“Now” is not connected with time, although we tend to think it is, since we often define it by saying, “It is not connected with time,” or “Now” is timeless.” Those definitions are actually subtle traps in disguise, since they force us to regard “now” in terms of, or as a function of, time. Often, in attempting to escape that trap, we search for little holes in time, where “now” might be located, or we seek out parallel streams of some “other” timeless kind of time. And we become hopelessly confused.
To be conscious of “now”, we must understand that “now” doesn’t extend into the future or into the past as much as even a microsecond. “Now” is simply “now”, and we are in it.
Being open to that experience allows us to feel life rushing into our awareness like the four-dimensional equivalent of three-dimensional scenery which moves into our consciousness as we drive along a highway. To be fully present before the onrush of scenery, we must not constantly turn our heads to see what just went by (or we’ll miss what’s happening now) and we can’t be projecting our attention ahead onto what we anticipate may be coming along (or we’ll also miss what’s happening now). If we are conscious of “now”, we are able to be fully present, facing the truth and essence of the universal scenery as it is, continually creative, vibrantly alive, always fresh in each moment.
In order to be here “now,” we cannot interpose any filtering mechanism between ourselves and direct experience, because such a mechanism routes the data of pure experience through a time-delay, which puts our perceptions a microsecond behind “now”. We cannot, for example, perform any analysis of what enters our awareness, because analysis requires engagement of a mental filter, which puts us back in time. We cannot react emotionally, for that requires processing the experiential data through the filter of our personal psychological history, a delay which routes us back into time, out of “now”.
To feel the fullness of “now” is an exhilarating and particularly desirable experience, in which the universe becomes crisp, clear, and vibrant with meaning. But most of us rarely experience “now” because, rather than being able to disengage our filters at will, we are stuck with their being in constant, unconscious operation. We simply can’t stop processing the data of life in (for example) analytical or emotional ways.
However, through diligently applying ourselves to the task of “getting conscious” and of learning to exercise our options, we may finally come to experience the world directly, as it is “now” – and thereby discover its true, unfiltered essence, which is Love!
