Was Nadal in the future?

In the second straight tie-breaker in the fourth set during Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer's classic final we may have been shown how even the mind of a great athlete can go to the future.

The tie-breaker begins with a pair of crowd-pleasing rallies and the players are tied 1-1. Then Federer misses a forehand and gives Nadal a mini-break at 2-1. Nadal kicks an ace wide for a 3-1 lead, then gets another winner on the serve for a 4-1 lead. Federer whips a forehand winner to cut it to 4-2.

An errant Federer backhand gives a Nadal a 5-2 lead and two serves for the championship. Did Nadal see himself holding the Wimbledon trophy even though he had not yet closed the deal? Nadal has two serves to win and he double faults! Was it pressure or the mind not in the "Now" but in the future? With another serve to win, Nadal hits a backhand into the net to make it 5-4. Uh-oh, the "dream" of the trophy in his hand is now slipping away. Federer roars on with two big serves and goes up 6-5 for set point. A long rally ends with Federer missing a forehand wide, and we're even at 6. I believe the definition of a champion's mind is not that their minds go into the past and the future but how quick they bring their mind into the "Now". Both Federer and Nadal stayed in the Now and took the match to a fifth set.

Federer sends a shot long and Nadal has a championship point. Federer gets it to 7-7, but Nadal hits the shot of the tournament — a running forehand winner to give him another crack at it. Nadal comes to the net after the serve, but Federer rips a backhand winner down the line. More solid hitting from Federer, and he's got a 9-8 lead. Nadal rips a return long and Federer has won a thrilling fourth set.

When you watch sports, try watching your breath and staying in the Now. What you may witness is great athletes in one of the three places: the past, the future, or The Now.

One breath at a time

I hear this often: "I can't meditate." The first thought that comes to my mind when I hear this is "Who knows that?" In the late 1970s as I was sitting in a meditation cave in India, thoughts like, "I wonder what my girlfriend, Bonnie is doing?" or "Are the Red Sox in first place?" or
"What the heck am I doing in this cave?" I believed I wasn't "getting it". I believed I couldn't meditate. Because I was being constantly reminded by Swami Muktananda (www.shantimandir.com) that the energy within everyone and everything is also my essence, who I really am, I came to the realization:
Hey! My energy is watching the thinker. I am meditating even though thoughts keep banging around my skull like a pinball.

You are Being. You are an energy that has been with you before you took your first breath. That energy is unchanging. That energy is. All you have to do to get in touch with that energy is to "watch" one breath at a time. Don't try to stop the mind. The mind does what it does best: think thoughts. The thoughts will come, it is up to you to concentrate on one breath at a time and allow the thoughts to go. If you practice experiencing the space between the breaths you will find there are no thoughts in that gap. The thoughtless state will come naturally. Until of course the thought arises: I am not having any thoughts and the thoughtless state is over.

So just sit still and watch one breath at a time with all your love, honor and attention. One breath is all you need in that moment because that is all you have anyway. Then you can say,
"I can definitely meditate, I experienced one breath with love."