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THE LESSON OF “NOWNESS”

Too often, people think that solving the world’s problems is based on conquering the earth, rather than touching the earth, touching ground.

—CHOGYAM TRUNGPA

Hidden between the lines of mindfulness teaching is one of the most important Dharma lessons: Meditation is a simple direct way of coming home to “now.” As we begin to be mindful, living in the “now” and directing our attention to the smallest fraction of the present instant, something extraordinary takes place. We begin to relinquish our fascination with both the past and the future. We stop living in fantasies, fears, and anticipation of the future, and we learn to let go of time-consuming preoccupations with what was or what might have been. As we learn to let go, we see that our energy is returned to us. All that wonderful energy that was being expended and leaked out in fantasy, bitterness, and regret is, once again, ours! We are returned to our natural state of pure nowness. This is authentic being. The joy of now. Holy now.

Some of us have spent entire lifetimes fixated on our attachment to either what was or what will be. Because we’re not accustomed to present-moment awareness, we need retraining to stay in this immediate nanosecond. To more fully develop the power of mindfulness, we begin by becoming more completely and lucidly conscious of individual bodily activities like breathing and walking. In walking, for example, we take a step, and then another step, totally consciously. Piece by piece, we break each step into further microcomponents like lifting the foot, moving it forward, and placing it down. If I say this so often that it sounds repetitive, that’s because it is repetitive. That’s the point. It’s a training, and like all trainings we need to keep reminding ourselves of the basics, going over it again and again. We learn to be aware step by step, breath by breath, thought by thought, feeling by feeling.

One day Lord Buddha gathered his most realized disciples, as if to address them. Instead of saying anything with words, he simply held up and slightly turned a yellow flower. At that moment, one arhant, Kasyapa, broke into a great smile. The enlightened Buddha said, “Today only the venerable monk Kasyapa has understood my teaching.” Kasyapa became the first patriarch of what has come down to us through history as the Zen Buddhist lineage. That brief wordless sermon is called the Flower Sutra.

Without an opened wisdom-eye, who can understand such ineffable, naked teaching? Therefore Zen meditation instruction is often articulated in concise yet not entirely incomprehensible teachings and instructions, like “Just sit when sitting,” and “Just breathe when breathing,” and “Just walk when walking.” What could be more simple?

In meditation training, we use our own rich natural resources—like breathing, bodily sensations, thoughts, and feelings—as objects of meditation. In this way, we are able to readily access our object or method of meditation whenever we need it—in any circumstance, any place, and any time of day. Mindfulness means attention and lucid awareness. Paying attention and the ability to really be present pays off in so many ways, giving us enhanced satisfaction, broader vision, greater mastery and effectiveness in everything we do.

By simply being right there, on the spot, you can make your life become workable and wonderful. A Zen master says, “Awakening to this present instant, we realize the infinite is in the finite of each instant.” American poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Forever is composed of nows.”

AWARENESS CURES

On the most practical level, if you feel confused, tangled, or bent out of shape, meditation is a way to straighten it all out. As a snake untangles its own knotted, coiled-up body, the meditator’s heart and mind gradually, gently, releases and untangles itself.

I frequently hear people say they don’t have time to meditate. I also often feel the same way. However, like most meditators I know that meditation gives back so much mental