Have you ever wondered why, even if we have the good fortune to lead a relatively comfortable life, we are unable to enjoy the present moment? If our minds are preoccupied with lamentation and regret or we are worried about the future, we can never fully enjoy the good fortune we have in the present.
We need a certain degree of intelligence to understand the Buddha’s teaching but it is not a very high intellectual bar. Habit is a far more serious obstacle to understanding the Buddha’s words than intellect. And habit is also the reason that many of us cannot enjoy the present moment. We are simply in the habit of worrying.
There is a certain freedom that comes with good habits. For example, if we are in the habit of waking up every morning and proceeding through a morning routine that results in us getting to work more or less on time, we might take that for granted. Similarly, if we manage to acquire the habit of present moment awareness, the absence of worry and lamentation would become second nature.
Like many other skills, the habit of mindfulness in the present moment can be learned. If we make our own spiritual growth a priority, it is possible to separate ourselves from our regrets and our fears and have them fade away from us as if they were old clothes that we no longer have any use for. The Buddha’s teaching of insight meditation is the tried and true method that we can all access to finally become free from worry.