Experiencing "Now"

I think that one of the best ways to really get in touch with yourself, and then therefore develop and manifest the things that you want, and even to get beyond desire, to remove desire, is to practice experiencing "nowness".

As a survival trait we often jump to the future and plan so that we are prepared, but we often neglect the present, and even disregard and dismiss the present as not important, or not valuable. Often we see our desires being met in the future, but not now. When "now" is what we have, and can use this time to enjoy what exists in each individual moment.

The truth is, it will never be the future, it will always be the present moment, a single slice of time in the cosmic ocean, this is where our experience lies. We can think of the past, predict and plan for the future, but we still do this in the present moment, all of our thoughts and memories exist in the one, even changing moment.

You might think, "but I have to plan for the future, so that I am prepared." While this is true, it is only a very small percentage of time and brainpower that you need to use for planing, to accommodate your need to survive; the rest of your thoughts, which go into this endeavour, are excess, worrisome, stressful, and even damaging thoughts.

If you step back and think about it, all of your thinking and planning has gotten you to the point you are at now. So if you can just try to sit in the moment, you will experience all of the wonderful splendor which you have been planing for all of this time, you will experience the result of everything you have manifested. You might have already created a great deal of wonderful things around you, but all of your planing and foresight are wasted, of you cannot take a few steps back, all the way back, to the source of thought and experience, and take a look at the things around you, make note of the people and things which you love and appreciate.

This is a process which can take practice, but out of this practice comes an awareness or yourself. Your own internal thought process might back away for a bit and leave you to your own pure experience of yourself. This will lead to peace and calmness, which enable you to respond with less stress and emotional attachments to your surroundings, and enable to be more aware of the things around you.

Your mind can jump to the past where there could have been great suffering, or to the future where you see great things for yourself. But practice bringing you mind to the present, and then only using your senses, experience everything tangible and intangible around you. This will bring you the awareness of contentment, and for me, contentment is is the truest form of happiness.

To help you do this try learning to meditate, but you can also just slow down, look at your hands, look at whats around you, try to back of and observe your thoughts, then notice that you are observing and experiencing yourself. Experience the peace and Bliss and Contentment that arises out of your awareness.

Try this to help you learn to Meditate

Xcerca,
Thank you for sharing this simple, but beautiful truth!

After I read, "The Power of Now" - it changed how I saw many things...
For one thing, Jesus taught that the kingdom (real/experience) of God is within you (not external) - simple but profound! In the bible (Old Testament), Moses came to learn that God's was "I AM THAT I AM." God is not "I was that I was" nor "I will be that I will be" - God is present tense - experienced NOW, within us.

Has anyone found that when practicing being in the now, there is no memory of it later? I think it is different to being present in the moment, as in fully aware and fully experiencing the moment.