The adage ‘be here now’ has currently taken on profound meaning.
Here in this viral age we are forced into a very practical interpretation of now. Remembering what was, even a month ago, can be unspeakably sad. Any realistic look at the future makes us anxious and depressed. ‘How long will this last? And what will our world be when it’s over?’
And, will it be over?
Sure, we can squint our eyes and imagine things in an idealized way as a means of escape. But, our fantasies are often quite selective. Compared with now, most of then seems idyllic. But, in truth, weren’t we complaining about it then? Weren’t we trying to escape to a past before the past? Weren’t we bartering that present for daydreams of an ideal future? How much of our life will we soon wish we could have back?
Running away, either into the past or toward the future, is a game we have trained our minds to play for so long it seems natural. Only, it’s not natural. Humans are the only form I know that spends a majority of its time not being there. But, that is just a form of torture. Now more than ever.
There is so little to value in this current age. But, it is not without possibilities. A feasible recourse might be to use this opportunity to do what the teachings have always suggested and begin to retrain the mind to be present. This is something we say so often its lost meaning. But, what would it be to actually be in the present? Well, since we are so trained to escape, maybe the first step is to begin to train ourselves to be present.
Understanding the problem. We are born to awaken, but nonetheless spend much of our lives in a misguided attempt to find safety in distraction. As humanity evolved, we lost our claws, fangs, scales and venom. In their stead, we grew (relatively) huge cerebral cortexes. This immense processing power allowed us to remember previous danger and out-maneuver predators. But, as we lost our fur, we also lost physical places to burrow in order to find restoration and replenishment.
In our current age, we have ended up burrowing through an analogue of our life. We imagine things that make us happy in order to experience a virtual sense of comfort. We imagine danger in order to sharpen fangs that have long since receded. This is why we think compulsively when we are triggered – our prehensile mind is grasping onto an imagined situation, burrowing into itself in order to out-strategize the danger. “I should have said this.” “If I had only told him that.”
In sum, we have a mental life that runs concurrently with reality. This makes us very vulnerable in the real world. However, there is a part of our psychology that knows subconsciously that we are unprotected. Hence, many of us live a life fueled by an anxiety we never acknowledge. That anxiety keeps driving us further into our mental burrow, grasping onto more and more perceived solutions. When we grasp, we lose sight of the object and hold on for dear life to the idea of the object. We are bilked again and again by this sleight of hand mental magic trick. “Now I got it. Doh!” This creates a lot of tension.
Body tension occurs when out of anxiety, we grab for something. We might grab for something to save us. We might grab for something to complete us. We might grab for something to carry us away to a stress-free future. But the clinging and attachment we talk about so much in Meditation theory is actually a physical event. With training, we can become more and more aware of our actual experience. In time, the trained mind has the stillness to actually feel the physical grasping of our thoughts. So, even as we are living a virtual game of life, our body is going through convulsions. Because of the discrepancies between the analogy and reality we ever know what we are grasping at directly or why. Oh, we might believe we are grasping at that slice of pizza. But inside we are driven by an anxiety for deeper needs such as feelings of inadequacy of loss.
A practical way of reducing this to a workable system is to simply recognize mental distraction of any kind – and for any reason, and then return to the present.
But if that is a solely mental effort, as it is in many meditation experiences, any benefit we experience from the release will be short lived. You see, the body moves more slowly than the mind. It takes a physical effort fo calm its panicked griping. As well, the heart, spirit or emotions create a distracted world that separates us from reality. Aside from physical gripping and mental fixation there is emotional attachment. So, when we release ourselves from clinging, we must release the physical grip and emotional attachment as well as the mental fixation.
A practical way of reducing clinging in body, spirit and mind, is to learn with patience, practice and effort to completely open back to our natural – pre-impacted state. This comprehensive opening of body spirit and mind can only happen in the present. So, when we bring body, spirit and mind into complete connection to the present we are fully open to our natural state: relaxed body, open heart, clear mind resting in the present.
All the fancy tantric systems of meditation, visualization and recitation are all pointing to the simplicity of breath based meditation. BUt, I refer to this as comprehensive breath-based awareness in that in includes the physical being, our emotive experience, our mental concepts all in real time in the present.
The breath is an excellent tool as it is reliably in the present, it is a natural relaxant to the nervous system, it is a tangible tool for the mind to hold to, and it happens in the heart center, opening emotionally triggered defenses.
Here are the 4-R’s (x2) for training the mind to be present:
1. RECOGNIZE when we are distracted. There is no blame. There is only re-training the mind. It is essential now in this world right now, that we recognize when we are fooling ourselves.
REMEMBER our mind creates its version of reality. Begin to learn the difference between distraction and being present. Remember that distraction leads you into a vulnerable not-so-hidey hole. Remember that momentary distraction ultimately creates further anxiety. When we are distracted we are training the mind to abdicate its agency. When we return to the natural state, we are training to participate in our life.
2. RELEASE the grip. Open the body and feel the breath moving through you.
RETURN the natural state. The natural state is not distraction. It is a body free of tension, a heart open to its feelings and a mind that is simple and clear resting in the connection to life as it is. This is the ground for training to rest the mind in the present.
3.REDIRECT the attention. Bring your attention directly, back to the breath in the present.
REST in the integrated present. – Being here now is not just the mind thinking about the present – it is fully manifesting the present in your body, spirit and mind without aggression, clinging or avoiding.
4. RELAX into the flow. The point of being here now is not just slipping into some narrow space between past an future. It is the entire spectrum of life that is living that is available even in the quietest moments, even at the most impacted times, and even if there is little reprieve from the anxiety of life. Even more so, difficult times call for a RELAXING into the present, a resting in the present that is easy, stress-free and workable.
RINSE and REPEAT. Forgive yourself for your distraction, and repeat again and again until enlightenment.