In life-threatening emergency situations, the shift in consciousness
from time to presence sometimes happens naturally. The personality
that has a past and a future momentarily recedes and is replaced by
an intense conscious presence, very still but very alert at the same
time. Whatever response is needed then arises out of that state of
consciousness.
The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities,
such as mountain climbing, car racing, and so on, although they may
not be aware of it, is that it forces them into the Now — that intensely
alive state that is free of time, free of problems, free of thinking, free
of the burden of the personality. Slipping away from the present
moment even for a second may mean death. Unfortunately, they
come to depend on a particular activity to be in that state. But you
don’t need to climb the north face of the Eiger. You can enter that
state now.
Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to
the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems
to have remained a secret. It is certainly not taught in churches and
temples. If you go to a church, you may hear readings from the
Gospels such as “Take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow
shall take thought for the things of itself,” or “Nobody who puts his
hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Or
you might hear the passage about the beautiful flowers that are not
anxious about tomorrow but live with ease in the timeless Now and
are provided for abundantly by God. The depth and radical nature of
these teachings are not recognized. No one seems to realize that they
are meant to be lived and so bring about a profound inner
transformation.
The whole essence of Zen consists in walking along the razor’s edge
of Now — to be so utterly, so completely present that no problem, no
suffering, nothing that is not who you are in your essence, can survive
in you. In the Now, in the absence of time, all your problems dissolve.
Suffering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now.
The great Zen master Rinzai, in order to take his students’ attention
away from time, would often raise his finger and slowly ask: “What, at
this moment, is lacking?” A powerful question that does not require an
answer on the level of the mind. It is designed to take your attention
deeply into the Now. A similar question in the Zen tradition is this: “If
not now, when?”
The Now is also central to the teaching of Sufism, the mystical branch
of Islam. Sufis have a saying: “The Sufi is the son of time present.”
And Rumi, the great poet and teacher of Sufism, declares: “Past and
future veil God from our sight; burn up both of them with fire.”
Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-century spiritual teacher, summed it all
up beautifully: “Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There
is no greater obstacle to God than time.”