The reason I chose Now and Zen to title these remarks is that in Zen philosophy there is no “then” – there is only “now”. If you are waiting for things to get better or waiting to reach some milepost before you act, or for a miracle to happen that will make your life bearable, you’re going to miss out on life.
Life is now! Right at this very moment, and that is the only point in your existence that you can experience. Right this second. Now!
The illusion of the future is always melting into or “becoming” the moment of existence - a fleet sensation - the “now” of your life. What once was the immediate future envisioned in your mind a moment ago has just become this very nanosecond you are now experiencing. This “present moment” then quickly becomes the unalterable past. It may be a disappointment, a missed opportunity, but only if you let it.
The “wish I had done it” doesn’t matter anymore if you didn’t do it. The promise “I’ll do it next time - or next week” is not something you can guarantee or predict. Do what you feel is the right thing to do “now”, drop the past and drop the future.
The future is unknown and along with what you might reasonably anticipate, it also brings the unexpected. The only control you have is over this very moment - where the rubber meets the road to use a popular analogy – and how you process it. This moment is the point of action, the only point of reference to life you have. Even if you use your memory or the thoughts and ideas of recorded history to mold it – this moment is your experience of the life you live - moment to moment. This is your moment of being. It’s your writing on the page of life, your footprint in the sand. It’s your creation, the energy of your existence interacting with the energy of the universe. And it’s your experience, the shaping of your soul. This is your only chance to experience the sensory sensations you are blessed with. Right now at this moment.
Life has the illusion of flowing like a river but does it really? Is it just a series of moments like the individual still frames of a movie film that creates the illusion of continuity, linearity and time? Or like the alternating currents of AC electrical power does it ebb and flow as a sine wave? Is the wave peak the life experience and the trough the non-living opposite, the push pull which together gives life to all living things and to all existence?
Or does it even matter that we understand except for the fact that the here and now is the only life worth living?
If you live in the past you are avoiding the present, obsessing over what could or should have been (we’re all guilty), and if you live in an imaginary future you are putting life off and avoiding the present. Experiencing each of life’s moments to the maximum is an acquired ability that few ever succeed in achieving – the so called “enlightened beings” among us. There are degrees of ability of course, but anyone can become enlightened in a general sense.
How do you live in the moment? By just “being” completely in the moment and not somewhere else is one explanation but the ability of “just being” has many facets and challenges. Drop the self they say. Get rid of the ego. Quit filtering nature through an intellectual sieve (like what I’m doing at this moment).
Here’s an exercise or two to allow you to experience what it means to be fully in the moment.
Find a quiet place where you won’t be distracted or interrupted, a place to meditate so to speak. Now, take either hand and concentrate on it. Look at your hand carefully as you slowly move your fingers as if to grip something in the claw made by your fingers. Look carefully at how the hand operates, the beauty of it, and the intricacy. Focus on only your hand.
Think of how much like a bird of prey’s claw your hand is, how much like other animals your hand functions. Exclude all thought other than your hand and the miracle that causes it to move the way it does almost instinctively without your command. Think about how you, using your mind, can make your fingers work individually, and the wrist to turn just so and how robotic and machine-like it seems. Think about the chemicals and neuron transmitters that cause the various ligaments and muscles to interact and perform whatever it is you would like the hand to do. As you focus, become your hand, but detach yourself from it at the same time.
If you concentrate long enough you will begin to marvel at this creation that is so critical to your existence. The hand almost looks as if it has life and powers of its own. Then drop all intellectual analysis. Allow your mind to view it as a separate living entity but realize your oneness with it. If you allow yourself to be completely absorbed with your hand and its miraculous abilities you will experience to some degree what it means to meditate, to be an observer and to live completely in the moment - being totally aware.
You can do this with any activity at any time.
Living in the moment means having full sensory awareness at the deepest level of what you are experiencing.
If you are washing your face, devote your attention to it. Become an observer by becoming fully aware of washing your face, the feel of the water temperature, the feel of the soap’s lather and its fragrance, the movement of your hands. Act with intent – not robotically. Make graceful movements, smooth, not rough and vigorous. Take responsibility but let go at the same time. Totally absorb the experience. See and feel the difference.
When you walk, be mindful of (observe) how you walk and walk with intention but also walk with mindfulness of balance and grace. When you move your arms and hands to accomplish a task be mindful of and observe their movement, move with balance and grace like a dancer, whether you’re peeling potatoes, turning a wrench or lifting a box. Whether you’re writing a letter or driving a car. Be mindful of the experience, be totally alert and into the moment. It takes practice but if you pay attention you can do it – and then it will eventually become second nature.
Concentrate on smooth, graceful actions, as those who practice Tai Chi, not herky-jerky, overly quick, coarse and reckless movements subject to mistake and accident. But you should be able to do this without losing yourself to what is going on around you. You can walk, or drive, or operate machinery with increased awareness, with grace and with mindfulness and attention yet with detachment, and you can still remain aware of all the dangers and hazards of life. You can be the observer and still be in control.
Many of those who excel in sports have incorporated being here and now into their game. Watch Scott Rolen, third baseman for the St Louis Cardinals. Rolen is ever mindful and graceful. Even when acting quickly with snap judgment he’s graceful in his motions. In baseball parlance they say he has “smooth” hands. Watch him and you’ll see he stays completely in the game, ever attentive and “in the moment”. Being “in the zone” is another description. Unfortunately for the Cardinals their pitching staff has not learned how to stay “in the moment”. It’s also true of most of the other players when at the plate batting.
For most of us “being in the moment” has to become intentional before it can become natural. You have to be mindful to become unmindful and natural. In Zen they refer to the enlightened person as an observer, someone who observes there own behavior and actions, detached from but mindful of every action and emotional response.
Sometimes living in the here and now happens without intent – as it should and as it happened when you were an infant. All babies and little children live in the here and now. They experience life in the moment without the encumbrance and baggage of knowledge, training and conditioning that eventually kills our ability to experience life fully and at its best. Few adults have retained the ability to observe and stay focused like a small child in its first years of life.
When you view a beautiful sunset or majestic view and you become captured by the moment, that’s being totally in the moment. As you become slack-jawed, entranced and are absorbed by the experience, that’s experiencing life as it was intended by God. By keeping your attention on being in the moment - completely, here and now - you will become more awakened to the richness of life and will enter the territory of what it means to be “one” with existence.
Who can have more? Who can be richer than that?
