What it actually means the way Eckhart Tolle references it is: taking one's attention away from all the multitude of thoughts and feelings that arise in a days time, all the various energies we carry around that are the fears, angers etc of our day and place the attention on the Energy of Pure Awareness that exists within us. If you have your awareness on that instead of the chatter of the mind, eventually the awareness remains with the feeling of Pure Awareness to some degree all the time. Eckhart gives various pointers as to how to be aware of "Presence" as he calls it, but that is what is meant by living in the moment.
I think in other venues (besides Eckhart) people mean just not worrying about the future so much or the past, but keeping your attention on whatever is at hand now. ________________________________ From: awoelflebater <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2012 9:23 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Euripides' The Bacchae --- In [email protected], "raunchydog" <raunchydog@...> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "seventhray1" <lurkernomore20002000@> > wrote: > > > > > > > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <authfriend@> > > wrote: > > > > > I agree with Share here. "Living in the now" is not a > > > technique for spiritual growth; it's the result of > > > spiritual growth. The phrase is DEscriptive, not > > > PREscriptive. *Trying* to "live in the now" is a recipe > > > for utter cluelessness. > > > > > > Well maybe the key phrase is "trying". I don't know if it is something > > you "try" to do, it is just something you do. But maybe that > > distinction doesn't matter. > > > > But why exactly would "trying" to live in the now be a recipe for utter > > cluelessness? > > > > Maharishi described "trying to live in the now" as an attempt to carry a bowl > of soup while engaged in activity. It divides the mind between attempting to > maintain inward attention (try not to spill the soup) and outward attention > (going about your business). It's the same reason TMers meditate with eyes > closed, to withdraw the senses from external surroundings, tapas. According > to Maharishi dividing the mind between inward and outward attention weakens > the mind. A weak mind is a clueless mind. Just to add my three cents here: Trying to "live in the now" is one strange goal. What does that really mean and why in the world would one need to try and do that? Doesn't "now" mean in the present. We are all, from moment to moment, living in the present, it is a feature of something we can't help even if we tried. Our bodies are certainly "in the now" and whatever we experience is what we are experiencing at that moment, whether it is a memory, a hope, a dream or a fly that is crawling on our hand. So, quite literally, we are all in the "now" unless any of you happen to own a time machine. For me, I think I'll scratch that little goal of "living in the now" and move on to the next one of my list which is, um let's see here, oh yes here it is, vacuuming out my car. >
