Let me deviate a bit from golf for a moment. (I will get back to it I promise).

I read a book titled “Awakening to the Dream.”  The book makes a statement reflecting the act of seeking enlightenment through meditation is an “admission that you are still seeking.” In other words, if you meditate you cannot find enlightened as long as you continue to mediate.

If you are attempting to be something that you are not, you are living in past or future.

Enlightenment is a state of being liberated – not something you strive for. So how do we find a liberated state of being?

Once again we end up back where we started, at the moment. How can we be free if we are searching for ourselves in the past and the future? Here is one of the most profound statements regarding the false idea that we are free:

So what strings are pulling at you? Are you acting on them?

How can we be genuinely liberated if we act by what makes us feel good or bad? If we observe these things as just “things” isn’t that indeed liberation?

In many ways, I use golf as mediation. It is a tool that makes me present. I stay at the moment, aware and appreciative. Bad shots don’t affect me but nor do good shots. Each ball is an experience. Moe defined this as “An alert attitude of indifference.”

Indifference comes from the “observer.” There is no judgment. He ignores the good and the bad, the past and the future. Golf is best played from a state of indifference.

Indifference, I have found, must be learned. It is a “state” of awareness. It comes from knowing how to sit back and watch while still being present and on-guard.

The most liberating moments of my life have come from this state. I built my golf swing in this state of awareness. I didn’t judge myself or my results. I merely observed and adjusted. I was keenly aware and indifferent.

Unlike many of my students who, while they develop their golf swings, ask “How long is this going to take? My journey to the Single Plane was an incredibly joyful process. I didn’t worry about how long it was going to make. I stayed in a state of awareness and adjusted the things I felt needed to change.  The process was joyful.

I am an impatient person, but when it came to learning my golf swing, I was fervently committed and patient with the process. This made the process fun.

Having fun is an aspect of being at the moment.