hand, trying to figure out whether you are getting better stuff now than you did before. It comes when all of that is put aside, and who you are is just absolutely present in the moment looking deeper and understanding presence, the right here—right now as beauty in the complexity of the profound creation that is exactly what is. Right here--right now.

Approach everything you believe is coming with excitement and anticipation for the best outcome for everyone concerned. You do not have to know what that is in any kind of articulate way. It is just the unfolding of One Life Awareness expressing itself. Cultivate curiosity and enthusiasm for life. Realizing that wanting “more” can get in the way, just be as you are, acknowledging the right here—right now moment. Distinguish the desires that feel like positive motivation and direction, from the need to want ”more” that is habitual and unconsciously lures you away from being present. There really is nothing better than what is right here—right now.

Source: Catherine Weser One Life