Living in the Now

In the spiritual classic, Yoga Vasishtha, we find the following teaching:

The way to be rid of this delusion of the mind is to fix our attention upon the present moment, and not to employ our thoughts on past or future events. The mind is clouded so long as the mist of its desires and fancies overshadows it, as the sky is overcast so long as drifting clouds spread over it.

Teachings that urge us to rest in the present moment—the now—are common to all the great spiritual traditions. Jesus advises his disciples to ‘take no thought for the morrow’. The 13th century Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, speaks of the eternal now: ‘There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new.’ And in the Masnavi, Rumi quotes the saying: ‘The Sufi is the son of the moment’ and adds: ‘He is of the (timeless) River, not of Time, for “with God is neither morn nor eve”: there the past and the future and time without beginning and time without end do not exist.’