Nowness, The Zen State Of Mind

“Live today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Don’t rent them out to tomorrow. Do you know what you’re doing when you spend a moment wondering how things are going to turn out with Perry?

You’re cheating yourself out of today. Today is calling to you, trying to get your attention, but you’re stuck on tomorrow, and today trickles away like water down a drain. You wake up the next morning and that today you wasted is gone forever. It’s now yesterday. Some of those moments may have had wonderful things in store for you , but now you’ll never know.”
― Jerry Spinelli, Love, Stargirl

“Now-ness” is the state of ideal attention. That is, it is a state of being where all that exists is the present moment, without any thought of past or future. It is paying total attention to what you are doing in the moment that you are doing it. If you are eating for example, just eat. If you are reading, just read. If you are eating and you are thinking about your bills, or what is on television tonight, then you are not in a state of now-ness. If you are reading and you are not totally concentrating on the act of reading then again, you are not in the present. Regardless of what you happen to be doing, if you are thinking about something else, then you are not attentive and not in a state of now-ness

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”
― Groucho Marx

When you are not attentive, not here and now, your present peace of mind may be disturbed by some oncoming future event for no good reason. For example: Remember when you were in high school and you had a very important test coming? It was Friday and the test was to take place on Monday. That night you went to a party and enjoyed the evening for several hours when it happened! What happened? Suddenly, thoughts about the impending test darted across your mind and your night was ruined. You tried not to think about the test but to no avail, your present happiness was destroyed by the thoughts of a future event.

Understand that if I were to ask you how you feel, I am not asking how you felt yesterday or how you believe you might feel tomorrow. I am asking you how you feel at this very moment. If you were to answer me by saying, “at the present moment I feel fine,” then you are fine because now is all that exists. Tomorrow will always be beyond your grasp and yesterday is forever gone. All you have is now. It is the only reality.

“We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.”
― Bill Watterson

“The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it.”
― Thomas S. Monson