This title: "The sacrament of the present moment" has such a connotation of fragile futility, I am drawn to comment"
The quotes and remarks in parenthesis, other than scripture, are from the following article:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/21/zen-buddhism-lessonsIt is the claim of modern Zen Buddhist teachers, according to the above lesson, that
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"living in the moment" is "a view now supported by modern science, which sees phenomena at a sub-atomic level popping in and out of existence in a quantum froth." and that "this too, accords with modern scientific knowledge."
They also claim
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"...life had no intrinsic meaning, any more than a piece of music had an intrinsic point. Life is, in zen parlance, yugen a kind of elevated purposelessness."
The word "zen" is the Japanese way of pronouncing "chan", which is, in turn, the Chinese way of pronouncing the Indian Sanskrit term"dhyana" or "sunya", which, in the teaching of Hinduism, means emptiness or void.
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This is the basis of Zen Buddhism itself that all life and existence is based on a kind of dynamic emptiness."
They are, therefore, always in the moment, but they are not in Jesus Christ.
In their view, the view of Eastern Religious Mysticism,
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"there is no difference between matter and energy,"
as they claim,
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"Look at anything closely enough even a rock or a table and you will see that it is an event, not a thing. Every thing is, in truth, happening."
Furthermore, they see
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"no multiplicity of events, but only one event, with multiple aspects, unfolding, believing"
- as they believe not in Montheism, but in Monism, "One is all, and All is one;" -
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"We are not just separate egos locked in bags of skin. We come out of the world, not into it. We are each expressions of the world, not strangers in a strange land, flukes of consciousness in a blind, stupid universe, as evolutionary science teaches us."
The Bible, however, teaches us, "By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own..." Hebrews 11:9
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"The emphasis on the present moment is perhaps zen's most distinctive characteristic,
as they complain that
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"In our western relationship with time, in which we compulsively pick over the past in order to learn lessons from it, and then project into a hypothetical future in which those lessons can be applied, the present moment has been compressed to a tiny sliver on the clock face between a vast past and an infinite future.
The Zen Buddhist teacher is proud that they, to the contrary,
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"more than anything else, is about reclaiming and expanding the present moment."
Zen Buddism further insists that you
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"try to understand, without arguing the point, that there is no purpose in getting anywhere if, when you get there, all you do is think about getting to some other future moment,
for to them,
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"life exists only in the present, or nowhere at all, - and if you cannot grasp that you are simply living a fantasy."
To live without the value of a past from which we have learned, and a future to which we aspire in hope, life has no meaning.
For all zen writers, life is, (or so they claim)
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"as it was for Shakespeare, akin to a dream transitory and insubstantial. There is no "rock of ages cleft for me". There is no security. Looking for security, Watts said, is like jumping off a cliff while holding on to a rock for safety an absurd illusion."
Middle Eastern Mysticism, in tying to be wise, asserts:
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"Everything passes and you must die. Don't waste your time thinking otherwise. Neither Buddha nor his zen followers had time for any notion of an afterlife. The doctrine of reincarnation can be more accurately thought about as a constant rebirth, of death throughout life, and the continual coming and going of universal energy, of which we are all part, before and after death."
Jesus never taught reincarnation. He taught, ..."each person is destined to die once and after that to face judgment," Hebrews 9:27
Life is a continuum into the eternal, an eternity where we will meet God face to face, and that is something to which we may look forward.
MysticSuzie wrote:
Each moment is the best and holiest thing that could happen to us, no matter the duty, sacrifice, temptation , or trial we may face. God, grace,and faith are found only in the moment. And also truth.
"If I did not simply live one moment to the next, it would be impossible for me to keep my patience. I can see only the present, I forget the past and take good care not to think about the future.We get discouraged and feel despair because we brood about the past and the future.It is such folly to spend one's time fretting, instead of resting quietly, without effort, on the heart of Jesus.
Each moment is the best and holiest thing that cou... (
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Jesus said, because of our Christian faith, He is with us
every moment, every hour, and every day, throughout life.and He said, It is fitting that we do the works of Him who has sent me while it is day; the night is coming in which a man cannot work. John 9:4
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of time." Matthew 28:19-20
This leaves us with no reason to either brood or to feel despair.