‘Being in the Now’ Trap
Is the Now same as the present moment?
When there is no thought, there is no experience of time. This is clear during dreamless deep sleep or trance. What is equally true is that when there is no thought, there is no experience of space either. Both space and time inseparably rise together with thought and subside when thought subsides. This is also the observation of Einstein’s theory of relativity that space-time is a single four dimensional continuum.
This may sound like abstract theory but it has a direct implication on many spiritual practices that emphasize on ‘being in the now’ wherein now is equated with the present. It is common wisdom to observe that the past and the future can never be actually experienced except as a memory of the present and therefore they are fundamentally non-existent. But what is equally true and yet easily missed is that the present is also something that can never be experienced without memory. To have an experience of the present moment requires both recognizing the experiencer and the experienced in any given moment. The experiencer is the image of the supposed individual body-mind — as me — which is a product of the past memory. Similarly what is experienced as the other, the objects and the activities etc. also are all of memory stored from the past. So the present is as much a product of thought as the past or the future is. If we take the example of deep sleep again, there is no past, no future and no present either. Just as all of time including the present is only a result of thought, space too is only a result of thought. To recognize the location of the body, others, objects, distances, places etc. also requires memory and thought.
The recognition of the body as the ‘me’ immediately brings forth its birth, its age, its inevitable death etc. all of which happen in time. If one says that birth and death and all other events happen only in the present and therefore they don’t happen in time, then we have to ask how can we even recognize the event called birth without thought which is of memory and therefore time. The very recognition of one’s bodily existence brings forth time. When there is no time, there is no body either, no birth, no death. This is the crux of the most powerful verse in Mandukya Upanishad that says “The ultimate truth is that there is no creation, no destruction, no seeker and no liberation”. But if we admit any of it, then we have to admit time, space and all of it.
Therefore, to accord truth to a particular point in time called the present and to the ‘me’ who practices being in the present is but another construct of thought that uses a certain model to achieve certain ends. If we look at the whole phenomenon of thought carefully, we see that space, time, me, others, objects and everything rise concomitantly with the rise of thought. And it creates the past, the present, the future, all of time and here, there, everywhere and all of space.
Taking the me and the present moment alone as real and making a practice out of ‘being in the now’ may have its utilitarian value in terms of productivity, stress reduction etc. but it is surely not the same as the melting away of the me that is the realization of the eternal being.
The eternal being is also the eternal now and the eternal here. It has no space, no time, no experiencing and nobody to experience. It simply is. Any attempt to take up any practice to realize that which is, including that of being in the now, only takes us further away from it.
Any practice of being in the now — if the now is taken as the present moment — is a new age phenomenon. It can be a self-improvement activity that helps optimize one’s functioning by tuning out distractions etc. But the ‘self’ trying to be in the now is still the ego. So unless that is looked at, we are not taking any step toward realizing the essential truth of our being. A direct way to avoid this trap is by asking the simple question ‘Who wants to be in the now?’. This is a variant of the central question emphasized by Ramana Maharshi, ‘Who am I’ — the question that burns up all other questions, practices and doubts and burns itself up in the conflagration of complete surrender to what is.