There Is No Time But The Present

Inspired by Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and James Allen’s As A Man Thinketh (both recommended by Vincent DiMichele), I’ve come to view my frustrations and pains in a different light. I venture to say that the vast majority of humans completely align themselves with anger, sadness and conflict when it arises. We look right through their narrow barrels and out into the world. They seize us like invisible vines. This is avoidable, however. By recognizing the Now and nothing else and understanding that thought begets action, we can much more easily overcome our paralyzations of pain and sorrow. Instead of peering through the lens of pain, you can step back and observe it rationally through your own eyes with the utmost attention. The benefits of this outweigh the fleeting, immediate tufts of pleasure from acting on negative emotion. That is easy to do. Though, with attention, we can choose to be happy. Tranquility is generated–not received. However, comprehending this and practicing it is work. It’s easier to let the egotistic mind take the reigns for a bit and lead you astray. Why would anyone want to have that negativity in their life, though? The goal of existence is to be happy every single day, hour, minute and second. It’s idyllic, yes, but why not at least inch toward that end of the spectrum? The initial steps are right in front of you.

First comes the understanding of what the Now is and how it intertwines with thought as a seed. When thinking about your life, when are you experiencing it? Is it when you were born? Is it out in the future? Tolle positions your life only ever existing in the Now. It is defined as the very present you interpret as reality and does not exist in your past or your future. He essentially throws time out as a concept. It’s like having one hand on a fixed clock with one digit: Now. You indeed had previous Nows and will have future ones. That is certain. Yet, none of them matter because there is only one and if you’re reading this, you’re in it. Can you give full attention to it? Can you say that this is the only time in your life that truly matters? Flush out extraneous thought. Do not worry about the meeting tomorrow–tomorrow isn’t real because it is not being experienced by you right now. Forget about leaving your phone in the car earlier. Focus. You are in the Now and when you understand that giving it your full attention means complete awareness, you are truly existing. When weaving this with Allen’s concept, it becomes supercharged. Allen proposes that like seeds in a garden, like a tomato seed will only yield tomatoes, the type of thoughts you have manifest only into their more mature forms. Thus, if you have bad thoughts, you will have bad actions and emotions. If you have happy thoughts, you will have happy actions and emotions. Straight-forward, but not simple to enact. It can be easy to let your mind wander off into fantastic landscapes of self pity and envy. However, those will render your actions as such. When you can say “today, I’m going to have a good day” or “I’m going to try and enjoy this”, you will certainly be happier. Correcting your thought stream to beam positivity again leads to the ultimate goal of happiness.

Take a trying situation like someone cutting you in line at the coffee shop. If you’re like me, your mind will fragment into a thousand fantasies of how you’ll tell the guy off or how karma is waiting for him. We experience dozens of these little scenarios every day. We barely notice them because they’re brief and meaningless in totality. Though, when we’re there, they’re engulfing. To combat the miring of the mind, it is important to recognize the Now and understand that you are controlling your reaction to the situation. The situation is not making me dream stupid fantasies, it’s me. I am creating the thoughts that then creep their way into my emotion and outlook. Assessing the situation objectively quickly shows the proper action.

I can:

A) Allow the poisonous thoughts to wrap their vines around my being. I can leave the coffee shop aggravated and short-tempered. I could be rude to the gentleman in front of me.

or

B) I can recognize, that yes, he cut me, but it’s not a big deal. I can let him know that’s not the back of the line pleasantly. Those fantasies I’m exercising in my head aren’t real because they aren’t right Now. Thus, I can’t pay them any attention in their attempts to disrupt my day. I will instead be forgiving and kind and let the brooding thoughts pass like clouds in the sky.

The combination of both ideas allows for immediate course correction. Like a ship on the water, these micro adjustments steer you out and away from heaving seas. You instead bob gently up and down under a balmy sun. Unfortunately, millions of people do not understand this. Why? They’ve never been taught or exposed to such a concept. They’re never checked or have been empowered to control their own thought. There is no focus on the Now which only furthers people to relive their pasts and constantly dream future nothings. Of course, the past and future do hold importance. We remember fun moments, we mourn our deceased or learn from our mistakes. We strive to study hard so we get accepted to college some day, we train for the marathon coming up or plan the perfect surprise birthday dinner. At the end of the day however, the past is gone and the future has yet to pass. The only thing that’s ensured is right Now. When this is recognized, one can then focus on pure thoughts and be happy in the moment. It’s not only contagious to others, but coursing us away from sorrow and pain.

I hope this makes sense to you. My brevity may not convey what both Tolle and Allen are speaking so passionately about. This is my interpretation of the texts. Thus, it’s completely subjective to my circumstance and experience. I highly recommend you read some of both books. I’m not passing them as doctrine, but as new lenses to peer down into the self. I implore you to try to recognize a moment in your day where you feel that mantle of pain or anger trying erupt to your surface. Don’t stop it, just step back and look at it. Then, understand that allowing that thought to fester will only lead to your unhappiness. Why do that? You don’t deserve to be unhappy. You deserve to live brilliantly and you have control of that. Though, you must try at it. That’s why it’s called a practice. It has to be enacted each time a situation presents itself. You will never automate the process. That’s ok because that means you will always be in the Now when the time arises.

There’s the old saying: “There’s no time like the present!”

This is nice, of course, but doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Instead, I prefer:

There is not time but the present. Claim yours.