I was talking with a friend this morning about the difference between “here” and “HERE.” He was telling me about an example he’s been exploring with his partner who lives with him in a country at a far distance from the country in which her family resides. During a recent visit “home” she encountered a lot of family turmoil, especially with her mother. She returned from that visit upset and concerned. As they’ve looked together at what’s going on with her they’ve seen clearly the difference between here and HERE.
HERE, in the moment, in the present, there are no issues, difficulties, problems, or concerns. “Here” in conditioned mind, there are issues, difficulties, problems, and concerns along with beliefs, assumptions, expectations, the past, the future, distress, and suffering.
What becomes clear is that lowercase here exists in an imaginary “location” within conditioned mind, whereas HERE is the THISHERENOW reality that contains that imaginary lowercase “world.”
Are there any problems in THISHERNOW? No. There are not. There will very likely be events. I just stubbed my toe or dropped the pot of soup or lost all the work I’d done on the computer. That’s what IS. That’s what is unfolding in the moment. But is that a problem? Not unless I identify with an ego illusion of a self that is separate from Life that “lives” in an imaginary alternate reality in which that event did not happen.
If attention remains on awareness in THISHERENOW then that dropped soup is a “Life event.” The ego that wants to “make that about me” is not a part of the event.
“But,” ego shrieks, “what about her mother, her family? Those problems don’t just go away because she’s not thinking about them!”
Yes, actually they do. In fact, that’s the only way they ever will.
In gasshō,
ch