Today we ask that you look at the addiction to fantasizing.

The thinking mind always pulls you out of the present moment, into fantasies.

The fantasies are always about the future, the past, and realities that do not exist.

Sometimes the fantasies are about things you desire: a new car, a house, a certain boy or girl, a dream wedding, a baby, a million dollars, winning prizes, becoming famous, etc.

Sometimes the fantasies are about things you fear: awful things happening, losing all your possessions, losing a relationship, bad things happening to people you love, catastrophes in the world, and so on.

Sometimes the fantasies are about changing things in the past.  You fantasize about handling some past situation differently.  You fantasize about having had a better childhood.  You fantasize that if you went back in time and “fixed” some mistake, everything would be better for you.

Sound familiar?

When you consider the amount of time most people spend in such fantasies, it’s fairly staggering.  When you consider how much time people spend in such mental projections, and then add to that the time spent immersed in fantasy worlds on TV or the internet, it’s truly amazing that anything ever gets done in your world!

Fantasies are addictive.  They are as addictive as narcotics, or other drugs.  They are, in fact, more addictive than such drugs.

How much time in a day do you spend with your eyes slightly glazed, daydreaming about the future and the past, your fears and desires; lost in realities that are no more real than a TV show.

If you are someone who feels like you wish to do more in this lifetime, here is a very good place to start.

Imagine how much time you would have in a day, if you did not spend so much time lost in obsessive thoughts about the future and past.

Really consider this.

Now, a Voice may argue: How can I strategize about my future, if I do not engage in these mental projections and worries?  How can I make plans?  How can I protect myself and my loved ones against bad things, unless I sit around imagining potential bad things?  How can I buy my dream house, if I don’t fantasize about it?  How will I meet my dream partner, if I do not dream?  How will I win prizes, and achieve renown, if I do not fantasize and scheme and strategize?  How will I avoid mistakes in the future, if I do not obsessively analyze mistakes I made in the past?

In other words, what purpose does my mind have, if not to be used fantasizing about the future and past?

The answer is: your mind has a much better purpose, but you will not realize this until you can still the incessant, addictive thinking and fantasizing.

Your purpose in this life does not necessarily align with what you have been programmed to think you should possess, or achieve.

The truth of your existence can only be accessed in stillness.  It is felt in the heart, in a place without words, without fantasies.

It is here now.  In the present moment.

And if you focused the full potency of your consciousness into the present moment, you would find that everything else fell into place.

You would be like the champion runner on the track — every ounce of your being fully focused in the act of running itself.  

All of you, every one of you, possesses such power.

But for most of you, this power is dispersed, scattered, unfocused.  That is why you feel like you can’t move, can’t get anywhere.

Rein in the thinking mind, through meditative practices that focus the consciousness.  Breathe.  Get back in your body.  Get back in the here and now.

Notice how addictive fantasies of the future and past are.

It is okay if you do not believe this, but we will say it anyway:

If you become calm, present, and stable in your consciousness, everything else in your life will automatically fall into place.  You will be functioning from the True Self, from the heart, from the still center — and you will therefore no longer have any need for “strategies.”

It really is true.