But it started when I was writing the A New Earth and then I couldn't focus on Anything else While I was writing and then things Started to accumulate And now I still get all these manuscripts and Books and and some of them are taking up More and more space At my place so let's not go there Well the anxiety about not taking care Of the future is of course Losing the present moment that's the Real loss of the present moment but Taking care of the future by Doing some planning constructive Planning even constructive thinking not Useless thinking and worrying and uh [Music] Toxic thinking in the middle of the Night things what I should be doing or Haven't done or if I do it it might go Wrong not that kind of totally useless Thinking which is losing the present Moment then there is the applied Thinking which is oh I need to work out What I'm going to do Whatever schedule for the next thing I'm Going to do a plan for Next year when I will have to do this or That whatever and you may find that if You do focused thinking And reply to whatever it is that you Need to work out

Is not losing the present moment It's only useless thinking about the Present moment that mentally projects You away from now And doesn't get you anywhere Detracts from the quality of life and Detracts from your sense of aliveness So Planning you can do in the present Moment let's say I plan Where am I going to go I'm going on a Tour somewhere I was on a Europe tour last Late last year and that had to be Planned Almost a year in advance so already at The beginning of last year and before Then We've already talking about the Europe Tour And so what then you look at the Calendar Cities geography of places where they Connect uh all the other factors that You need to look at you're not really Losing the present moment because you're Not projecting yourself mentally over There and imagining how it's going to go Or imagining that when you finally give That talk in London then you're really Going to feel really fulfilled or Projecting yourself to that talk in London when nobody's going to like what You're going to say

And half the audience are going to leave Am I going to be inspired when I reach London and to give a talk this is losing The president this this kind of thinking Happens It pretends to be useful and Constructive but it's not at all and It's not taking responsibility for Anything but applied thinking and for Applied thinking it's good to give Yourself a time limit a space you sit Down for an hour or you talk to people And say what do we need to do here to in Order to do this that that you're not Losing the present moment some people Often this is not uncommon for people to Have this question Thinking that I must never think about the future but When you apply that you're not really Thinking about the future the planning Is now there's just you're not Projecting yourself away from the Present moment So it's applied in constructive thinking The same with the past sometimes you Need to think about something that Happened in the past you need your Memory for certain things and then you Need to kind of Google back there in Your mind and then you talk about well But there's a reason why you bring it Into the present because you need that Kind of memory or the knowledge you

Perhaps you learn something there at the Past Europe tour Those and those things went very wrong The people had to line up for an hour And I was an hour late starting it was Disorganized what did we do wrong that's Fine you can you have to go there But but if you in the middle of the day You think you think how Dreadful that Was Or you're blaming yourself or others About what went wrong then you lose Yourself in the past So You can use past and future without Losing yourself in them And then really you remain present even While You refer back to the past or while you Make plans for the future So that's really How it works is there a way that you can If you're happy you can trust the Universe that you're on the right path Oh yes That's that is an underlying thing is of Course The sense of Connectedness with the deeper level the Deeper levels of your being the the Awareness the presence the Stillness Whatever you want to call it and that Gives you a certain Ruggedness you're rooted in being and

Then what happens on the The outcome of things that you do Is no longer The the factor that determines your State of Consciousness so when you when Things go wrong sometimes they do You're not devastated you don't oh you Don't feel you're going to die because It went wrong You didn't get there you tried so hard In the end it didn't work out and it's It's so awful you beat yourself up Mentally No that's uh Very dysfunctional and stuff creates a Lot of suffering So You are less dependent on the you you Welcome a good outcome of course But you're not dependent on a good Outcome for feeling Peaceful and really Complete in yourself in that sense of Completeness in yourself because there Are two levels as you as you know that One could say the two Dimensions you are The person but you are also the vast Consciousness so there's a ripple There's the ocean the person lives in Time and there's a development the Person Learns things gets better at certain Things and so on That at the deepest level

There is already that sense of Completion you don't need to become Anything When you're connected with the depths of Who you are in that depths You don't need to become you are already Complete On the level of the person you're never Really complete and you're there always Things that I could be called Imperfections uh not once when you're Connected not huge things that create a Lot of dysfunction in your life and make Your life and other people's lives Unhappy not that kind of thing but there Are things that are certain personal Things that are Limitations on you can't be I have My place at the moment is untidy I'm not Perfect there So there was a time when my place was Tidy so I'm not an untidy person Continuously But it started when I was writing the A New Earth and then I couldn't focus on Anything else While I was writing and then things Started to accumulate And now I still get all these manuscripts and Books sent and some of them are taking Up more and more space At my place so let's not go there

That's an imperfection on my part if Somebody had an idea of somebody who's Fully awake he must live in certain way And then he can say how can you this is Not tidy how do you live Occasionally I have a cup of coffee One a day and it's occasionally people See me having a cup of coffee somewhere And say why do you need coffee you're Threatened you've written all these Spiritual books and now you still need Coffee I don't know if I need it I just enjoy a Cup of coffee And I drink a glass of wine or two Occasionally with dinner you drink Alcohol well if my state of conscience Is so fragile that a glass of wine would Upset it then what just can't be worth Very much So the the addictiveness does not come In because the addictives would be Something else if I were addicted to Coffee and couldn't live without six Cups of coffee a day some or if I were Addicted to alcohol and I couldn't no Dude wouldn't know when to stop drinking That would be something else but you can Enjoy things but people might interpret It as an imperfection and perhaps it is But become Allow yourself to have your Imperfections as long as they don't Create suffering

For others or yourself become Comfortable with things where you are Not perfect Some people are habitually it's not a Nice thing it's not my problem but they Are habitually late Some people just have that it's almost In their genes I had a a Filipino friend I recently met Her again after many years in London at University in Cambridge and it must be In the Filipino genes to be late all the Time and apparently when I talked to her She said yes everybody's late nobody Expects people to be on time and so and That may be she may not be able to get Rid of that because it's in her genes it Says be late or you don't need to be on Time or that and that's fine that's how They live it's not a problem in the Philippines it might become a problem in The west but not to them to other people Who might say there's something wrong With you no if some things can change And that's good and as Consciousness Awakens in you more the awareness arises It does tend to dissolve those patterns As I said that really F up your life Okay thank you