The Present Moment
“The present moment has no beginning and no end. It always was and always will be ‘Now.’ That which has no beginning and no end in time we call ‘eternal.’ We live and die in the eternity of the present moment; there is no other place in which we can live.”
Robert Brumet1
I want to move from the mostly-abstract consideration of the relativity of time by steering my evolving reflections in a (hopefully) more practical, applicable direction. Renowned physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) illustrated the relative nature of time (and space) mathematically in the last century. He theorized that time, as we measure and apply it, is not an absolute measure because it speeds up or slows down depending on how fast one is traveling as well as one’s distance from the center of gravity. Because we tend to travel similar speeds (i.e., well below the speed of light) and live at similar altitudes (i.e., within a mile of sea-level), the variable nature of time is imperceptible.
What interests me most is (1) the significance of the present moment and (2) why the present moment is so difficult to pinpoint. Many great spiritual teachers through the ages agree that focusing our conscious awareness into the present moment is the key to awakening to deeper aspects of our being. It is in those deeper aspects of our being where we catch glimpses of our connection with and in God, our True Self, and eternity.
One difficulty in nailing down what constitutes the present moment is that it has no beginning or end, as spiritual teacher Robert Brumet points out in the epigraph. The present moment somehow includes, yet transcends our concept of earth-time. Our experience of the present moment is, like time, determined and defined by the focus of our conscious awareness. If our primary conscious focus is on past events, even though our memories of those events arise in the present, our conscious focus is directed toward something that is unreal in the sense that it is unactionable. The same is true when our conscious focus is on the future, which is equally unreal and unactionable.
A fundamental difficulty in entering the present moment is our mistaken belief that we are what we think. We tend to equate the conscious awareness of our thoughts with the conscious awareness of our experiences. As such, we believe we can think our way into the present moment if we concentrate hard enough, shutting out all but our most immediate thoughts. Thinking is a fundamental human habit that is enculturated into us from an early age. With respect to the present moment, however, thinking is our greatest impediment. Our thoughts are limited descriptions of something from the past put into words, even though we are aware of those descriptions in the present moment. We are tricked into believing what we think about, while occurring now, is what we are experiencing now, which simply cannot be true. Our thoughts lag behind our experiences, so whatever experience we think about has vacated the present moment by the time we think about it. Who we are and what we experience necessarily precedes our thoughts about either. We cannot experientially enter a present moment via thinking anymore than we can physically reenter last Tuesday.
Twentieth Century author Alan Watts wrote, “…there are two ways of understanding an experience. The first is to compare it with the memories of other experiences…(interpreting) it in accordance with the dead and the past. The second is to be aware of it as it is, as when, in the intensity of joy, we forget the past and future, let the present be all…”[2] This second way of understanding experience is the key to understanding and entering the present moment, but it is not easy for those conditioned to thinking everything out. It requires the suspension, at least occasionally, of our thoughtful analyses. It requires that we feel, sense, and be in the moment as opposed to think, describe, and interpret. It requires relearning how to experience life as a child. “…it is to such as these (little children) that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”[3]
This is the 9th in a series of Life Notes on Space, Time, and Eternity. The opinions expressed here are mine and not necessarily those of others. To engage with me or to explore contemplative spiritual direction, contact me at ghildenbrand@sunflower.com.
[1] Robert Brumet, www.RobertBrumet.com, blog post on June 5, 2022.
[2] Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity, Vintage Books, 2011, p. 92.
[3] Matthew 19:14b
Contemplating Grace 