Living in the present moment

Being in the present is often considered the great awakening toward which almost all spiritual practices point. But awakening from what? From the dream of our thinking, from our made up version of reality. That’s why many spiritual gurus talk about “waking up”. If we stick with this metaphor of waking up, then meditation can be considered the act of consciously trying to wake yourself up. Mindfulness, meanwhile, is the conscious act of trying to prevent yourself from falling back asleep.

While both are worthwhile practices, I have come to see that it’s natural and perfectly okay for people to “fall asleep” to their thinking, because we always wake up again. To try to cling to staying in the present is like being afraid to fall asleep. In reality, no one is afraid of falling asleep, because we know we’ll wake up again. In the same way, it’s perfectly natural for people to drift in and out of presence, to have their level of consciousness ebb and flow.

In fact, I don’t believe it is even possible to stay in the present all the time, just like it isn't possible to stay awake all the time. Even master meditators can only be present and concentrate on a single thought for hours at a time. Then even they have to let the avalanche of their thinking back in. Same thing with athletes and artists who are totally in the flow of the present moment - at most, they can sustain it for hours at a time. So don’t give yourself a hard time about not being present as much as you think you should.

The human mind is designed to flow between thought and presence. The more you worry about it and try to be present, the more you are unknowingly cramming more thought into your mind that you are trying to clear. The very idea of rules, practices, and right or wrong ways to live or be present are all thoughts that ironically prevent us from being present. To be present is to simply let things be as they are, to be fascinated by the present moment, whatever it is and however it unfolds.

Sometimes you’re fascinated, other times you’re not and your mind drifts away. Both are normal and okay, and neither one is not better than the other. What I have seen for myself is that simply understanding that your experience of life and reality is created 100% by your own thinking and not by the world or the people in it, is often enough to help us wake up to the present moment more fully. No meditation, mindfulness or other practices needed.

We all are perfect in distraction. One of the simplest method which Gautam Buddha talked about, “Be aware what you are doing.” Simply keep awareness in your activities. Walking, eating, drinking, speaking, working. Whatever just be aware and present. This is so easy if you understand what the present moment is. I am not separate from the present moment, anymore than I am separate from Life, you, me, or the world! Therefore, cultivate awareness of I. I am the present moment. So, by cultivating awareness of I who am reading this, I am cultivating Presence. How do I go about cultivating awareness of I who am reading this?

Very simple! Keep shifting attention from what I see, think, feel and experience - such as my body and mind - to I. I am not my body and mind, but who or what body and mind appears to. I am subject. Body, mind, thoughts and feelings, are objects that I experience. Therefore they are all not-self (anatta). Cultivate awareness of I by shifting attention from body and mind, to I who experience body, mind, and everything else. At first this feels strange and requires constant mental reminders, for none of us have been taught to be self-aware in this sense: awareness of I, not awareness of what I experience.

But keep at it as much as you can, and especially whenever you have a negative feeling, and your efforts will in a few months become natural, automatic and unconscious. When this happens, you will notice that you are now always aware of yourself, without having to consciously shift your attention to “I". Do not make the mistake of making a concept of the present in your mind, therefore now distinguishing it from the mythical past and future, neither of which actually exists. No! Just keep cultivating awareness of I (subject).

In cultivating awareness of I, don't define I. When I slap a definition on I, and I therefore now know who I am, what I have defined is immediately an object of which I am aware. Therefore that too is not-I. Don't mistake I for anything (objects) I (subject) am aware of. This is the way to liberate I from my mistaken identification with all kinds of mental objects, including my concepts of my body and mind. This simple practice, if persisted in, leads to the realization of no-mind: no thinker or doer is here. There is only Life, which is happiness and unconditional freedom. Unconditional freedom is like this galaxy. It is infinite. Every circle, every zero, however small or large, is infinite, because it has no beginning or end. This infinite knowing arises from completely not-knowing (knowing nothing, zero, nada: no-thing): awareness of I without conceptualizing I. Cheers!