"Be Here Now" -- actually, it isn't possible to do anything else

I started studying yoga and meditation in 1969, when I was a student at San Jose State College. I've got a well-thumbed 1972 sixth printing copy of Ram Dass' "Be Here Now" book, which was published in 1971. 

I haven't re-read the book for a long time. I guess the title alone was enough for me to keep in mind. 

But today, when I was meditating in the morning, as I have virtually every day for the past 47 years or thereabouts, I was struck by how meaningless those words, Be Here Now, seemed to be in my present churchless approach to life. 

What else is possible, but being here now? 

My brain is the source of my consciousness. No brain, no consciousness. (Many would disagree, but there is no demonstrable evidence that consciousness can exist without a functional brain.)

My brain doesn't exist in the future. Or, in the past. It exists now. As does everything else in existence. So no matter what my brain is doing, no matter what form my consciousness takes, it is happening here and now. 

Awareness of sensations, thoughts, emotions, intuitions, abstract reasonings, concrete perceptions -- all of this, every bit of it without exception, is happening here and now. So what's the big deal with that oft-heard adage, be here now? 

Turning to the "Time and Space" chapter on page 90, there's a contradiction in Ram Dass' book that reflects how I was feeling about its central admonition. On the one hand, I read:

Begin to notice that wherever you go or whatever time it is by the clock...it is ALWAYS HERE AND NOW. In fact you will begin to see that you can't get away from the HERE and NOW. Let the clock and the earth do their "thing"...let the comings and goings of life continue...But YOU stay HERE and NOW. This is an exercise to bring you to the ETERNAL PRESENT...where it all is.

Verbiage like this used to appeal to me. But now it strikes me as New Age nonsense.

OK, the book correctly says that it isn't possible to get away from the HERE and NOW, which is ALWAYS present. But then it proposes an exercise to bring me to the ETERNAL PRESENT, even though this apparently can't be gotten away from.

For specific periods of time focus your thoughts in the present.
DON'T THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE
JUST BE HERE NOW.
DON'T THINK ABOUT THE PAST.
JUST BE HERE NOW.

(The book has a lot of capitalizations and bold-facing.)

Now I'm confused. When I think, I'm thinking here and now. If I think about what might happen in the future, or about what has happened in the past, those thoughts are happening here and now. 

So why is not thinking about the future or past especially here-and-now'y?  Ram Dass has just said that "you can't get away from the HERE and NOW."

There I am sitting in my chair, meditating.

I'm aware of physical sensations: my breathing, sounds in the house, the weight of my body. I'm also aware of thoughts: what I'm going to do after my morning quiet time, memories of the trip my wife and I just took to see relatives in Indiana and Kentucky. 

Today it struck me more strongly than usual that any sort of Be Here Now advice is ridiculous. Again, there's no way we can do anything else. Brain activity always is happening within my cranium in a succession of present moments. 

Thinking about the future is happening here and now. So is thinking about the past. 

I realize the appeal of believing that stopping thoughts about the future or past somehow is more "spiritual" than envisioning what might happen, or has already happened. But this doesn't make any sense. It just creates an artificial division within us, an erroneous assumption that thinking about the future or past takes us away from the present moment.

No, it doesn't. Whatever I think about, that is happening in the here and now. Likewise, if I'm not thinking and am focusing on the sensation of my breath, that also is happening in the here and now. 

Admittedly, what I'm talking about isn't anything new. This is Mindfulness 101, really: accept whatever is happening in consciousness, whether it be sensations, perceptions, thoughts, emotions, whatever. Don't reject anything, because there is no need to.

Like Ram Dass correctly said, it isn't possible to get away from the here and now. Unfortunately, he went on to say that thoughts about the future or past DO take us away from the here and now. 

And therein lies a lot of wasted effort by the many meditators -- one of whom used to be me -- who mistakenly believe that stopping thoughts is a "spiritual" exercise. Thinking is just one thing the brain is capable of doing. Here and now, like everything else the brain does.

Think. Or don't think. It doesn't matter. Whatever we do, it always is happening HERE and NOW. 

Comments

[777]

Dear Brian

There is a point in meditation the body isn't there anymore
It can be reached by ANY form of Yoga on One of the 7 chakras

I did once Pranayama ( breathing ) exercises and it worked that way
but it was on a low chakra

I think after the 47 years , and before dying, do the Ramacharaka breath exercises
which are very effective
you can find His little Booklet on the web

I explained my experience with it on this blog 2 or 3 years ago
google : hinessight.blogs.com+777+ramacharaka
will bring the story on

I think you can do it within a week and yes surpass convincibly also time_space

But it's not through the third eye chakra and
there might ( I m not sure ) no protection from MaharaJI

But it would give you some conception of what y r talking about

777

[777]

Hi Brian
I know you are connected to nature
So by accident I came reading something which needs some lower chakra energy
Easy ti try ;

The Effects Of ‘QI Energy’ On Plant DNA & Cellular Growth - A study published in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine, as seen in the the US National Library of Medicine, demonstrated that a women with special abilities was and is able to accelerate the germination of specific seeds for the purposes of developing a more robust seed stock. As the study states:
Chulin Sun is a woman with exceptional powers (Shen and Sun, 1996, 1998; Sun, 1998). A member of the Chinese Somatic Science Research Institute, she is a practitioner of Waiqi. Waiqi is a type of qigong that teaches the practitioner to bring the qi energy of traditional Chinese medicine under the control of the mind. Chulin Sun can induce plant seeds to grow shoots and roots several cm long within 20 min using mentally projected qi energy (Fig. 1).
This has been demonstrated on more than 180 different occasions at universities as well as science and research institutions in China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) as well as other countries (e.g., Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.) (Ge et al., 1998; Qin et al., 1998; Lee et al., 1999).
We took part in and repeated the qi germination experiments seven times, and five of them succeeded (Ge et al., 1998). This remarkable effect on seed development has drawn widespread attention (Tompkins and Bird, 1973; Lee, 1998), but the biological mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon are unknown.(source)
Pretty remarkable isn’t it? How does Sun do it? Apparently, she enters into a deep trance-like state, and from this place, she is able to advance the time required for sprouting dry seeds from their usual 3 to 4 days , to 20 minutes, generating a sprout growth of 3-4 inches. After a genetic analysis, scientists confirmed this to be the case, hence, the using of the word “rapid” in the title.
The abstract of the study also states; It was thought preliminarily that qi energy changed the structure of a germination-correlated gene site speeding up expression and advancing it in time.
This was preliminary thought because video tapes from the recording of this experiment showed time distortion. It was also reported that near-by-clocks will show the full time of the experiment as it passes, despite the fact that, in some cases, the camera only showed 1 minute of film time. It’s funny, because these time disturbances are also commonly reported with these types of practices in Chinese folklore.
According to Danielle Graham, a founding editor and current Editor in-Chief of SuperConsciousness Magazine (also an American Institute of Physics experimental researchers) states that, Those who study the physical effects of the EHF’s mind-matter interface often collaborate on their findings. The researchers agree they are observing repeatable, hyper-time-space-non-linear macro phenomena that violate the classical and relativistic models in which the nature of physical matter is currently understood…
It is commonly understood by these scientists that an EHF’s personal and individual evolution is directly linked to their individual skills; the greater their capacity to manipulate matter; the more spiritually evolved the EHF is considered to be… While westerners who openly demonstrate mind/matter interface are publicly reviled and discredited, the known EHF’s in China are honored as heroes and celebrities; national treasures that are sought after as teachers, advisors and consultants. (source)
The study of phenomena like this have been happening for years and will hopefully continue into the years to come. The mainstream opens up more and more when it comes to these topics and it’s only a matter of time before, like many previously unbelieved phenomena, will become much better understood and self evident.

[Mike]

I'm a skeptic, however it is clear that we can lose focus on the present moment, and get drawn into thinking about the future (which is a dream like incantation, as in this state we imagine a version of reality, 'the future'). The past is also like a dream, but it's a dream based on our memories of the past. The present however is not a dream in the classical sense (of course philosophers and spiritual fools can twist my words and say something non-clever like 'yes, but EVERYTHING is a dream'). Anyway, you are wrong to say that we are always 'being here now'... we sometimes get lost in dream like states while awake, whether these be past, present, or general daydreaming.