WHAT IS THE PRESENT MOMENT?

The present moment, at best, is a means to an end, a stepping stone to the future, because the future promises fulfillment, the future promises salvation in one form or another. The only problem is the future never comes. Life is always now. Whatever happens, whatever you experience, feel, think, do—it’s always now. It’s all there is. And if you continuously miss the now—resist it, dislike it, try to get away from it, reduce it to a means to an end, then you miss the essence of your life, and you are stuck in a dream world of images, concepts, labels, interpretations, judgments—the conditioned content of your mind that you take to be “yourself.” And so you are disconnected from the fullness of life that is the “suchness” of this moment. When you are out of alignment with what is, you are out of alignment with life. You are struggling to reach a point in the future where there is greater security, aliveness, abundance, love, joy … unaware that those things make up the essence of who you are already.

HOW DO YOU ALLOW IT TO EMERGE?

Simply by allowing this moment to be as it is. This means to relinquish inner resistance to what is—the suchness of now. This allows life to unfold beautifully. There is no greater spiritual practice than this.

An excerpt from Eckhart’s interview entitled ‘The Present Moment and the End of Suffering’