In the beginning was the Train … and the train was time, riding the rails since the world began. You can imagine it snaking through Stonehenge, around the Pyramids and through a Greek temple before it finally arrives at our modern world. It is currently in the Present, heading off into the future!

Zoom into a one of the carriages in the diagram below, and you will see a little stick man in his seat facing the front of the train.  Some people spend their entire journey sitting like that, staring down the tracks, worried about the Future that is yet to come. They spend their whole lives afraid of the unavoidable fact that some where down that track lies their final station which they know they have to step off the time line forever.  They are depressed by the inescapable!

Their short time on this earth would be better spent looking out of the window and enjoying the wonder of the present moment as it flies past their carriage window.

If only you could step out of this picture and view this same train from above. You would see yourself as a little egg-head sitting in the middle of the rectangular carriage (the little oval between ’Here’ and ‘Now’) staring at the front compartment. Just contrast those thin, never-ending railroad tracks disappearing into the future (F) with the present, the ‘Here and Now’ which is so much more colorful it is in comparison.  

If only we could all find a way of looking at our lives from a different viewpoint, we might discover a way of shifting the focus away from the Inevitable and into the Amazing!

Let me tempt you with a few ways you can make this change, but first of all, we must get rid of your monkeys!!  

Everyone has a monkey in their mind. They hang from the trees of the Past and Future, trying to make you look this way or that.  

Whenever you try to enjoy the present moment you will hear them chattering, with distractions that pull you out of the Here and along that Time line.  

In the tree behind you a voice is reminding you of all the things you have left undone and all the chores that you have yet to do. In that tree ahead, you hear a long list of all the things you have yet to do.

"Many people live with a constant thinking in their heads, and this voice can become a person’s worst enemy. Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. The future is an imagined Now, a projection of the mind. Mind-made delusions cannot survive in the actuality of the now -  they need time to survive.  All problems are illusions of the mind. The mind, to ensure that it remains in control, seeks continuously to cover up the present moment with past and future.”
                                                                         
                                                                -       Echart Tolle,   The Power of Now – on the Oprah list!

I have a simple way of tapping the “Here and Now’ – just string up a hammock between those two trees of Past and Future and swing in the Present! Enjoy the passing moment and pay no attention to the ‘constant thinking’. 

When you ignore the monkeys, you starve them of the oxygen they need to survive. Then they basically whither and fall from their trees, leaving you to swing in silence! 

The deeper you get into this relaxing frame of mind, the harder it is for these distractions to bother you and so you are free to swing in your paradise!

Now we can take a closer look at that hammock from above. There is no forward motion when you swing sideways within the Here and Now  and so that dreaded Time Line disappears! You are left to contemplate the Here and Now, suspending ion  the Present Moment!

Focus in and see that there is no place where the here and now is closer than another - it forms a circle around you, with yours truly at the very heart of the matter.

All you had to do was to change your outlook from that forward direction to this side to side motion in order to connect with this quiet little paradise!  A simple turning of your head and you notice the Present moment. Can you appreciate that this has been here all along! Your busy mind that was distracting you from the Now. You were Here the whole time!

In comparison to the busy train track, this is like finding yourself in a thirst quenching Oasis! Don’t let that busy mind of yours distract you out of the refreshing water again. So long as you maintain a deep contentment in the Here and Now, you are free to remain undisturbed in this refuge. The secret is written on a warning sign– ‘Don’t leave the water in search of a drink!’

Take a breather - go back and read all this again and let it sink in before I take you further!

Beware of monkeys that sit in the palm trees. They are throwing coconuts to try and get your attention (and get themselves back in the picture!) They will tell you about a larger oasis that lies just over the sand dune. They are so persistent that you will swear you see these temptations yourself, shimmering in the distance, beckoning you like mirages on the hot desert plains! 

All you have to do in order to stay in this cool pool of water is to acknowledge that you were here all the time. You have to see the oasis as your natural state. You had simply got a little confused by life, and it felt like you were wandering into a desert, tempted by a distant mirage. Now you have found yourself again, and once located, it is never forgotten.

Let’s mix up the metaphors and see what kind of cartoon we can create! The monkeys are making mirages in the desert! They are playing with sand!! If you allow your imagination to follow their lure, you will find yourself back on the train, riding the rails for the rest of your life. Listen to their constant chatter and you will be chasing empty promises of some future happiness. 

These temptations may seem more exciting than your natural oasis but desires only bring momentary elation.  Keep off the linear path of illusion – it only leads to the Future!

Stay in the circle - the water is deep. There is a great contentment here if you can tap into it. Would you rather be in a constant rush forward, forever yearning - never satisfied?

Try to read the ‘Here and Now’ circle (diagram on left writing in green). You will discover than ‘Now and here’ go ‘Nowhere’!  There is nowhere to go! Direction is the stuff of Monkeys! Be content in going Nowhere!  Open your eyes without chasing illusion! You can see much more now you have stopped looking for it! When you cease your staring ahead you begin to gaze around.

THIS IS A LOT TO TAKE IN. GO GET A COFFEE, TAKE A WALK, PAT A DOG THEN RETURN

Now let’s take a look at your situation from above (diagram on right). Now that circle with its blue center surrounded with desert brown looks more like a target. When we superimpose those future bound train tracks, it bulges around your presence and an amazing thing happens - the circle distorts the Timeline and makes it look more like an eye. 

Open your eyes and observe the true nature of time, and your place within it. Yes, your life may seem as tiny as a dot on the timeline, but you are in the dot!  The train tracks might go on forever, but from your perspective (which is all you have!) the Miracle of time occurs in the Present. Instead of facing the way the train is going, the real beauty of life occurs perpendicular to the flow of time. This Wonder occurs when you gaze out of your carriage window or relax in your hammock and dwell into the present moment.

If I were to try to put it in a diagram you would see that The ‘immensity of time’ is nothing in comparison to your ability to see the ‘Marvel of the Now’. 

Don’t fear the time passing . Relish the passage! Dreading the obvious will shorten your Existence while  Expanding your horizons will deepen your Experience!

Don’t confuse the infinite nature of the future with your boundless present moment. There is no Future for you! Be content in going Nowhere. As soon as you change your focus you are suddenly everywhere! Dwell in that for a moment and it could last you a lifetime! 

You are in no position to compare the infinite, endless nature of time with the immeasurable boundless nature of vast present. If you try you will get confused and tangle yourself up. You can only sit in your oasis and enjoy the Present. That is enough for Now!

Take another breather. You just drank a pint of distilled ideas that others would flesh out into a whole book. I am trying to save you time, but it might be too much. My therapy is to read many short analogies like these and see which one sticks. Read through this again and then get ready to stick your head in a waterfall!

Imagine that you are standing in front of a powerful waterfall watching the ‘water which is yet to fall’ tumble down and flow away. Inspired by its force, you try to fill up a bucket from that thunderous torrent, but you only manage to hold a container of still water which ‘pails’ in comparison with the power of that flow. You cannot capture motion - you can only enjoy action in the flow. The still water is dead in comparison. There are no results – there is only action.

However, you can’t take action with you. You can’t carry away a bucket of waterfall. There is no luggage rack on a hearse! Live life!!

The ‘water that is yet to fall’ is Future time that is yet to pass. It crashes through the Present and flows away down the great drain of the Past. You can only appreciate this Power of the Now by sticking your head into the Present! Try to take anything away from that and you have nothing what-so-ever! Subtract nothing and you have it all!

Just enjoy the passing time. Be aware of life as it flows through you. Take pleasure from the shower instead of trying to bring something back from the mountain.

A single flower wilts as soon as you pick it. Try to enjoy the fragrant moment instead of trying to collect something to show for it. There is nothing big enough to contain the Here and Now, so burn in its intensity. Be the type who can lose themselves in a beautiful painting instead rushing through the art gallery to purchase something from the souvenir shop!  Hoard not - spend it all here while you have the time!

There is no point to life or death but to enjoy the interval!  As they say on tea-towels, “Life is not about the breaths you take - it is the moments that take your breath away!“  

I have collected many such sayings and stories that allow us to look at life in this way. My favorite is the oldest – an ancient Zen koan - the most powerful 60 words ever written!

"There was once a man that was being chased by a tiger. He ran to a cliff and lowered himself over the edge on a vine. He looked below him and saw another tiger waiting for him to fall! The man looked around and realized that the vine from which he was hanging was actually a strawberry vine. He reached across and took a strawberry - how sweet it tasted."

What a fabulous analogy for living life rather than fearing it. Even when you are surrounded by danger, there is joy to be had - let us strive to eat more Strawberry and fear less Tiger!

Don’t live in constant dread - simply enjoy the sweet wonder of life passing! Look out of your carriage window and see that you were in an oasis all along! Life is not a riddle to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived.  

Comparing the futility of our short existence with the sweetness of the moment makes a riddle of life. If you question this brainteaser, you will create a web of confusion for yourself and it becomes a maze! If you really take it too seriously, you will build yourself a prison. If you start to panic, you will end up needing help!

When a person comes to me seeking a way out of this hole that they have dug for themselves. I would begin by taking away their spade and offering them a ladder! When psychiatrists are pushing pills for depression, I have found a way of putting all your problems into context by using simple stories with bizarre props.

I am the anti-shrink - I lie down on the couch and let you sort out your problems by yourself! All I do is hand you props to help you on your way - a mouse trap shows you how to escape your desires while a puppet and a pair of scissors shows you how you were never trapped in the first place! I try to goad you into seeing how you fit into the situation – sometimes just understanding the problem is itself the solution

I try to give my reader/patient a different vantage-point to step back and take a fresh look at their lives. The train is just a one-way trip - I have written many others to help you see things as they really are.

Using a train trip with monkeys, a hammock in an oasis and a strawberry waterfall, I have introduced you to a new world of perception. Now I can go on to explain life with a baseball bat, death with a set of car keys, and your whole existence with a butterfly in a one-limbed tree!

If this is your first page on 'Desert in Oasis' then go to my My Home Page and get your introduction to this strange site. If you came from there already, the step off the Train and enter the The Temple of Time. It will tell you how these ideas were introduced to me!

©1988 AL