How to Live in the Present (Spiritual Way)

Practice Dis-identification from the Mind

Deeply realize that you are not your mind. You are not the incessant, repetitive, reactive and compulsive stream of thoughts, reactions and emotions. Most of your pain and suffering is self-created or mind created due to identification with the automatic and hypnotic 'voice in your head' (conditioned thoughts) and emotions. In other words, you believe that the voice and the emotions that accompany it is You. That is to say you follow it and take the stories and its distorted negative narration and narrow interpretations as truth. This identification makes thinking compulsive and is the primary cause of suffering. That's the Egoic dysfunction; the greatest obstacle to awakening. When someone else's or your own mind is mean and/or harsh to you and you feel hurt, notice that it's not because of the words they said but due to automatic conditioned mental-emotional interpretation of those words and the extent to which you identify with it. Even if the words and/or actions were intended to hurt or reaction seems justified. "There's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." William Shakespeare. Deeply realize that you are not your conditioned mind (thoughts, reactions, emotions, blockages and mental patterns) or Ego or incessant 'voice in the head' but the sacred Knowing or awareness or observer that is aware of them. That's when Ego, false self, begins to dissolve. “When you recognize false as false, it dissolves.” Eckhart Tolle. Read Dissolve the Ego (According to Eckhart Tolle's Teachings) for more depth. It is true that words have great power to put hypnotic spells on you, but it's only because you see yourself as no more than name, labels (name) and form (psychological and physical), which are ultimately thoughts in your and other people’s mind. Unaware of your formless essence.. Often ask questions like "Who's talking here? Me or the voice in head", "Do I need to be lost in thoughts?", “Am I this pain?”, "Who am I?", "Am I these thoughts, reactions and emotions?" etc. Feel the inner body for answer. If you tried to understand intellectually or ask the mind, you will not find a true answer because thought (mind) by its very nature is limited, can at most show you the relative truth and point to the absolute truth.

Observe that Ego, to ensure its survival, needs to identify with content, conditions and people. This could be physical appearance, beliefs, life stories, age, knowledge, skills, victim identity, situation, relationships, experiences, who you know, wealth, possessions, body, illnesses, age, and collective identifications like nationality, religion, political party, sports team, region where you come from, race, caste, ethnic groups etc. It's because Ego is a derivative sense of self. It doesn't care if the content, stories, labels, relationships or forms it identifies with are ‘good’ or ‘bad’, as long as it has a story or something to identify with to complain, feel less or more, guilty, ashamed, proud or indifferent about. If you look more deeply, on a fundamental level, it's all identification with thoughts and emotions. As all outer forms, your perception of your body, your possessions, achievements, personality, life situations, conditions, culture, stories, beliefs and so on are ultimately bundle of thoughts or images in your mind that are attached to the primordial 'I' thought and its other forms, contributing towards your illusory sense of self. This 'I' thought, which is Ego created, is what you equate yourself with. In other words, you see yourself as no more than an 'I' thought, which is a mental concept, and what it identifies with, and thus forget your essential nature that is the formless awareness or inner-space that you are beyond your ephemeral name and form (physical and psychological). For example: Your house becomes a thought form in your head and gets attached to the primordial 'I' or 'my' or 'mine' thought forms, that you equate yourself with, and becomes part of Egoic sense of self. This identification or attachment says 'I have a house' or 'my house'. Remove the 'house' thought from primordial 'I' or 'my' or 'mine' thought forms or concepts and this would cause immense suffering. Even if the house is in a dire condition and better to get rid of. It's because the "I", which is a survival machine and needs content, will feel diminished. In other words, you really dont suffer because of physical house being gone but loss of thought of the 'house' attached to the 'I' thought, the ego, and pain that comes with loss of self. Ego then scrambles to create another identity like ‘I lost my house’ or 'I am going to look for another house'. Another example: Your illness may become a story in your head that says something like "I have been suffering from migraines for last 10 years." and become part of your sense of self. When this happens, rather than taking action to remediate the illness and/or accept it, you would prefer to complain about it, resist the suchness of illness, further resist the resistive reactions, run mental movies, hang on to the victim story, feel self pity, treated unfairly etc. because they strengthen your false 'sense of self' or identity of being an ill person. Also, identification with the stories and/or ideas of illness actually make you suffer more than the actual illness. Because suffering or pain, in this context, is psychological i.e mind created. None of that comes and goes is you. In other words "You are not what you are looking at". Who are you then? The formless awareness, that is aware of what comes and goes (thoughts, emotions, conditions, sensations, objects, these words, people, situations etc.) in the Now. Without that awareness there will be no perception or experience. "The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to; no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body." Tao Te Ching.

See the unstable nature of all relationships, forms and situations. The very nature of the conditions, situations, forms and structures is unstable and fleeting. Buddha made it a central part of his teachings. He called it Anicca. Your thoughts, emotions, pleasures, events, assets, conditions, people, buildings, mountains, planets, and so on; all forms arise, change and dissolve into the 'no thingness' of infinite space from where they came. Since Ego is based on identification with form and knows this truth, so it constantly feels like it's under threat because deep down it knows that all forms (including relationships, titles and possessions) are transient and fraught to phase, collapse, change, weaken, taken away or dissolve at anytime. As a result, fear and desire become primary motivating forces of the Ego. This is also one of the reasons why mind continuously covers up the Now with compulsive and involuntary thinking and seeks sensory and sexual pleasures, psychological gratifications, experiences and things of this world, one after another, with an unconscious expectation that they will fulfill it. Only the space of consciousness or awareness, where all forms come and go, undergoes no change. You are that 'space of awareness' where all things and events come and go. For more depth read Know Your True Self and Become Mentally Flexible. "There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born. It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging. Infinite. Eternally present. It is the mother of the universe." Tao Te Ching. Dis-identification or detachment from forms does not mean to relinquish possessions, relationships, job etc. and live in woods or something. Which, most likely, will not work because Ego, which is clever and is based on identification with forms, will quickly identify with the mental image of you as a "spiritual person" or "saint" who relinquished everything. Therefore, it is not a surprise to see some "spiritual" people having bigger egos than some millionaires. Detachment, in this context, actually means to truly see and realize the fleeting and impermanent nature of all relationships, circumstances, forms (including thoughts, emotions and experiences), and transient world cannot give you long lasting fulfillment or identity. That's when things or forms (world) naturally lose their seriousness and significance that they don't have because you don't seek yourself in them. Their passing nature is allowed to be. When craving or attachment to forms, events, titles, things and conditions dissolves, you honor and enjoy them even more. The opposite of this is also Ego i.e when you detest, dislike or averse the forms. It's because Ego, which is clever, will quickly identify with the opposite thoughts or ideas which would say something like "I don't like money/titles" or "I don't want things in my life." or "I am a minimalist" etc. and bundle of concepts and thoughts like these will become part its sense of self. Although, from some perspectives it’s better than unconsciously chasing forms and titles and could be part of your spiritual journey but it's still identification with form, none the less. "Any form of identification is Ego, no matter how well disguised" Eckhart Tolle. Read Dissolve the Ego (According to Eckhart Tolle's Teachings) for more depth.

Dissolve the Ego. Ego is current state of consciousness of humanity. A conglomeration of recurring thoughts and conditioned mental-emotional patterns that are invested with a sense of I, a sense of self. In other words, Ego is identification with mind and forms. This dysfunction is the root cause of unimaginable suffering humans have inflicted on themselves, each other and other beings for eons To evolve into the next stage of conscious evolution and ensure our survival, ego must be dissolved. Which, in essence, does not require any doing but an alert seeing. It's because seeing is freeing yourself from the dysfunction of Ego. "Recognizing your own insanity is the arising of sanity. This is also the greatest discovery of humanity." Eckhart Tolle. That's also what Nisargadatta Maharaj pointed to when he said "Meditation means recognizing the false as false. This must go on all the time." The 'false' in this context is the Ego (conditioned thoughts, patterns, blockages, reactions and emotions) in you.

Surrendering to what is

Surrender or bring inner acceptance or yield to what is. If acceptance of conditions, situation and outer circumstances is not possible then bring inner acceptance to the Now. This means to yield or allow or accept the thoughts, reactions, mental patterns and emotions that come in response to anything in the Now. Offering no inner resistance, which also means surrender to life, is one of the greatest practices to end suffering. It's because when you inwardly accept or are one with 'what is', the reality, then outer dependency on circumstances and situations dissolves and they lose power over your state of consciousness. That's when greater good reveals itself to you, and outer circumstances tend to improve greatly without any doing on your part because world is just a reflection of your inner state. If action or words are required, they come from infinitely intelligent 'unconditioned consciousness', not from the limited conditioned mind. This is the miracle of surrender. Either way, no resistance. This pointer can also be misinterpreted as your mind may ask "So how can I bring inner acceptance?" or "What does 'become one with what-is' means?" etc. and come up with mental interpretations or concepts or answers on the basis of its past conditioning and knowledge because it's a deep seated habit. These would become your definitions of mentioned pointers. That is to say clever mind will create more constructs to identify with, to ensure its survival. Even suppressing content or using will power or trying or concept of 'negating all concepts' etc., in an attempt to dissolve the Ego are Ego's strategies to keep you trapped in the prison of thoughts and emotions. It’s because problems of the mind cannot be solved at the level of mind. Only recognizing yourself as the awareness behind content (mind and world) can free you from Ego created suffering and dream of form. Awareness is true intelligence that is inseparable from universal intelligence. Although, if you are stuck in concepts then allow it to be, as being stuck can also become part of your spiritual journey. It's because 'flourishing' of 'being stuck' has potential to eventually force you to accept what-is and disidentify from your mind to go beyond it. "If you want to get rid of something, allow it to flourish." Tao Te Ching However, deeply realize that words or concepts or practices are no more than steppingstones to be left as quickly as possible. Again, Truth is beyond any words or forms. You are the Truth. Read Inhabit Your Inner Body More Deeply and Stay Rooted in Being for more depth.

Don't confuse "no resistance" with "no action". It means take whatever action possible but at the same time accept what-is. Non-resistance is perfectly compatible with action. In fact, non-reactive or surrendered action is infinitely more powerful, as it is in alignment with the One 'Life. Unlike Egoic or conditioned reaction which is short-sighted, unintelligent, low quality, unoriginal, tainted with negativity, and eventually causes suffering and create more problems. As by its very nature the mind is limited and mind motivated actions, states and words are subject to the 'law of polarities'.Live in the Present (Spiritual Way) Step 7 Version 2.jpg If acceptance is not possible, then take action immediately to bring about a positive change to the situation. . Or remove yourself from it, if possible. Either way no resistance. Take responsibility of your inner state now.

Meditating and Anchoring to the Now

Meditate. If you look deeply, you will see that meditation is all about being present i.e to create a gap between the incessant stream of thinking and emotions. As when you are present, you are aligned with timeless One life underneath all forms. Since time is always Now, and you can be present, fully or to some degree, while doing anything, so dedicated meditation is not always necessary or else it may become a crutch. Infact, true test of your spiritual depth is if you can stay present during day to day activities and challenging situations and not while meditating in the comfort of your place. Here are a few 'structure-less' meditation practices that don't require you to dedicate time: Feel your body from within. Can you feel the inner energy field of your body? Your arms, shoulders, face, head, neck, heart, chest, belly, pelvic region, legs, feet and so on? This is your ever-present being or life energy that animates your body and runs its incredibly complex functions in a synchronous manner. Never lose touch with it. It's the stream to your true home. Focusing your attention on the inner energy field or space not only anchors you to the Now, but also rapidly deepens and transforms your life, as through inner body you are forever one with Being; One consciousness underneath all forms. This practice also strengthens your immune system and slows down the aging process. It’s because timeless presence dissolves the accumulated psychological time in your body's cells. Watch or allow or accept the thoughts, reactions (verbal or non-verbal) and emotions to be. We have talked about this already. Become aware of sense perceptions and breathing. Give complete attention to anything you are doing in the Now. Read Stay Rooted in Being for more insight on these meditation practices.

Stay rooted in being. It is very possible to be in the now or stay rooted in 'being' throughout your life. Whatever you are doing, keep a fraction of your attention within your body and/or breath and/or sense perception and/or awareness itself and/or give complete attention to anything you are doing and/or watch the mind and/or accept what is. Whichever practice or combination feels natural and easy in the Now. As these practices can help you become present and get in touch with the radiant and simple joy of being within. This also helps you to be more non-reactive and slows down the mind because when you are in the Now , attention is withdrawn from reactive Egoic mind and remains in its unmanifested and formless state. Which means more wisdom and intelligence during challenging situations, as you are connected to Being or inner space or unconditioned consciousness that is infinitely more powerful than mind. Plus, when situations go wrong or some challenge arises, you don't react but remain calm and at peace. Being is the 'mind of God' as Einstein pointed when he said, "I want to know the mind of God, rest are details". Read Stay Rooted in Being for more depth. Again, be very aware as the pointers like 'Keep some attention within' or 'Accept what is' etc. may become mental constructs or concepts in your head. We spoke about this earlier.

Give. On a universal level 'giving' is the same as 'receiving'. If you feel that people are withholding something from you like respect, forms, affection, praise, etc., you give it to them. You don't, have it? Just 'act as if you have it'. If you feel that you already have it, you will almost certainly get it. This also includes abundance. As abundance is inseparable from who you are in essence.

Staying Present

Stay present. Here are a few practices to stay present. Take action. Have you noticed, when you replace your worries, underlying unease or incessant negative thinking and emotions with a productive and/or constructive and/or a joyful task, their magnitude reduces drastically or somewhat? It's because this practice helps withdraw attention from the mind (psychological time) and brings your attention into this pristine present moment. And there's no suffering in the Now because suffering needs time and mind made stories. On the other hand, when attention gets off from the task at hand, that is to say when you get lost in mind or psychological time, you feel uncertain and discontent. It's because by implication you are denying 'what is', the reality, which is always 'Here and Now'. Read Watch the Mind (Meditation) for more on this. Deeply realize that you have never escaped and will never escape from the present moment. Since there is no escape from the Now, why not become friendly towards it? And the miracle is when you make peace or accept the Now or when Now is the primary focus of your life, people become helpful, conditions and outer circumstances tend to improve greatly without any or great deal of doing on your part, life becomes friendly and easy, synchronistic and chance encounters happen more frequently, right action and words come naturally. . It's because you are connected to infinitely intelligent stillness or emptiness underneath all forms that sustains and runs the universe. We spoke about this earlier. Simply observe. Just observe things, people, the environment around you, thoughts, emotions, reactions, etc., without adding any mental labeling or commentary. When the automatic mental and emotional interpretations, reactions, and labels arise, observe and allow them to be, because they are no more than thoughts or Egoic patterns and you are not your mind. We spoke about this earlier. When you simply observe, you allow the suchness and simplicity of the moment, without seeing it through the screen of limited conditioned mind. This practice withdraws attention from the mind to the Now. That's how you reclaim trapped consciousness from mind and realize yourself as the still awareness behind it. Awareness is a new dimension of consciousness that is not part of thinking. Become aware of awareness. Have you ever asked yourself that who is observing the thoughts? Who is aware of sensations, reactions and emotions as they come and go? What is it that enables seeing, listening, smelling, touching and tasting? It's the ever-present 'I am' or pure awareness or consciousness prior to incarnating into a thought, reaction, blockage and emotion. You are that. Only in the Now can you come out of that cycle of reincarnation, birth and death, that's happening every moment. It’s because when thought arises, it’s the consciousness or formless attention that incarnates into a thought. When thought subsides, attention returns to its formless state and then quickly reincarnates into another thought. That is to say formless attention gets identified with the mind (thought and emotion forms). There needs to be some degree of presence or awareness in you to recognize this process of mind identification or cycle of birth and death of thought and emotion forms, that's taking place every moment, and to realize yourself as the knower or the witness of this process, to go beyond this cycle. Read Surrender to the Present Moment and Know Your True Self for more depth.

Go deeper into your pain. Go deeper into negative emotions (like pain body), blockages and reactions. Feel them fully or hold it in your knowing. If you single out the moment, you will notice that negative emotions, mental blockages and reactions such as anxiety, despair, grief, anger, irritation, frustration, resistance etc., are no more than intense pressure, tension, energy movement, sensations or muscle movement that you experience somewhere in your body and head, and they don't make you unhappy. It's the conditioned mental interpretations, reactions or stories that come in response to them make you unhappy. While situations and conditions are always neutral or they are as they are, seen from greater scheme of events Experiment: To see the power of "no judgment" or "no mental interpretation", try this: Stand under a cold shower and focus only on the sensation of stream of water touching on your body. Go deeper into the sensation. If conditioned thoughts, reactions and emotions arise, allow them to be. Notice that the water touching your body is just a sensation. It's the conditioned mental-emotional reaction and interpretation that labels it as good or bad, dictates your response and magnitude of your reaction. For example: Some people may react to cold water more strongly as compared to others depending on the level of identification with conditioned reactions and tolerance level to cold water. You don't need conditioned mind to tell you what's good or bad for you. Minimum of intelligence, knowledge and common sense is enough. For example: You don't need fear (conditioned emotion and not the primordial emotion) to tell you to not jump from heights because you 'know' that you will get hurt or die.

Smile and laugh. When thoughts, mental patterns and emotions become hyperactive, too serious, negative, sad, anxious or fearful, then use this negativity as a reminder or sign to disidentify from the mind and become present. One practice is to become friendly with your emotional pain and/or smile or laugh at the ego, as if watching the antics or amusing tantrums of a child. Also, smiling and laughter are extra-ordinarily liberating and help in withdrawing or shifting energy away from negativity to more positive and accurate thoughts and/or sense perceptions and/or other present moment anchors i.e Now. Although, it's not an effective practice, in the long run, to use or wait for only negative situations or conditions to become present because you will unconsciously attract more negative situations and people. However, as long as the pain and negativity are there, use them as a reminder to become present and alert. Realize deeply that you are not the pain and negativity in you, as they are no more than mental-emotional states, even if they seem persistent. Here’s a pointer to say: “I am not this pain.”. Deeply realize by observing it. Be the ‘I am’ or formless and unchanging awareness that witnesses or is aware of the pain. Only in the Now can you be it. "Enter the Now from there" Eckhart Tolle.

Don't 'try' to be present or aware. Being present doesn't mean to 'try' not to think or try to watch the mind or use effort to become present', which doesn't work anyway. It's because trying, resistance, will power, control etc. imply that you are attempting to dissolve the dysfunction of mind at the level of mind. In other words, you are resisting 'what-is', which is a deep-seated habit. Again, problems of the mind cannot be solved at the level of mind. Trying to do so will only lead to further suffering in form of resistance, unease, frustration, guilt, any other form of emotional pain etc., which strengthen the ego. So, pointers in the article are not saying to 'try to not indulge in unconscious behavior' or 'try to watch your thoughts and emotions' or 'control or suppress your thoughts' etc. but simply become aware and accept the compulsive, impersonal, resistive and insane nature of mind, to dis-identify from it'. In other words, just watch it from a distance. This also implies to recognize yourself as the still awareness behind the mental content to free yourself from the egoic dysfunction. Which is not a doing but an alert seeing or recognition. "Recognizing the false as false is meditation. This must go on all the time." Nisargadatta Maharaj. Although if you are trying then allow yourself to 'keep trying' because 'trying' and 'effort' have years of momentum behind them. We talked about this earlier.

Be aware. Being aware also means that even if compulsive thinking happens or conditioned reactions take you over then watch or allow them to be and/or recognize them as false in you without trying to dissolve them, even if you are in their grip or after they pass away. Be the awareness in the background, however subtle. As you practice this, light of "presence" or awareness deepens within you and one day you may realize that you have a "choice" to drop a conditioned reaction as it arises or in the middle of it. Instead of being taken over by it. You recognize the reaction as false in you and not who “You” are. . You can also immediately shift attention from mind to present moment anchors and/or take constructive action, as the egoic reaction or pattern arises. Shifting attention to the Now becomes easier when you truly realize that you are not your mind and emotions but the formless presence or awareness behind it. You stop giving content, accumulation and strategies of mind and pain-body any reality or seriousness. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "Deny Thyself". Light of awareness or presence is more than enough to shine away or dissolve the unnecessary psychological baggage of time (past and future) you are carrying in your body and mind. But again, if you are stuck or trapped in concepts, resistance, controlling mode, etc. which are aspects of mind, then accept and allow yourself to be stuck. If you can’t accept, then accept that you can’t accept. As it can also become part of your spiritual journey. It’s because allowing yourself to be stuck or in a state of non-acceptance deepens presence and has the potential to eventually force you to surrender and go beyond them. To be more precise, you detect and allow the resistive thoughts, emotions and reactions (physical and mental) that arise in the Now. It’s because being stuck is ultimately a mental-emotional state i.e. it’s psychological or mind created.