Being in the Present: 1b

When a person feels a constant need to rationally understand events in his life he is stuck firmly in the world of nature. The same is true when his focus is on figuring out ways he can escape from his present state. Only when a person is dependent on nothing - when he realizes that he understands and knows nothing and has no clarity about the future - is he then connected to the infinite-nothingness which is the revelation of Hashem's glory.

This is what it means to be in the present. Mentally escaping to the future is predicated on the assumption that one knows or assumes the future holds something better. It is another attempt to outsmart "what is" to escape to something better. The person is refusing to accept and feel that which Hashem is bringing to him right now. If he is ready to sink himself deeply into the present and to accept it without trying to move away he is then living in Hashem's world.

As long as a person is down about the lowly state in which he finds himself and wishes to be saved from it, he is stuck within his physical self and is not connecting to his inner wisdom. He lacks any understanding of the wisdom that is above nature and the physical world. When he accepts what is going on with love then he can begin to connect to wisdom. When he escapes the pain by that means he is leaving his physical boundaries and connecting to something higher.