Step into the Untouched Moment

A man inherited a vast estate with a personal shopper. Something was missing from the estate. The man had the PSA get books for the library, pots and pans for the kitchen and more to fill up the house. But after a while his whole house seemed to be mocking him. (This is a spiritual story). He didn't like to see the fact that for all that he was doing he couldn't make the house feel right. One day he called his PSA in and said, "I now know what is missing in this house and in my life. It is the empty space I've been wanting, not more things. You may go."

Inside of a human being is an essential need to be content and whole. A need for what is untouched. A virgin moment that is true and pure without anything added to it. The present moment is unspoiled by thought that is always trying to extract something or add something to itself. We have to stop trying to bring things into our lives to try and make us feel whole and complete because life doesn't work like that. What we really want is the untouched moment and space. It is the Untouched that touches us. All we add to our lives spoils the moment.

If we can't create this untouched moment of the living now then what is our responsibility? We must deliberately remove everything we have jammed into it. We ruin the present moment because we are always in thought. The nature of thought is to be divided. Intention is part of the will of an impression, which is clothed in active and passive possibilities. Thought pulls from these possibilities to create an idea and then it is done. We are not aware of the thoughts and feelings passing through us all day long.

There is the untouched world, and our world of little spaces crowded with our thoughts and feelings that perpetuate its existence. When we identify with a thought it brings with it a whole series of impressions related to it and supports it. It is a good exercise to begin to carry with you a pen and paper and work at catching yourself in little spaces crowded with thoughts. Notice that you are not in an untouched world but in a make shift world being mauled by your own thoughts and feelings. The problem is not the other person but because we live in a small space being manipulated by the activity of our minds.

Habitual little spaces:

1. Telling yourself you need to be somewhere else.
2. Resentment -- unattended the mind expands the resentment by pulling in supporting material. 
3. Thinking about other people's lives
4. Regrets soil and sully your life.
5. Taking stock of your life.
6. Sexual fantasies
7. Fear of anything.

Our nature only knows the world of sensation. We identify -- react and our mind is crowded with thoughts and our attention is stolen. Unconscious thought encloses us in an ever-shrinking world telling us it is expanding it. Its very nature wants to do something this is the active part of thought that closes us off.

Exercise: Begin to recognize the activity of thought that takes place without you that goes nowhere, filling you with its nonsense. If we are not aware and attentive to our minds, we do not have choice. Catch yourself in the world of thoughts and feelings that are closing in on you and place your attention into the untouched present moment. At first you won't like it because nothing is touching you. But gradually you will long to live in the virgin place. Give away all you believe would satisfy you. Let the impressions of the untouched moment stay in you longer and longer.