THE KEY TO THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION

 

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.”