The Principle of Now.

You've heard it many times, so often in fact that it has become a cliché:  Live in the present.  The now is all there is.  Forget about the past; it's over.  Don't worry about the future; there is only today.  While these are familiar refrains, the truth is that living in the now is an elusive activity for virtually everyone.  It may be easy to say, but it's very tricky to do day in and day out.  And yet, Alan Watts is absolutely correct in the above quotation when he states that it "already is the case."  This is why living in the present moment is so baffling.

Think about the past and you're not living in the now. . . but the now is the only time available for thinking about the past!  Live in anticipation of the future and you're admonished for not being here now. . . but now is all you have for engaging in that delicious "futurizing."  Thus, as Alan Watts reminds you, you strive for what already is.  To be in the now is really your only option.  But the real question isn't how to live in the now, it's how to use the now by being present--rather than wasting it on reflections of the past or concerns about the future. . . .

Ego, Excuse Making, and the Elusive Now.

The present moment is an antidote for the pain and difficulties we experience, which we habitually try to soothe with rationales and explanations.  When we plunge ourselves 100 percent into the now, experiencing it and nothing else, we're on an Excuses Begone! journey, with no need for all of those old habituated thinking patterns.

In fact, excuses are simply what you've developed to explain now moments that are tangled into the past or future.  If you're truly in that blissful presence of the now, there's no desire to alter what is.  When your sentences express that "It's going to be difficult . . . it will take a long time . . . I'm not smart enough . . . I'm too old," you're wasting a present moment with excuses from a not-now moment!  And when are you having these thoughts?  You guessed it--the only time you have a thought is in the now.  So if your present moment is being used up replaying why present-moment thinking is incorrect (making excuses), is it available for you to do something constructive?  Obviously not!

All excuses are avoidance techniques to keep you from taking charge and changing your thinking habits.  If you weren't rehashing your excuses but were instead immersed in the now, you'd be experiencing your own form of the bliss and healing that took place for me during my magical swim.  You see, when I removed ego from the moment, I stopped thinking about myself and focused on being fully present--and then I was able to be truly here without ego's excuses.  I had plenty of explanations for the tension in my chest, but when I moved totally into the now with no other thoughts, the excuses disappeared along with the pain

With Love, Gratitude n Blessings ... Tathastu ...
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