I struggle with the dichotomy I experience between how the human face of our planet turns ever more toward a preoccupation with the here and now. As we become more sophisticated, our focus shifts to the issues that are right in front of our faces: and I embrace the wisdom that counsels 'one day at a time.' Wait for it . . . here it comes . . . BUT there's more than one way to focus on the present: one enriches, the other impoverishes. Guess which one appears easier (less challenging) and enjoys great popularity? Humanity toys with a bankruptcy that has nothing to do with the global markets.
The mass of humanity cowers in self-conscious oblivion, hunkered down, defensive, fearful. No one
coaches us that when we're on the tightrope, don't look down! And then we wonder why we lose our balance?
That's a far cry from the kind of focus that actually works: essentially what the Buddhists mean by 'mindfulness'. That practice develops a sense of being present, not in isolation, but connected to all there is. Even while on the tightrope, we comprehend that we're one with it and one with the air and the sky and the ground.
When we're truly mindful, we remain in the present moment, but not of it. We're aware that the future we crave emerges from the choices we make today. And, what's more, we carry into that future all the strengths, knowledge, skills and experience that derive from the choices we made in the past. Rather than fearing time, we immerse ourselves deeply into it.
The Greeks had a word for this immersion: ανεμνησις (anemnesis), which means 'remembrance', but not the way we think of it. We think of taking our present-time minds back to the past; the ancients realized that remembrance brings the past to life in the present. In the Passover Seder, we hear that "We were slaves in the land of Egypt" — not our ancestors: but we. In the Christian liturgy, we pronounce "This is my body; this is the cup of my blood" — not someone else's: but mine, like a parent staring into the eyes of the child in their arms.
We've all heard the words of George Santayana: "Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it." He recognized that learning is experiential, and if the past no longer lives in us, we remain bereft of it. If we exist as a people without a past, then, as a people, we lack a future, as well. But, it's the season of Passover, of the Last Supper, of the Passion and the Passing. It's the season of mindfulness and ανεμνησις. The season of Spring has come. Rejoice and be glad in it all.
H. Les Brown, MA, CFCC
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mindfulness, anemnesis, past, present, future, remembrance, last supper
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