What is true is: “I’m alive here now.” Nothing else can be said that’s true, because everything else is a passing moment. But here-now is the actuality, it’s not passing. Because when we say now, we’re not talking about time. And when we’re talking about here, we’re not talking about place or space. “Here” is here. It’s a whole-person and whole-universal experiencing, the word for which is “here.” And the same with now.
So, two things, to use the moments of greater awareness to good benefit: You can climb out or drop the false notions, you can see the falsity of how you’re characterizing and describing it to yourself in that inner dialogue. And second, to be generally aware, to keep reminding yourself whenever the opportunity is there, whenever it comes to you—but in a little way to find some methods to remind yourself as frequently as possible, and hopefully more and more frequently, that it’s always here, it’s always now, and it’s always you. And nothing else, no other statement, has any validity. That’s just circumstances and phenomena. Here-now-alive is the fundamental reality.
There’s only now. We say “life is a series of successive moments”—but it’s not—that’s the nonverbal thing we’re taught very early, in all kinds of ways that aren’t specifically a statement of that.
So to remind yourself that all these thoughts (which is essentially what they are), and especially rehearsing, are absolutely not real and therefore absolutely not needed. That you’re engaging in something that is a powerfully learned and a very set-in habit, a very well formed habit from many directions and with many streams going into it to make it seem very real—and a lifetime of experiencing that, from this false sense that that’s actual. So realize that anything that’s about the next moment is absolute fiction, you’re making it up, you’re imagining it, you’re having an illusion in the midst of a delusion. The delusion is that there is a next moment, because there’s only one moment, the here-now moment, which is the Eternal Infinite.
So you more and more have to understand that. The way you understand it is by experiencing it. Not just by saying it or writing it down on a sticky on the fridge. You have to start experiencing it directly.
Let me add one last thing. When you say it’s good to see me and how good Satsang feels generally, the reason it feels so good is because both the phenomenon of Satsang, gathering together in truth and to help each other as colleagues on the spiritual road, and—if you’re a disciple—the presence of the Guru, both of those phenomena actually are experiencings of more here-now. The Guru’s presence pulls you into a more here-now awareness. To you, it doesn’t feel like that. To you, it just feels really good. Whenever I say “the Guru,” I’m talking as a disciple, as a devotee, so I know about this from being a devotee, not from sitting in the Guru chair. So I know what your experience is, because it’s my experience.
So understand that that’s all that is. It isn’t the Guru brings the Divine to you, although that’s another way you can describe it. But the actual feeling of how good it feels, how much you feel uplifted in one sense, and how you just feel happier in another sense—there are a lot of things you can say about the experience, but it’s definitely pleasanter, better, happier, nicer—what’s really going on, is without realizing it, you’re being more here-now. Because Satsang pulls you into that. And the Guru’s presence creates the opportunity, and you go there without realizing that’s where you are.
So start to understand that anytime something feels better, or you feel like today’s a particularly happy day, and you’ve already given yourself an explanation, “Oh, it’s such a beautiful sunny day,” or “I aced that test,” or “I got a raise this morning, substantial raise and promotion at work,” you think it really feels good because those things happen. But that’s an illusion. It really feels good because you’re in the position of allowing yourself to relax more and to be willing to feel good about things. And that brought you more into the here-now. And you don’t experience it, “Oh, I’m more in the here now.” You experience it spontaneously as “Wow, I feel so great today.” And of course, then you get the idea, “How can I make this last the rest of my life?” That never works. Because here-now is not tameable or retainable. It’s not a firefly you can put in a jar and carry with you whenever you want to feel it more. It’s beyond you. It’s not something you control, it’s something you enter into.
When you walk into a public building, just because you walked in, it doesn’t mean you’re suddenly controlling the building. Yet we have this notion that whenever we feel way better than we usually feel, that’s something we need to control so we can hold on to it, so you can keep that better experience—but it’s not possible. It’s possible to walk into the building. It’s not possible to control the building. You’re just in it.