Chapter Fifteen– Being in the Moment

A couple of weeks had gone by since Ling and Peter had met.?Being busy got the better of both men. Peter had been diligently trying to act with integrity but found it was sometimes difficult to determine.?Wrapping up the company he knew was not in the highest integrity of the Universe, but staying in something without a plan for improvement was not in his or his family’s best interests.?Tim was in and out of the business and causing strain amongst the staff.?Peter attempted to use Ling’s teachings and at times it really worked.?He was definitely noticing a difference in how people approached him. Some were more aggressive, trying to drive out the competitive killer in him and others were softer and much more agreeable.?One thing for certain though, was that Ling’s teachings kept him sane.

As Peter enters Ling’s building, he noticed the stairwell once again. Same carpet, same missing gold thing, same extra step on the 3rd floor. “Truly, what is up with that?” Peter asked out loud. Peter opened the door and there was Ling, with a grin on his face. “What’s going on Ling?” Peter asked. “I love Lesson Nine!” he replied. “Okay?”, Peter said, which really meant: ‘You still are a bit freaky, old man.’

“Come, sit.” Ling gestured with his hand to the same three chairs where they’d first met. The tea was poured in three cups, three cookies were on the plates. Ling locked the door and puts up the ‘Be Back in One Hour’ sign.

“Would you like some tea, Peter?” Ling asked. “Absolutely,” he replied, thinking that since it had been poured, he didn’t see an option. Ling’s smile had not left his face. He was giddy - like a little kid on Christmas Eve. “So why do you love Lesson Nine?” Peter asked, not really wanting to know the answer. “Because it’s the lesson before Ten and that’s when I get paid, ha!” He broke out into a full belly laugh. Peter was drawn in by his humor and couldn’t help laughing himself. “Just joking, Peter. I like Lesson Nine because today is the day you get a chance to ‘Be’ and I love to watch people BE.” “Sounds great, Ling, let’s get to it then so I can give you more reasons to smile.” “You already have, Peter,” he said. “Close your eyes.”

Peter followed the commands now without hesitation. His new instincts told him to ground and center and go into meditation. Ling didn’t say his usual ‘ball of light, center of heart, grounding cord, aura, etc’.??He simply began, “List for me 15 things you saw in the room.”

“Three tea cups 3/4 full of tea, three plates, three cookies, slightly overcooked,” Peter said with a smile. “Dolphin print over your right shoulder, purple crystal on the shelf, a shelf,” he continued, knowing that he should be ‘looking’ and not just trying to prove to Ling that he could list 15 things. “A shelf made of quarter-sawn mahogany, approximately three-feet long held up by two ornate grey shelf brackets, a loose thread on the empty chair, a smile on a friend’s face seemingly caused by an expectation of lesson results,” Peter threw that in for effect. “An old tea pot worn heavily on the handle with a chip on the base the size of a pea… I think that’s 15.” Peter proclaimed taking full advantage of the three cups, plates and cookies as nine.

“Very good, Peter. Open your eyes,” Ling said. “Thanks Ling, that was fun,” Peter said. “I felt like a detective trying to explore the scene of a crime.” “That is today’s lesson, Peter. ‘Being.’ Taking everything you have learned combined with your own personal power and then just ‘being’. Today you will be the witness to everything that happens for the next 45 minutes.”

“Cool!” Peter exclaimed, now excited about the lesson as well.?“Let’s start.”

“Okay. Close your eyes, Imagine a ball of light Peter. It is a bright light. Imagine that ball of light out in front of you. Move it into the center of your heart.??When you have that, imagine your grounding cord.?A cord connected from the base of your spine to the center of the earth.?Hook in the cable. Ground yourself. Make sure it is flowing.?See the flow.?Do not judge it, just make sure it is flowing down your grounding cord. Now clear your space.” Ling uses his usual words this time, “You must completely clear your mind. Create the container, Peter. Put all your thoughts in it. All the experiences of last week, last two weeks, of our eleven weeks together. Put it in and destroy it. Keep creating and destroying them until you have no more thoughts.”

Peter spent several minutes clearing his mind until he was sitting proud in his chair.?Ling took that as the sign to begin, “Okay, one sense at a time. Be the witness in the moment. The moment is happening all around you,” “Okay,” he replied. “Which sense first?”

“That is your decision, Peter. You get to ‘BE’,” said Ling. “I’m leaving and going to my office to work. Here is a pad and pen if you feel you need to write down all that you sense.”

Peter opened his eyes to see if Ling was joking but he was gone, walking down the hallway. Laughing to himself, Peter began with hearing. Closing his eyes again, he got centered and grounded and focused all his energy and attention on his ears. He heard the buzz of the air conditioner…the water fountain in the entrance…another buzz of an appliance…footsteps above…the creak of the walls…a fire truck, or was that a police car?...a horn honking…the laughter of passersby…a dog…a light bulb…a dripping faucet…Ling shuffling papers…keyboard strokes…a phone ringing.

Peter continued to build the list then switched to smell and a whole new world appeared. This place smelled great. The smells kept coming. As he labeled one, another appeared.

Taste was next. He took the time to ‘taste’ the cookie. Overcooked was wrong, it was delicious. The tea he took sip-by-sip, describing it in his mind. He would have liked to try some water on the cabinet, and that required him to move. He decided to leave the chair so he could actually sense the water. Next he tried a mint at reception.?He found amusement and pride in actually experiencing a myriad of tastes in one room.

While up and walking around, he kicked into his sense of sight. At the same time he decided to map the room in preparation for the next sense - touch. Seeing much more detail than ever before, he took a good minute simply to look at a piece of furniture. He found the pictures of Ling and the powerful people on the wall again and looked deep into the images. He knew he could feel this way now. He got it. He pulled up a chair to the window and watched, actually witnessed, what was going on outside.

Feeling complete with sight, Peter shut his eyes and tried the sense of touch. Tactile surfaces were everywhere. He didn’t even move for what seemed like 15 minutes, just touching things to understand each item without opening his eyes. He began to walk, trusting the map he created only a few minutes ago. There were a couple of stumbles, but he made it through, touching walls and doorknobs to get his bearings. He found himself at an open door and deduced that this was Ling’s office. He opened his eyes to validate the map and there was Ling, smiling with great glee.

“Having fun, Peter?” Ling asked.

“Actually, yes I am,” he replied. “Has it been 45 minutes?”

“Not quite,” Ling answered, still smiling. “It’s been 93 minutes.”

“What!?” Peter exclaimed.

“Yep, you’ve ‘been’ for an hour and a half. How’s the list coming along?” Ling asked.

“I felt I didn’t need to write it down to ‘be’, because the moment I sensed that item, the moment passed. I experienced it and then moved on. I didn’t care about the list. It wasn’t?a game just to get the most. It was… well, just being.”

“Very good, Peter,” Ling said with pride. “Very good.”

“Thanks, Ling.”

“My pleasure, Peter, because I had a chance to witness you being in the moment with an absolutely still mind.”

“That was a great feeling.”

“It is something you should do each day, even if it is for only two minutes. Just be. You now have access to the skills to shut out the chatter in your head. Use them.”

“Thanks,” Peter replied. “I will.”

“See you next week! It’s payday!” Ling said with a laugh.

“A well-deserved payday,” Peter replied shaking his hand and bowing with respect.

That evening Peter pulled out his pad and reread everything he’d written to date and added today’s lesson.

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