"Now I have arrived, Now I am home.."
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.” -William Blake
Do I feel at home in myself? In this time of Covid, we are all spending a lot more time at home. We are working from home, the kids are at home, and many are also practising online yoga at home. Maybe this is the first time in our lives some of us have been at home for so much time. How does this feel to you? Do we feel at home in our home? Do we feel at home in ourselves?
The topic of this article is “Being Home”, but this refers to our ultimate home, not just our physical home. What is our “real” ultimate home? Is it our country, our physical house and family, our body? Maybe we have never asked the question, “Do I feel at home here and now?”
There is a restlessness in us that is always moving from past to future, rarely are we in the here and now. Our ground that we stand in is in the here and now, but we are almost always not there. Usually, we are either planning or worrying about the future, or reminiscing or regretting the past. Our mind is almost always in this state of past and future but somehow the mind isn’t so comfortable in the home of the present.
Our only real home is here and now
Our only real home is the here and now, there is no other place we can be. Even when we are remembering the past, we are recalling it right now in the present moment, and when we are thinking about the future we are also in the now, thinking about the future. It is so obvious that there is only the present moment - but why do we miss this? What is this restlessness, this homelessness that we are all experiencing? It is as if we are a homeless person, or a ghost moving from past to future in a dream.
When will we put our feet up and rest in our true home and feel that we have arrived? The answer is right now. We are stuck in our own mental prison that we made for ourselves made of concepts and past and future. But this prison has no walls, no guards and no locks other than our own mind that creates them. The ancient masters of yoga and meditation understood that we need to retrain our mind to see the truth of things as they are. They gave us techniques to find our way home.
A powerful practical meditation to come home I want to share with you a very powerful practical meditation that we can do to come home any time. But you have to do it for it to work, if it remains theory or you don’t apply then nothing will change. From my heart, I hope you will try this for yourself to see the magic in it.
"Now I have arrived, Now I am home.
"This is the truth that we all can repeat to ourselves as a daily practice. While cooking dinner, say to yourself “Now I have arrived, Now I am home…” While working on the computer from home, say to yourself “Now I have arrived, Now I am home…” While helping or playing with our children, “Now I have arrived, Now I am home…” While watching Netflix with our loved one: “Now I have arrived, Now I am home..”In this way, we keep recognising that each moment is that which we have been looking for. Anything we are doing, just repeat the phrase: “Now I have arrived, Now I am home…” Really feel it.
Do this practice for one day as an experiment and see what happens for you. If you do it with presence and fully feel it, your life will certainly change. If you like what this practice does, try it for 15 days or a month, make it a part of your life. You can put up little sticky notes all over the house if you want, or just remember to repeat the phrase with awareness:
“Now I have arrived, Now I am home…” Don't just say it but really feel it and come home.
We are always free If you practice this sincerely, the restless hungry ghost that is projecting desires and worries into the future disappears into the magic of being alive NOW. The old dead past that keeps us bound to it by the chains of regret and nostalgia for the good old days dissolves into the vision of the here and now that is eternal and free. Everything will change for you and nothing ever happened other than you finally came home for the first time.
Our day to day life is our home. We are always free here and now.
As they say in the Zen Buddhist tradition:
“Before Enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After Enlightenment, chop wood and carry water..”
May all beings find their way home.. Namaste, Sahaj