Living in the Now

Chances are you have caught yourself lost in thought numerous times, only to realize that 10 minutes had passed—maybe longer—and you had been reliving an experience, including all the emotion attached to it. If it was a sad experience, you may have even shed a few tears. Or if it was a future situation that concerned you, your heart rate and blood pressure may have gone up, and you felt stressed.

We are generally preoccupied with the past and the future, but the truth is, all of life is in the present. Dwelling on the past or worrying about the future takes us away from what is happening right now—the present. We get sidetracked, and all the while, life is passing us by.  We are missing the true richness of life.

As the founder of Royal Way, spiritual teacher Michael Gottlieb, says, “No one is ever really, fully here. Our attention is never fully now. It is always in the future. Whether it is 10 years from now, 10 months from now, or 10 minutes from now, it is always in the future. So life is never full. The fullness of life is missing.”

The Pleasure of Living in the Present

Royal Way emphasizes the importance, the pleasure, the joy, of living in the present moment. In fact, everything else is unreal. “Nothing ever happened in the past,” Michael writes. “It happened in the now. Nothing will ever happen in the future. It will happen in the now.”

This teaching brings truth and depth to the understanding and importance of living in the now. The present is all there is. Learning to live in the present moment is learning to be with reality—with what is. You no longer carry the emotional burden of past mistakes or the distractions of future concerns or obligations.

How to Live in the Present Moment

So how do we keep ourselves in the present? Awareness is key, and meditation is the way to cultivate that kind of awareness. The practice of meditation brings us to the present moment.

Sitting in meditation and watching the breath coming in and going out is calming and peaceful. After a while, distractions begin to fall away, and we begin to feel more present, more alive, more in the moment. With consistent practice and dedication to our spiritual quest, we experience living in the now.

Soon meditation begins carrying over into our daily lives—constantly connecting with the moment. We develop mindfulness, and we discover all that living in the now can bring. 

The Benefits of Living in the Now

We’ve discussed how living in the present moment brings us in touch with reality, and how practicing meditation, which brings us into the present, helps us feel more fully alive. When we’re in the now, we’re not plagued by the past or distracted by the future, so we experience a great relief from stress, from regret, from dread or preoccupation with the future.

The benefits extend even deeper. They are profound. When we are in the present moment—the here and now—we are living the ancient Zen teaching of living each moment. “When the next moment comes,” Michael writes, “you will be able to really live it. You will be more efficient in living it if you are intensely living this moment. You will be able to more efficiently live tomorrow if you are intensely living life today. This is the greatest richness in life. There is no other richness.”

We begin to understand that living in the present is a way to connect with the divine within us. Michael writes:

“All that is possible, including your ultimate potential—that is, higher consciousness, transcendence, transformation, the divine eternal—is all here and now.”

Conclusion

Much of the focus of people on the Royal Way path to higher consciousness is the joyful experience of living in the present moment. Through meditation, we begin to touch that beautiful state. By practicing awareness of the present moment throughout our lives, we feel a lessening of stress and experience a deeper, richer, more fulfilled life. Preoccupations with past and future drop away, and the fullness of life presents itself. Everything we desire in life—our highest potential, the divine eternal—is available to us when we are living in the moment. “When you can be in the present as it is,” Michael Gottlieb teaches, “you know what God is.”