Step of the Instance

engraving: Temptation of St. Anthony by Martin Schongauer

Something to remember, is that the Divine doesn't play tricks on us, I mean for fun and games. Everyone has the same potential, we have to start from where we are and move from there. Yes, we just have to throw these worries away and take it one step at a time, concerned only with the choice in each moment. The rest of it is just extra, the negativity (or positivity), the worries, the self-image, the grasping, greed, hateful thoughts, envy, pride, lust, all that, whatever takes us from the present moment.

Each man who aspires to this vigilance must make his own track and walk alone, attentive solely on the step of the instance, without being preoccupied neither with triumph nor defeat, nor uneasy about his earthly end.
--Judas, from The Flight of the Feathered Serpent by Armando Cosani

A friend told me recently that we normally ignore the source of time, that normally we think present goes to past and future comes to present, but instead the reality is that present goes to past and present goes to future, so the present is the source of all time. That the present is the source really helped me.