I’ve been wondering about this a lot lately. What is it about the present moment that makes it so…now? Why is this particular moment so animated, while a moment four minutes in the future or six minutes in the past - is not? For that matter, why is December 2023 the current now and not, say, June 1974?
If it were 1974, I would be at my high school graduation having ridden there on my bicycle. The air would be sweet and warm, the sun shining above puffy clouds. I’d be wearing a scarlet graduation gown and cap; would walk across the stage - it was outside - take my diploma from my nemisis/savior Principal Wilcox - glance at it, and hop on my bike to ride away, free at last.
But it's December 2023 and it's raining, 41 degrees, with a wind advisory posted for this evening. Dog is curled up by the front door waiting for Dawn to get home and the heater hums in the background.
The present moment is a blue flame burning the future to an ashen past right now across the planet. Someone is not experiencing 1974 while I experience 2023, are they? If so, then they are zombies in 2023 walking around in their foggy future - unconscious. That’s ludicrous - impossible. No, we are all in this together, entangled. Now is now.
But, why is it not 1923 1823, or 2323? Are any of these dates - moments in time - as animated as THIS one, right now? Of course not. They once were and will be (I hope), but they are not now.
No, for all of us - for the entire universe - now is the immediate moment, the animated smoldering conscious now. The only moment that matters.
If the present moment occurs simultaneously for everything, everyone, and everywhere - then there must be a common, universal consciousness that animates this moment and continues to animate all the following moments. Everything is an expression of ultimate consciousness as it burns the future into the past via - the now. This ultimate consciousness contains within it all of creation one moment at a time.
This astonishes me! What alchemy is it that contains and creates everything everywhere in a continuous stream of nows? What force can contain all the beauty…and all the horror…of experience? Stop for a minute and consider. Look around you…look outside. Breathe deep, quiet your mind. Think of the world as it will be a minute in the future, wait.
A minute later, all is the same, but not quite, yes? The air is different, the sky is different, the sun moved, the rain stopped, a leaf dropped from the tree outside, and a squirrel scampered across the yard. All these events were made tangible by ultimate consciousness within a single minute of joyful creation. It just happened, you had nothing to do with it. You are suspended within it - made actual - by consciousness.
This consciousness does not originate in the human brain. It is beyond human. Our brains are receivers, more radios than generators. In the brain, consciousness is crudely channeled by senses and language. From it, we build the illusion of a powerful individual consciousness. Our mistake is thinking we are separate. There is a vast tragic difference between the blathering human world of individual ego, and the calm tranquil world that produces it.
Ultimate consciousness is the canvas we paint our lives on, the screen we act our story upon, the page we write our book on. Ultimate consciousness lures everything into the future, combines with energy, and reveals a miraculous world.
You might call this animating consciousness God. I don't, because that word conjures an omnipotent, distant being. Consciousness is neither abstract nor omnipotent. It is real, limited to what’s possible and occurs right now.
It is a quiet wild serenity.
Kerouac knew it…
The world you see is just a movie in your mind. Rocks dont see it. Bless and sit down. Forgive and forget. Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now. That’s the story. That’s the message. Nobody understands it, nobody listens, they’re all running around like chickens with heads cut off. I will try to teach it but it will be in vain, s’why I’ll end up in a shack praying and being cool and singing by my woodstove making pancakes.
—Jack Kerouac
Max Planck - father of quantum physics knew it.
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
Buddha knew it.
“Don't get caught in the past, because the past is gone. Don't get upset about the future, because the future is not yet here. There is only one moment for you to be alive, and that is the present moment.”
All I know is, when I pay attention, each heartbreaking moment is tinged with wonder…wonder, joy and love.