The power of now…
Do u meditate on the present moment?
how can you explain how it feels?
When I focus on NOW, there is no here nor there. I bring my full attention to the third eye, so that I have somewhere to place that attention. If my mind tries to wander to something that happened earlier in the day, I gently bring it back to NOW, to the focus of the third eye. If my thoughts wander to tomorrow, or to what my sister might be doing miles away, as soon as I notice it’s wandered I drop the thoughts and focus again on the third eye.
How does it feel beyond that? It feels quiet, it feels clear, then after a little bit of time it feels like a struggle, because the mind wants to be everywhere but here!
But when I do yoga, it is easier to pull the mind back to the present - focusing on my breath, on the pose, on my alignment. It seems easier to keep the mind quieter. I am sure it’s because there is more to occupy it than sitting and just meditating. 
so, basically being present means focusing on something that is the body, body functions, something that is actually present in the room, noises that coming to the ears right now…
being immersed in the now can be described as full embodiment of your existence.
not looking forward, not recalling the past, not analyzing the situation. Just existing, witnessing, being.
NOW is not accessible to any attention (wherever placed), focusing, meditating since all these are actions and they depend on the ‘thought process’ as their engine. Thought being a process, takes time (may be fraction of nanoseconds) and we end up dealing with the sensed image of NOW. So, when we cognize it, it is already past.
Mind also plays its usual tricks in helping the cognition by inserting memories of other emotions, images and patterns. So, when we cognize, we put colors of PAST or fancy of the FUTURE on the apparent NOW, making it relative.
For being in NOW, we need to suspend thinking, deactivate mind and immerse in the awareness. Ironically, absence of thoughts makes time disappear, since it is not an absolute measure anyways. In absence of time, there is forever NOW.
Hi Citymonk!
This is such an appropriate thread for me as I am currently doing A LOT of work on this very topic…I will share…
I am going through a 10-week process called the ‘Presence Process’, which I guess focuses on being more present through emotional and physical healing. I’m on week 4, and boy is it powerful!
You can also watch interviews with Michael Brown on Youtube - humble and sincere guy.
JSK and SUHAS, let me repeat myself… as a question to you
so, basically being present means focusing on something that is the body, body functions, something that is actually present in the room, noises that coming to the ears right now…
I;m trying to find some means to “show” it to students who have trouble meditating… I’m looking for some sort of exercises to settle in the “now” for a few…
Citimonk,
In my view, ‘thinking’ extends into ‘thinking about thinking’ (in early meditation) that expands into ‘conscious control of thoughts’ and finally into ‘suspension of thinking’ (in deep meditation). These are progressions and each is achieved with efforts. The trouble with meditation is in not understanding these stages.
Focusing on anything is thinking. Sensing is always on a rhythm of our ordinary life. A dimension of ‘time’ is given by our thinking mind. Similarly, as long as the surrounding objects are sensed at a gross level the sensing is exciting and distracting. Hence, the above stages of moving from thinking to not thinking, should be supported by awareness of the subtle aspects of the objects and gradual release of the link between sensing and thinking. When this happens mind’s ‘time scale’ expands and lets you engage with an elongated present.
Thinking and suspended thinking (direct perception) belong to two different modes of living. Unless, one becomes very advanced Yogi, in normal living it is necessary to think and it can be suspended only in the simulated situation where one is safe, can afford to close eyes and slide in deep meditation. In normal life, attending to all the sensing with concentration and not sliding into thoughts about the past or the future moments is absolutely valid ‘being in the present’. The best means to demonstrate this is the rhythm of breathing. As it slows down, awareness of breath grows in terms of the warmth, the moisture, the places where it reaches etc One can then move to prana energy that rides with the air. Since, prana supports astral body one can relay awareness to that. With awareness of astral body, outward sensing stops and internal sensing (tanmatras) begins.
In deep meditation, delinking the sensing and thinking allows a better ‘being in the present’ with the target, if any. The absolutely pure ‘eternal now’ however occurs when an advanced yogi is in perpetual meditation with eyes wide open. He/she takes in the sensing without time scales and remains aware of each, but that awareness is devoid of any indulgent thinking. Hope this is useful to you.
Thank you for the insight…
[QUOTE=CityMonk;65414]JSK and SUHAS, let me repeat myself… as a question to you
so, basically being present means focusing on something that is the body, body functions, something that is actually present in the room, noises that coming to the ears right now…
I;m trying to find some means to “show” it to students who have trouble meditating… I’m looking for some sort of exercises to settle in the “now” for a few…[/QUOTE]
One of my teachers addressed this subjet once before one of our meditation classes. He asked everyone to sit in an easy seated position and close the eyes and focus on the breath. After about 30 seconds in meditation, he tapped the floor, ten seconds later he tapped the floor again, 5 seconds later he tapped the floor again. This continued on a few more times and he asked everyone to open their eyes. He used his exercise to explain the hyper vigilience of the mind. Saying that some would simply hear the knock as he rapped on the floor, and notice the dull thud that it made and perhaps notice the reverberation of the sound or perhaps feel the vibration through the floor. The was an example of full embodiment of being. Witnessing the sound for all it was…
There are other people, he went on, who would begin to think… what is this noise? Is the old man tapping on the floor? For what reason is he doing this? Is he trying to prove a point? Its becoming annoying. How can I focus on my breath if he continues to tap the floor? Perhaps I am the only one who is annoyed? Certainly, others are annoyed about this as I am…
When the mind takes us along for a ride, we are not being in the moment.
When we simply witness the eternal present without analisys and with suspended judgement, we are being with the moment.
[QUOTE=Suhas Tambe;65294]NOW is not accessible[U] to any attention [/U](wherever placed), focusing, meditating since all these are actions and they depend on the ‘thought process’ as their engine. Thought being a process, takes time (may be fraction of nanoseconds) and we end up dealing with the sensed image of NOW. So, when we cognize it, it is already past.
For being in NOW, we need to [U]suspend thinking[/U], deactivate mind and immerse in the awareness. Ironically, absence of thoughts makes time disappear, since it is not an absolute measure anyways. In absence of time, there is forever NOW.[/QUOTE]
what about contemplating a mandala for example… or chanting a mantra… as I can see these sort of "concentration’ seem to make thoughts to disappear… but not necessarily contemplation of mandala will set one in the present moment?
Being in the present happens at various levels from physical to causal and beyond. Each stage is important as it lays a building block for the next. And knowing about the ultimate ‘eternal now’ and how it happens, tells us what the final destination is.
Until consciously suspended, thinking is our default response to sensing. A thought has strains of physical, astral and causal body responses and together they churn sense vibrations into ‘meaningful’ thoughts. Mind puts energy into this churning and generously applies emotional and subjective bias borrowed from memory.
Concentration is an ability to direct all thinking towards a single target. This is on the physical plane and it arrests mind’s natural tendency to flit from one object to other. Domain of speech is astral and chanting of mantra greatly helps on that plane. But let us not forget that speech as an action is preceded by a thought, unless the recital is a robotic automated act (which then becomes physical in nature). Contemplation belongs to the most subtle causal plane where one does not need the efforts of concentration.
Spiritual progress alters the thought composition. The initial physically (tamas) dominated thought in concentration, becomes more emotionally (rajas) dominated with mantra and finally becomes very refined intellectually (sattva) dominated in contemplation. As a result, the quality of ‘being present’ improves dramatically. The relative time in contemplation is extremely slow that leaves a very lage window for its awareness. However, awareness is still thought-dependent and is not intuitive like consciousness.
Just to remain conscious, one has to go beyond the causal, where thought is suspended, mind is withdrawn and time is non-existent. Hence, one is in an eternal now.
So, one has to deal with this, with a very comprehensive definition of ‘thought’ and to appreciate that being in the present happens in stages, each valid in its own context. (Please bear with my lengthy response.)
You say that thinking is a response to sensing… so then sensing the breath (the most meditations stars with it) is not going to take one to the present moment?
is it possible to sense without thinking? simply observe what is happening. or would you think this sort of observation thinking?
I think we’re splitting hairs at this point…
It is true. All depends on what level of depth and insight one desires. While combing the hair we don’t need to split it. But for looking at the DNA, one will have to.
CityMonk, thanks for your continued interest. Sensing is vibrations (like the electro-magnetic waves) in which mind pours more energy to make them travel up the nervous system into the brain, manas and buddhi. These three agents churn the sensed signals and try to figure out the message. The millions of churned pieces are ‘thoughts’ and the message is awareness. Since the sense vibrations arrive from the environment one can’t stop them. But, what we can learn to control is the thinking that moves automatically. We cannot stop the wind, but can stop the windmill.
Yes, it is possible to sense without thinking in fact that is the most cherished break through, called pratyahara. Let us see a crude parallel. Are wireless signals all over us all the time? Yes. When the bell rings, can we not refuse to put our cellphone on? Yes. The cellphone continues to get the signals anyways.
Does sensing the breath, not take us to the present moment? Yes and no. This is very true answer and not evasive. Yes, because we create that low hanging fruit by simplifying the concepts of ‘time’ and ‘present’. But, Yoga is a painfully slow and long process because each time some goal is achieved, the very goal is challenged as a concept begging for its redefinition. That creates a new distance to travel and a new milestone.
Time is relative. Many of us understand Einstein’s famous equation but it is hard to experience and realize relativity. There is a hair-splitting difference between meditation (in the object-oriented mode) and dhyana (in the objective subjectivity). We don’t begin there, but would like to reach there.
Time is not just relative, it doesn’t exist. Like ‘sky’, a stark reality for many, is simply a limit of human perceptive ability for a scientist. Horizon is not an object, it is a mirage. Life equals change and the perception of change occurs in serial thoughts that arrive ‘one after the other’ creating a sense of time. When thought-making halts, perception is direct, life is unchanging and there is only ‘present’.
Now, while being present by focusing on breathing, is it so unfair to say that "good, I know this present, now let me try its next level?
[QUOTE=CityMonk;65164]how can you explain how it feels?[/QUOTE]
Usually experienced directly during sudden moments of alarm
Suhas, thank you for the conversation.
JSK, thanks for the story about the master
Ray, yes it is sometimes make some people more aware, but did not work for me in times of great disasters…
I’m still looking for some sort of simple exercises I can use in class. Thank you
Perhaps, instead of a simple exercise take it out of class to every moment of ones’s life, everything one sets out to do, no matter how simple the task, do with complete attention/focus/awareness/consciousness, every moment becomes practice?
Don’t expect to be treated like one of the world’s own…