Tag Archives: Time

How to be present?

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Q: How can I be more present? I really try to be present, but sooner or later I realize that I’ve been somewhere else in my thoughts. So what could I do? Do you have some techniques to learn how to stay present?

What is it here-now that is separate from this moment and can move in and out of the now?

Is there an ‘I’, an entity moving in and out of this moment?
Who is sometimes here, but some other times, leaves the present moment and goes to some other place and time?
Where would that be?
What other time?

Is there any other time and place than here now?

Stop reading for a moment, and do everything you can to leave the now. Just for a split of a second, go to the past.
Can you do that? No? Try harder…

Do you still believe that you have to learn how to stay present?

When you believe that you are not present, where do you go? Where are you then?
How could you leave this very moment? Can you see that this is utterly impossible?

If you can, then why do you want to stay present?
Aren’t you always here now?

Do you believe that when there are thoughts about the past and the future then you leave this moment and travel through time and space on the train of thoughts?

What is this ‘I’ that is so powerful that can leave this moment? A time traveller?
Isn’t this ‘I’ just the figment of imagination?

Just notice, isn’t the thought of a past happening now?
Isn’t the future a presently appearing thought, now?

Can you grasp the total impossibility of not being present?

Just let it sink in.
It is not possible to be anywhere else than here now.
Impossible.
No matter what the present story is about, this moment is all there is.

Or is there anything else than this present moment?
Is there any other time and place than this here now?

Just notice that tomorrow has no reality outside of the story about tomorrow, which is always appears now.
Tomorrow happens now, since all there is to tomorrow is the story of tomorrow.
Yesterday happens now, since all there is to yesterday is the presently appearing story about yesterday.

It is impossible not to be here in this moment.
Since this moment is all there is.
There is nothing outside of this moment.
There is no other time or space than this.
Literally. Just this.

But even saying that it is impossible not be here in this moment, is a stretch.
Why? Well… is there anything separate form this moment which could be in this moment?

Does this present experience have parts?
A ‘me’ which occupies a small space in a big universe?
Or this ‘separate me’ is just another story as this moment presently appears?

Are you something that is separate from what is?

Just notice that you are always here.
You cannot not be here.
And there is nothing separate from what is here.
Here is all there is.

So what is it that you believe yourself to be in the moment when you think that you need to learn to be present?

Noticing that there is no separate self can only ever happen right here now

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Q: I saw it in the past that there is no separate self, so why should I look more? I already know that there is none.

OK, so you are referencing back to a memory of a previous looking.

But realization does not exist in the past.
Only here now.

So in essence, it doesn’t really matter what has been seen yesterday, an hour ago, or even a minute ago.

The only thing that matters what is SEEN or NOTICED in this very moment.

Now… and now…. and now…

So the question is: can you see it now that there is no separate self governing life?
Can you see it now? And what about this moment? Is it clear now? And this moment? What about now?

Or is it now just a memory you hold onto?

If I cannot see something in this very moment, then I cannot see it. Then it is just a belief in this very moment, since I rely on a memory, it is not something that I experientially recognize now.

Therefore, looking always has to be afresh. You can never rely on a memory.

What is a memory anyway? Isn’t it just a thought that is appearing now?
So when you rely on the memory of a previous seeing, then is it a present experience, or it is just a thought story in this moment?

Can noticing of what IS happen any other time than now?

Why would you go to dead thoughts, while this moment is presently alive, here now?

Why not notice what is here now?
What do you need those memories for?
To perpetuate the notion that there is someone who saw in the past?
Someone who is searching, and can get awakened sometime in the future?

To keep the notion of an enduring entity who is living through time and space?
Where is this entity, now?

Can you notice here now that this is just a story about a character who is set on a journey towards awakening?

The story is here as the present thought, but where is the character?
Is the character also here?
Or is it just a baseless assumption?

Notice what is here now.
There is nowhere else to go or be.
Just this.