WHAT IS "BEING HERE NOW"???

Being here now is experiencing oneself as absolute presence.  This doesn't mean it is an experience of being present to what is present. That is the experience of relative presence.  Being Here Now is a matter of being present to the reality that one is the very substance of the "here now."  Being here now is being present to the fact that one is of the very nature of being here now.  The whatness of the "here now" is the fact that I am the here now.  It is not the whatness of what I am present to with a kind of deeper presence of mind.  It is not a particular place in space nor a finite moment in time.  I am that here now.  "Here Now" is the substance of what I am.  'Here' as space and 'now' as time are infinity and eternality seen through the names and forms of the mind.  Though space and time change, here and now always remain the same.  Being here now is an unchanging presencing.  Being here now presences one's true self.  And such presence is consciousness, the awareness of being aware.  It is an awareness of being present to some thing in the world or in the mind.

BACK TO THE GARDEN

The happiness of the world that surpasses other joys of the world is not the true happiness.  Not the Absolute.  Such happiness may come and go and again be sought after, thought about and struggled over to recover once again.  The true happiness, the bliss of the final Truth, is not comparable to these other happinesses.  Why?  Because when it arises no comparison occurs and no comparison is possible.  It does not arise in the relative world because it does not take a particular, limited form to be set along side some other particular, pleasureable form.  It arises as universal and eternal.  It is the happiness of the end of all pursuit of knowledge and fulfillment, the Bliss of Ananda.  No comparisons arise; no questions bring it into doubt.  One is whole and complete as the Self of Consciousness, living in the Awareness of One's own Eternality.  All else is child's play, not to be scoffed at let alone condemned but to be seen as the joyfulness of the childhood of the spirit with its pleasures and pains, joys and sorrows, leading us to final fulfillment in the Absolute.

THE I AM THAT I AM

Meditation is listening for the music; Consciousness is hearing the music.  Awareness is the unity of meditation and consciousness.

THE "ROOM" OF PURE AWARENESS

Pascal said that all man's unhappiness is due to his inability to sit in a room alone with himself.  That room is not really a physical room that he speaks of.  It is the "room" of the Self at the Heart of Consciousness when consciousness becomes fully aware of itself as Consciousness.  This is pure Awareness and this is what we eternally are.  This is the clarity of the Seer.

The Heart of the Self

The Self that I am abides as the silent stillness at the heart of Consciousness.

MEDITATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

Mind sees time as becoming.  Consciousness sees time as Eternal being.

MEDITATION

In the end, not to mention the beginning, what is meditation really about.  In short and right to the point: meditation is about being happy.  It is about living life as happily as possible.  Meditation at its heart is not a method, a practice nor even a goal to be achieved.  

In the living of one's life, meditation has two sides: firstly, just being happy and doing whatever one does in that mode of being, but, without having to have any sense of being special or having any special significance in one's life or as one's self.  There is no fruit, reward or any further self-aggrandizement one needs.  Just being happy in whatever one is doing because one's being is of the very nature of happiness.  There's no reason or cause that justifies being happy or makes me happy.  

But, secondly if one is in fact not happy and finds oneself lacking, then the other side of meditation becomes present: that is, we inquire into the lack of happiness and who it is that lacks happiness, peace, love, freedom?  Am I the unhappiness or the one who is aware of this unhappiness but is not reducible to it?

My first meditation teacher, Swami Rama, founder of the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, said in his dying moments:  "Be happy!" according to reports I heard.  There was no profound wisdom or lengthy pontifications.  Just "Be happy!" 

Actually that's a tall order, is it not?  What if you're not really happy, or, at least not happy most of the time nor especially all the time?

The first point to note is not to make the mistake of trying to be sure one has the right method or even the right teacher let alone the right philosophy.  Be where you are because you are there.  You can't argue with reality.  If you are not happy, then there is only one choice to make  in the midst of one moving in the current of one's life:  one must inquire, investigate.  That is one begins--whether you want to or like it or not-- the critically reflective process of asking: Why am I not happy?  Now this question may take many forms.  What one is essentially inquiring into no matter what the form of the question asked is:  What is missing?  What is lacking?  Or, who is this person or being who is not enough? Am I the one that is lacking the nature and essence of happiness, the finality and fulfillment of life? 

In short, who am I?  Am I lack?  Or am I that One which by nature is separate and sufficiently distant from the being of lack to see that I am not of the nature of lack but of the nature of Awareness. 

When awareness becomes aware of itself and one abides in knowledge of oneSelf as the presence of Self-Awareness then the Eternality of happiness, love, peace and freedom shine through as one's own true Self.

So, when I become aware of my unhappiness or "lack," I can wake up to the fact that I am also aware of this awareness of unhappiness.  To be present and aware of That Awareness is to allow one's true Nature to shine through in the very presence of the minds attention to "unhappiness," the illusion that something is missing.

In fact nothing is missing.  It is all here, now.  Either to the happiness which one is or the way of inquiry which leads full circle back to the Truth of one's Being.