You are Not your Mind. There is Only NOW. There is only the present moment - no Past, no Future. The Mind, with its Thoughts, is a storehouse of images and ideas which have already occurred in your past. At this moment, in order to move one's life toward perfection, the mind conjures innumerable images in a relentless stream, betraying in each a moment of our own failure. Here we flubbed a line in the third grade play, here we ruthlessly attacked our best friend, and there we had that fight with dad just before he died. The mind causes us to suffer the worst of our lives, and to be sure the lessons stick, it prods and partners with our Emotions, which combined affect our body.

This is the basis of our Suffering. If the mind stopped there it would already seem a cruel inquisitor, shamefully drudging up our past failure. Yet, to be thorough, it streams this failure, and the associated pain and fear and guilt, head on into that which has not yet occurred - the Future - and creates terrible scenes where everything that might go wrong is fully played out, again with the assistance of emotion, in awesome clarity. This is Worry, and causes Fear.

This also adds to our suffering.

At this moment the past and future are combined in an endless stream of monologue, dialogue and images. These, when filtered into our emotions, create fear and stress in the body. We suffer constantly because of our mind.

We suffer constantly because the mind presents us with thoughts never grounded in true Reality. Reality is only the Present Moment - that's all that ever exists. Only Now exists. These thoughts of past horrors and future tragedies, which cause our suffering, all point to events that Do Not Exist. Thoughts of past cause horrific guilt, and we fear and worry for the future, yet neither truly exist.

Our suffering is almost completely based on the raging river of thoughts of the Past and Future. Therefore we suffer incessantly due to What Is NOT! We suffer incessantly because of what is not happening right now, and cannot happen!

What does exist right now? The True World exists. Whatever is happening at this very moment, now, is the Truth. A tree stands tall and ageless. Do you think it bemoans the past or worries about the future? What good would it do the glorious tree to worry? What of a flower, or a dog? Yet if somehow you knew that your dog was constantly being upset by his own thoughts, always whimpering and lethargic, depressed about the future, wouldn't you try to convey to the dog that past is gone and worry is useless, and that its suffering is completely unwarranted? Would you relate, if you could, that the past wasn't really that bad - he's just seeing the bad stuff - and that our worst fears are never truly realized the way we worry they will? It's all just the Mind's game, proving its own necessity and domination.

Yet WE live like this day and night, and it destroys our psyche and literally kills us. Our worst nightmares, 99.999% of the time, never happen. When the unthinkable does occur could any amount of preparation spoil the shock? We deal with it At That Moment.

And is the full past ever really reflected in our thoughts? Imagine yourself sitting on the couch, watching a DVD of all the bad things you've done in life. Sit there and really feel the guilt. Wouldn't you, at one point, get thoroughly frustrated and turn it off, screaming, "This is ridiculous! I did some bad things, but this movie is severely flawed. I'm a good, kind person, and have done many, many more good things in my life that show I love and care for others. Where are all Those scenes? If someone else were to watch this they would call me a monster, an unredeemable horrific man who is rotten to the core and deserves nothing good in life!"

Someone IS watching... YOU! You sit and watch incessantly, and you come to believe that you must be a bad person who has led a horrible life and hurt the world. This is You Suffering.

You are Not Your Mind.

YOU were there before your mind developed. Initially the mind was a tool to help you organize, to solve problems, to help you to understand the world, to protect you. But very quickly it helped itself to the task of defining you in the world. It began creating your Image in the world. The true "you" saw the world as important, almost as important as the closer spiritual realm, so you gave the efficient mind the power to create your ego and costume your image. As an ally it kidnapped the Emotions, causing this body to act on its whims.

You turned all the power to define "You" in the world (ego) over to the power-hungry mind. Now it controls you - it shows you what it wants and harnesses your emotions to cause you to act. What was once a tool has now completely taken over, and the real You, the observer, the true King, is falsely fully defined through the Mind's eye.

Not only that, you have come to rely so heavily on these thoughts that you dare not ignore or negate them, lest there be nothing left of you!

YOU are there, but frail and lost. You were once a strong, spiritual King, but the court has taken over, and the courtiers have locked you away and stole your kingdom. The world as you now see it is pale and bleak and full of suffering. Before you were thrown into prison you were creative and loving, and found joy in all things. All men were your brothers and you knew God as a constant companion. Over time these courtiers have told you terrible things about yourself, shown you your human misdeeds over and over until fear and self-enlightening movies  began to creep into your marrow. Now you cannot even think of a grand future, if what these advisors say is any indication.

You sit in your cell, hearing the mockery and watching the images, and you suffer. After so many decades how can you escape? If you were a child berated decade after decade by an abusive parent what would become of you? How would you see the future? The parent, the tool to guide the child in this world, is now the torturer. At some point, if the child is to survive and shun this terrible suffering, he must stop listening.

Yes, your mind is now your parent, and it rarely gives you anything good to work with. It's become an ogre, a torturer, replaying the bad stuff from your past, causing fear for the future. At one time it was helpful, warning you not to make the same mistake, advising you to plan the future. Now it has moved far beyond its functionality and has become a self-feeding monster. Now each bad memory or worry is fed through the emotions into your body, making you sick.

You are now entirely defined by your broken mind, as if it's all you possess that makes you You.

You are Not Your Mind!

You are much more, and much deeper, than mind, emotion and body.

You truly exist only in the Now. Your Mind at this very moment is only Past and Future, and has become mostly corrupt