Eternal Present Law #14

Being...in...this day is a privilege that will only come once... Be fully Present. Be, with. First practice being, and then you can do anything with greater Purpose...  

Cynthia F. Davidson, from the Wisdom Wheel Eternal Present card

Why is it hard to just be Present? To pay attention, to focus, to concentrate...even people paid to pay attention fail to prevent accidents from happening. How much does not being present cost us; financially, physically, emotionally? 
What is distracting us, putting us off, putting us outside the zone of being? (Have you read this page without a single interruption, so far? While writing it, I've answered the phone, fed the dog, checked my email, consulted my calendar....) 
When we're not able to be here now, as Ram Das wrote, where are we exactly? If I am not in the moment, am I outside of what's Eternal as well? 

For the next 10 days choose to be Present, in a radical way. 
When you are not paying attention, admit it, redirect yourself, and gain some practice at correcting this habit of wandering mentally and otherwise. 
Don't allow interruptions and stop interrupting others too. 
Talk about presence and see who's retained this quality. How have they done it? 
Try some mindfulness meditation; whether sitting, walking or washing the dishes. See what you're missing. 
Refuse to be rushed!    

     

Here follow some quotations about the Law of the Eternal Present.

There is ... a connection between the words ‘present’ and ‘presence’ as the two are very much connected in sense and meaning. In our practice of inquiry, when we talk about being where we are, we mean being in the moment. Our experience is always in the present, even though our mind might be flitting about in the past and future. The actual manifestation—what is arising in our experience—is always arising right now. This is also true of light. For light there is only now; there is nothing else. This fact is a reality described by Einstein’s relativity equations.

Hameed Ali, writing under the pen name of A.H. Almaas

Time does not exist. What we refer to as past and future, have no reality except in our own mental constructs. The idea of time is a convention of thought and language, a social agreement. In truth, we only have this moment. When we hold regret for an occurrence in the past, we keep the regret alive, with pictures and feelings we conjure up. When we feel anxiety about the future, we keep the anxiety alive with the pictures we imagine. Time is the abstract concept. When we practice remembering that the here and now is all we have, our present moments improve. 

 Margo Kirtikar Ph.D. in Flowing with Universal Laws

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it The Present. 

Babatunde Olatunji

So break the old pattern of present-moment denial and present-moment resistance… Start by observing the habitual tendency of your mind wanting to escape…don’t seek to grasp this with your mind… You can only know it when the mind is still, when you are present, fully and intensely in the Now…  To regain awareness of Being, and to abide in that state of ‘feeling-realization,’ is enlightenment.

Eckhart Tolle, German author of The Power of Now

The only time you ever have in which to learn anything or see anything or feel anything, or express any feeling or emotion, or respond to an event, or grow, or heal, is in this moment, because this is the only moment any of us ever gets.  You're only here now; you're only alive in this moment.  

Jon Kabat-Zinn in Wherever You Go There You Are

Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter... This is it... If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here's the place to have the experience.

Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987) American mythology expert books include The Hero with A Thousand Faces

People with presence have an ineffable quality about them; they are ‘present,’ surprisingly attentive, and undistracted. A fullness, a centeredness, a wholeness radiates from them. We enjoy being ‘in their presence.’ You can build presence. It is the natural radiance of heart security.

Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer, From Chaos to Coherence

  

As you embrace the present

and become one with it, and merge with it,

you will experience a fire, a glow,

a sparkle of ecstasy throbbing in every sentient being.

As you begin to experience this exultation of spirit

in everything that is alive, as you become intimate with it,

joy will be born within you,

and you will drop the terrible burdens of defensiveness,

resentment, and hurtfulness...

then you will become lighthearted, carefree, joyous, and free.

Deepak Chopra, M.D. whose many books include The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

It is when you are really living in the present – working, thinking, lost, absorbed in something you care about very much, then you are living spiritually. 

Brenda Ueland

In the spiritual life, I am always at the beginning. Remembering this helps us overcome our addiction to 'getting ahead.' When we experience a true present- the 'now'- that's when everything happens.

Ralph Blum

We are so rarely in the present. Within a period of five minutes we are remembering one thing, anticipating something else, unable to focus on the only time that is ours to affect. In moments of intense exertion, physical or emotional, we are forced into the present. …why…can't our mind simply rest in the present? The present is not boring or routine. It is basically unknown and recovered only with a haze of nostalgia. When we stop skimming the surface, and allow ourselves to be fully submerged in the present, we discover depths of beauty and meaning. The present is the only place where we can find God. 

Carol Ochs in The Presence in the Desert

When you surrender to what is and become so fully present, the past ceases to have any power. The realm of Being, which had been obscured by the mind, then opens up. Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you, an unfathomable sense of peace. And within that peace there is great joy. And within that joy there is love. And at the innermost core there is the sacred, the immeasurable, That which cannot be named.

Eckhart Tolle

Stay present & in another 10 days, look for the next post, Law of Initiation.