Our self is ever-present now and we do not experience a succession of nows. This present now is the only now there is. The now in which the body was born is the very same now in which these words are appearing. It is the only now there ever truly is.
For this reason our own being is said to be eternal. This doesn’t mean that we last forever in time. It indicates that we are ever-present now. There is simply no time ever actually present in our experience in which our self could exist, other that this present now.
Our self did not appear at a particular time and will not disappear at a particular time. There is no time present in our actual experience in which something could appear or disappear. There is just this ever-present now and this now is not a moment in time; it is timeless awareness, our true nature.
Our culture has lost this knowledge and therefore equates the eternal with the everlasting. However, these two belong to completely different realms, one real and one imaginary. ‘Everlasting’ is related to time and denotes something that supposedly lasts forever. ‘Eternal’ is related to the timeless and denotes that which is ever-present now. It is not about life everlasting. It is about eternal life.
— Rupert Spira – Presence: The Art of Peace and Happiness
In the clip below, the Dalai Lama deconstructs the present moment.
“So, half is past, half is future.
No present.
So we can’t find the present.
Without the present there is no basis for past and future.”
