There is a whole industry these days dedicated to telling us all how to be present. It seems that we’re not actually here, or somehow we slipped out the back door while we weren’t looking and someone else is now drinking our drinks, eating our food, reading those articles we find so annoying and complaining about Republicans or the Belgians or whatever (well the Belgians do need attention drawn to them. They’re just outrageous). We are bombarded endlessly with the message of how important and vital it is to ‘be present’. It seems, that if we’re not, something ‘bad’ happens and we will not like it. Of course we’re not here, so really it may not even matter, as we won’t be there either when these bad things happen, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose and all that stuff.
And yes I am being flippant here and poking fun at the new naked emperor of ‘Living in The Now’, the Tyrant of being right here and with good reason. At root the concept is all well and good and it’s true, if we’re not ‘present’ when we eat or drink or talk or take the hedgehog for a walk or whatever, we do miss an awful lot of stuff and that stuff is our life. This is kind of an important point. If we don’t experience it, then sure as sherbert (that was so tempting) nobody else is going to do it for us. Nobody else is going to do anything for us anyway in terms of living our own lives fully and completely.
The simple truth is that there is nothing ‘out there’, nothing that we can imagine that will give us the experience of actually being present and living this moment completely, with nothing held back. It’s not a matter of technique. It’s not about repeating the right jargon, or aligning one’s vibration, whatever that means. Nor is it about adopting a new set of beliefs, or saying some platitudinous affirmation every morning – "Every day in every way, I’m getting more and more present! Now where did I leave the toothpaste lid." It doesn’t work this way and that one, salient fact, very very few of the books, the teachers and the assorted voices of self appointed authority on all things spiritual (and indeed the non spiritual – they seem to be interchangeable these days) will tell you.
But why won’t they tell us, you ask? Good question. The answer is even simpler. They themselves don’t know because being present is largely a concept to them, something to write books about or to talk about, not something they’ve necessarily experienced for themselves, or even if they have, not something that they truly understand and can reproduce. And the reason for that is because as soon as you make being present an end in itself, as soon as it becomes a goal, or you make it your intention to be more present as opposed to whatever it is you’re fiddling about with at the moment – as soon as you seperate yourself and this idea of something called ‘being present’ - you guarantee that there is now a rigid dividing line between you and this state and never the twain shall meet.
Sound disheartening? Good it should do. but it’s not quite all bad news. As you’ll discover in part two of "Where The Hell Are You?
Thank you muchly Vicwat.
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