So it is possible that living in the present moment, it might take care of all the other moments quite well; but by not living this moment at all; which, if you observe in and around you, most generally none of the attention is on the present moment. It’s on what will happen, what may happen, what did happen – – where have I got to be at 3:00 p.m. and these days on all the electronic devices available, until there is very little attention paid to this moment and its logical sequence is kind of torn up a little bit. Would you see that is possible?
Question from woman: Would you give the illustration of the two women cooking dinner.
…. And getting dinner on the table? Ok. This is a little story I told some time or other and a true one. I went into a lady’s house one time and the kitchen was a literal chaos, including her. She was perspiring, sweating; the oven had black smoke boiling out of it, something was burning in it. She had just dropped a head of lettuce on the floor and was chasing it; and the place was all a ’clutter. And as is my favorite question to ask, I said, “What are you doing?”
And she implied that is was a blankity, blank idiot for asking, but she said, “I’m TRYING to get dinner on the table.”
A few days later I was in another home, and the contrast was quite visible to me. The lady was all dressed up, and she had a pretty little apron on and she was making the salad. The oven was lighted and everything looked under control and the pots were sitting on the burners going Psst, psst, psst – – doing nicely. And I said, “What are you doing?” And she said “I’m cooking dinner.”
Now she was in present time, the other lady was out of time. She was trying to get to the conclusion without taking the logical steps as they came along in every day living.
Now, I’m sure dinner got on the table and much more enjoyable in the second home as well as much more efficiently than it got on the table in the first one because the logical outcome of what she was doing at the moment – – moment by moment led to dinner on the table; and it looked like it would be a much more enjoyable dinner in that house.