Being present: explanation
If one is not established in the present, then one is nowhere and nothing is possible.
Rodney Collin
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Being Present
copyright © PantheonPress 2003 · all rights reserved · copying of this material by permission only
Being present is an idea as old as civilization itself, yet rarely in history has it been fully understood or fully achieved.
Being present refers to consciousness. It is not about thought, feeling, movement, sensation, or intuition. It means being aware of all these things while also being aware of being aware of them.
Being present includes a form of divided attention in which one is aware of an object—be it a tree or an emotion—and simultaneously aware of oneself as the observer observing the object. Such divided attention is the chief characteristic of what The Fourth Way calls self-remembering. On The Fourth Way, it is primarily by efforts to remember oneself through divided attention that one strives to awaken and prolong consciousness, with the aim of trying to make consciousness permanent rather than periodic and fleeting.
Being present through the divided attention of self-remembering is never automatic. It always requires a conscious effort and it can be sustained only with conscious effort. Otherwise attention lapses into one-way awareness, or into a state of little or no awareness at all, in which mind activity settles into pure imagination and daydreaming—which is the complete opposite of being present.
Being present is surprisingly simple, yet it is for this reason that it is so easily overlooked and undervalued. The opportunity to be present is always right in front of our eyes, directly under our nose, within whatever task is at hand. In spite of this, we are unwittingly captivated by the past moment or lured into the next future moment. We fail to seize each present moment, fully decant it, and fully appreciate its miraculous freshness.
The opportunity to be present is available to us every moment of every day. It is also a doorway into which our awareness can enter, and on the other side of which it can develop in unforseen ways—if we can prolong it. Yet we repeatedly bypass this opportunity, take our existence for granted, and hurry on to the next moment. So it is that our entire life passes, unconsciously.
Each century provides its own justifications for why other things are more important than simply being present. In the twenty-first century, we are especially vulnerable to momentums that propel us through the moment at faster and faster electronic speeds: cars, planes, computers, cell phones, the internet, instant messaging—ever new technologies and the compulsion to keep up with them. Amidst the flurry of so much seemingly important activity, the significance of being present to each simple moment gets trampled on and lost.
What might it mean to be present more often; to penetrate the moment more deeply? The answer to this question is exactly what The Fourth Way is about. And the answer is: everything. The Fourth Way, as with all ways of conscious development that have ever existed in recorded and unrecorded history, is concerned with escaping from time as we know it and arriving at a state of universal, eternal presence and being.
The possibility of this escape is the hidden meaning of life on earth. And it is hidden in the chance to be present to each moment as it unfolds. Everything else about our existence on earth is impermanent and dissolves—our body, our thoughts, our sense of identity, our accomplishments however extraordinary. Nothing endures except our consciousness of it. Nothing is objectively real except consciousness.
Being present leads to the understanding of how miraculous being present is, and how incredible it is to have the opportunity in the universe to be aware of being in the universe. This is the most significant thing about the earth and about life on earth. All the rest, remarkable as it is, forms but a backdrop which eventually disappears.
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