What is the "present moment" like? What's your ex

[buckeyeboywonder]

I know I am told to not analyze, to not "try to feel" the present moment, but I have no idea what the present moment is like -- so I don't know if I've felt it, or if I ever will feel it.

I know I'm not supposed to turn this into a goal, but I can't help but feel a little stuck since I've been familiar with "the now teachings" for 3 years. (Yes I realize this is the ego feeling stuck and not me...) And I know people live full lifetimes without feeling the now.

Is there anyone who can try to put the 'present moment experience' in words besides ET's references to "immense joy"?

When I am still, completely still, sitting in my room, reading eckhart, I fully believe his teachings because they all make logical sense and they are real -- but I just can't get a "Grasp" on the now.

I look outside as label-free as possible and feel that I am successful, and I feel nothing.

Can some of you describe what it's like for you -- I doubt it is a 'different' experience for everyone, because we're all made of the same being, so shouldn't the experience be similar for most people? What is it like? Does your heart feel like it is exploding with happiness? Are you supposed to feel nothing at all, and that nothing is the joyfulness ET describes?

Words of advice as well as experience/'stories of present moment memories' are welcome. I know it is impossible to 'conceptualize the present moment' because it's beauty is beyond words describable according to ET, but is anyone willing to try and share with me?

Thank you. )

Love,
Joey of Columbus, Ohio, USA

[suraj]

Hi , I know exactly what you mean . Because even I sometimes feel that I am stuck . The ego asks - "So , what next ?" . It has been 2 years now (I bought the book on 13th May) since I read TPON. Have I felt the "immense joy" which ET talks about ? No. But I never expected it in the first place. There is a definite lessening of problem making tendencies of the mind. I have learned to let go of all the useless chatter of the mind. Who knows what else is in store. i am enjoying this procession of LIFE.

[eseward]

What Eckhart calls presence I call the Kingdom. It feels like...

a sense of peace that passes understanding, as in "why the hell do I feel so good?"

contentment, as in "there is nothing further I desire from life except to feel like this"

joy, as in "so it's true: at the heart of things it is all good"

connectedness, as in "all men and women seem like my brothers and sisters under the Creator"

timelessness, as in "there is plenty of time, always was, always will be" (this is very different from the ego-identified sense of time: pressure and never enough time)

This is my experience anyway. It has come to me gradually over the years as I have reduced the identifications which obscurred the natural state of things.

[Webwanderer]

Pretend for a moment that there is no such thing as the past. (There isn't)

Pretend also that there is no such thing as a future. (There isn't)

Don't think about this, assume it as a state of awareness.

Not forget for a moment that you know any language. Words don't exist.

Finally, drop all consideration of you as a person.

Assume a condition of complete mental silence, free of all references.

Be open to all sensory input without consideration.

Don't think about these directives. Do them.

Rest here awhile, let it become familiar.

Repeat daily.

[heidi]

Excellent prescription Dr. WW.
Take with 3 long deep breaths and repeat as necessary.

[Webwanderer]

Thank you Heidi, I think I also left out "call me in the morning"

[D'ray]

What about the question which Tolle asks you in TPON. "What will be the next thought" ask yourself that and observe. Just observe don't analyse. See what it is. This works for me now.

[weichen]

People do one thing at a time, finish it, and then do another thing. Take one bite of food at a time during eating, and take one moment of his life at a time. Now could be experienced by taking the tiniest portion of time at a time. This way, an egoic person who has past and future and who seek fulfilment of separate little me may still be able to experience the now. One can experience now seamlessly within the flow of form-based worldly activities.


The degree of no thinking:
Now means no thinking, different portals to now (to different person, under different environment, different body posture, ect) lead to different level of mental shut down. I think the magnitude of the electrical shock sensation experienced during the "now experience" may be an indirect measure of how little mental activity is left.

To me, the greatest electrical shock (atomic bomb exploding from my stomach and expanding to the entire body) came when I am sitting in a relaxed posture and experience life with zero time duration. This can be reproduced to certain extent. I speculate that mental activity may be zero.

(But if you ask me the same question in a month, possibly I would give a totally different answer to what gives me greatest electrical shock)


The frequency of now experience:
I don't measure how often "now experience" do I have every day. But just being aware that the frequency of these "electrical shock" sensation are distinctly measurable is enough. The mind would automatically have a very very rough estimate: hundreds, thousands, etc.

People with chronical illness could see each electrical shock as self injection of highest potency immune boosting drug like interferon (and mixed with natural pain killer). Once you see that (and if you have a hard to cure illness), it is likely that you would get locked on these experience like a drug addict locked on drugs. In that sense, very very bad health is a very very big blessing in establishing the now habits.

[diogenes]

Before memories were held, in early childhood, you experienced the now constantly, which is incidentally why you have no memory of it. In the now, memories are neither created nor held. You can have no memory of the now. It cannot be analyzed.

There is a tendency to try to create a representation of now, so it can be revisited and claimed, like taking pictures home from a vacation. "See, there's me, in the lap of the Buddha, drinking the nectar of immortal bliss!" But now is not representational. It cannot be reproduced as memory the way experiences can.

My mother once had a dream she was flying. When she, in the dream, mentally registered that she was flying, she would begin to plummet. But if there was no self-consciousness of the act of flying, she would soar. This seems a fitting analogy.

When you are in dreamless sleep you are merged with the now completely, so, don't worry, you are in the now for practically a third of your life, depending on how much you sleep. But the mind has no pictures to look at, so it keeps looking elsewhere for something fantastic.

[weopposedeception]

When a thought appears, try to find the exact time right down to the millisecond when it appeared. What part of the now did the thought appear in? Early, middle, late?

[innerhike]

Is there anyone who can try to put the 'present moment experience' in words besides ET's references to "immense joy"?

---

In moments when I feel connected, which is something that happens for me after good, long meditations on most days, it is as if I am walking into a beautiful movie, and yet there is such a solidity to it, and such an absence of anxiety or difficulty, and there is only isness or beauty in it. Things are just perfect, coincidences abound, I walk into things knowing that they will turn out just perfect. None of this is coming from a place of affirmation, it is coming from a place of deep relaxation and letting go. It is as if I am in touch with the perfection inherent in Life/Universe. I do not spin my wheels, things happen quite easily and I do not find myself reacting to things in ways that cause emotional difficulty. I am not even praying and yet I find myself holding to a vibration that sees only good and goodness, that knows that all is well. There is no practice or effort going on, other than to simply be as I am. Thoughts may arise but they have little or no impact. I find myself deeply listening when others speak or move. Not much has to be said for me to pick up on what is going on with the other party. I don't even wish for the other party to say anything or change, even if they are struggling. I realize this is where they are at, and that is how it is. There is no goal or trying to get somewhere, there is no anxiety, and if anxiety arises temporarily, it is seen as a temporary creation or visitor.

Let go, let go, let go...

There is a Higher Power in charge of all this, and it can be accessed only by letting go.

Be Still and Know That I am God.

There is no problem except in my thinking.

[eseward]

Beautiful, innerhike. You have clearly been to "the Kingdom".

[kiki]

I agree, a very nice post which reflects how it is seen by "me".

[Webwanderer]

Let go, let go, let go...

There is a Higher Power in charge of all this, and it can be accessed only by letting go.

Be Still and Know That I am God.

There is no problem except in my thinking.

Indeed, I am....That I Am. Thanks for the beautiful intimation.

[chad]

I look outside as label-free as possible and feel that I am successful, and I feel nothing.

i learnt to crawl before i walk, i thought after finishing TPON i was going to be enlightened straight away, then started to get frustrated because i wasent englightened lol.
so in that case my mind used my way to destroy it, against me. but as soon as i relised this i wasent frustrated.

then long story short, i discovered my own little practice i do everywhere and works for me... i...

-forgive my body
-accept where i am at that moment
-accept the present moment
-forgive the present moment,
-then surrender to the now,
but dont just say it in ur head, feel every word you say.

after i do that i dont feel much at all. all i feel is freedom.