Now means ‘right now’. It is the present moment. It is the seat of creativity, the place where your true power lies, the power of being totally detached from the past and present so you have peace. The state of pure consciousness. This means you have no or very little ‘thought’ , when you bring yourself to this place, you are fully present in the present moment-the ‘now’. You are still alive even though you are not thinking, you are in fact fully alert to what is going on around you, you are ‘aware’ of things, without labelling them. For example, in this exercise of becoming present, you may look at an object, a flower, you don’t have to say to yourself ‘what a lovely flower, or I am looking at a flower’ because then you have labelled it with your thought. You just observe it.
Simply ‘observe it’ without thinking! You are now ‘present in the now’. You are totally aware, fully alert and you will ‘observe’ that although the flower is ‘still’ it also has vibrant energy. Try this exercise. It’s fine if you can hold that awareness for just a few seconds. You have created ‘space’ in these few moments, ‘mind space’, because you are not thinking, you are just conscious of things around you. In order to step into the now we must ‘lose our mind, and come to our senses’ as Ralph Smart puts it.
The ‘now’ is the only real time. Life unfolds in the ‘now’, it is always ‘now’. The past is a ‘thought pattern’ as is the future, they do not exist because ultimately where do you think of the past and future, you think of them, in the ‘now’. As Albert Einstein said ‘time is but a stubborn illusion’.
In the ‘now’ you accept life just as it is. You have surrendered, and there is no resistance. It is as it is. Here in the ‘now’ is therefore where peace is experienced. It is the seat of creativity because you have made space for divine intuition, to flow into you. When you do these exercises you will see that afterwards, you’re thinking will be fresh, new, inspired and thus much more creative.
It is not necessary to ask continual questions on the matter and turn it into a huge debate, any more than you would try and find out how the electricity got into the switch, all you need to know is that if you flick the switch the light will come on.
Becoming present and incorporating this practise in daily life can be done constantly and throughout the day- you can bring yourself into the present moment at any time. We experience freedom, freedom from judgement of ourselves and others. It promotes better sleep, lessens anxiety and stress and therefore supports the immune system. It generally makes us happier, and takes us out of the grip of a sometimes mundane and gloomy existence. It provides us with clarity of mind coupled with inner strength to enable us to make the right choices and decisions. It propels us forward for onward and inspired action, to do what we really want to do, what we came here to do, with great joy and enthusiasm.
2. How to bring ourselves into the ‘now’.
You can use the example above with the flower. If you’re having difficulty grasping the idea, then consider this. Say to yourself ‘I wonder what my next thought will be?’ I personally found this profound, because in that question you ask yourself ‘who is the thinker and who or what is the thought?’ The two are SEPARATE. When you then have your next thought, just ‘observe it’. Whereas before you would just be thinking it and then another thought would arise and you follow it and there you go thinking incessantly, continually. But When you just ‘observe’ the thought, the observer is the ‘eternal witness’ the pure consciousness. The thought itself is a ‘form’ that comes out of consciousness, like all other forms, eg a tree, a human a table- these are all ‘forms’. Thought is the first ‘form’ out of which others are created. As you know anything magnificent created by man, stems from a thought- the first form. And so, you can recognise clearly that the two are separate.
Another way is to concentrate on your breathing. Through your nose. Count your breathe. Inhale for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, exhale for four seconds then hold it for four seconds before inhaling. This brings you closer to the now, because again, you’re not thinking so much.
Also, you can try just looking around you and using sense perceptions. See things as in the flower suggestion. Touch something, taste something and savour that moment. How many times have you eaten something without giving it a moments consideration? How many times have you driven to work on auto pilot (because you are in your head) and not noticed or really seen a thing? You could be stuck in a traffic jam for ten minutes and not remember what car was in front of you. Next time you travel to work, when you get to a red light, just pause and look around you, don’t label things and think, just observe. In those few moments you have increased your ‘presence power’.
The next step when you use your senses to observe what it around you, feel deep appreciation and gratitude. To go deeper into the ‘now’ go within your body, that is, to focus within. You can do this by for example closing your eyes and holding your arms out (as if you are holding a big bunch of flowers). Then, apply your mind to your arms by saying to yourself as your eyes are shut..’ How do I know my arms are still there?’ You can sense them, your mind is now focused on your body, your arms. You can do this exercise with your whole body and perhaps sense a subtle energy field. It is a peaceful place to be as you are out of your thinking mind and have taken your attention within. The above exercise is a teaching by Eckhart Tolle.
And so, as you do this more frequently, you will be able to bring your ‘presence power’ into ‘use’ during challenging times of altercations, difficulty and confusion at which point you will realise the actual power of being present.