The Wonder Of Now

The now is the most precious thing there is, our greatest gift. But how difficult it can be to remain present, to realise what a gift we have. How often do we hear people say “I don’t have enough time”,“I am under pressure so I am not able to do this, that or the other”. Yet we all have the gift of 24 hours handed to us every day. This meditation is to help us become more aware of the wonderful now. Background Music is "Relaxing Piano, Cello And Warm Pad Meditation Music" by Doczky via Pond 5

Transcript

The Wonder of Now Dear friends,

Welcome to this meditation where we are going to reflect on the wonder of now,

The wonder of each present moment.

Let's begin by coming into the now ourselves,

Bringing ourselves into this present moment,

Taking the opportunity to leave yesterday where it belongs,

In a notebook called yesterday,

And leaving tomorrow where it belongs,

In a box marked tomorrow.

Now every so often we do need to open the notebook called yesterday,

To learn lessons from it so that we can improve,

But not to replay the past as if it was a CD on repeat.

And every so often we also have to open the box marked tomorrow.

We do this so as to make plans today,

So that tomorrow we'll have a better chance of being what we wanted to be.

But our emphasis in these permitted escapes from the here and now must be on the words every so often.

We don't want to spend our lives reliving the past glories or regretting past failures.

Neither do we want to spend our lives daydreaming about the future,

Without actively working to knock that future into the shape that we would like it to take.

So right now we will practise being in the present,

Not particularly thinking of anything,

But at the same time not working hard to clear our minds.

What we want to do for the next minute,

Just 60 seconds,

Is to simply be.

Closing our eyes if we find that helpful,

And just relaxing into this present moment.

If a thought happens to cross our minds,

As it will,

Just let it pass,

Like clouds passing in the sky.

No need to pay attention to it,

No need to explore it,

Just briefly notice and let it be,

And let ourselves be,

Just be,

For the next minute.

A one minute pause.

Welcome back.

So hopefully we will all have spent one minute,

Today at least,

In awareness and in the present moment.

Well done.

In the late 1990s,

Eckhart Tolle published his famous book,

The Power of Now,

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.

The book has sold millions of copies.

It has been translated into 33 languages.

As the title suggests,

The message of Eckhart Tolle is that we should live our lives in the now.

How often do we hear people say,

I don't have enough time?

I'm run off my feet.

I'm under pressure so I'm not able to do this,

That or the other.

As each year goes by,

The speed of life seems to be increasing.

And all our labour saving aids seem to add to our work.

What was previously shared out among other people,

Such as travel agents,

Has landed back in our own laps,

As we now search out places for ourselves,

Book holidays and flights ourselves,

And we have to make sure to check ourselves in,

Print out our own documents,

Download our tickets and our passes on our phones.

This can be helpful in its own way,

But don't you agree with me that we have lots more work to do ourselves?

We have our own machines,

Yes,

But we find that our machines,

Our computers,

Our printers,

They need regularly updating,

And that again is done by ourselves.

And you don't need me to remind you about the difficulty of making telephone calls to institutions.

Answering machines leave us waiting,

As we are assured that our call is important,

And we will be answered by the next available agent.

The only problem is that all the agents are busy attending to other customers,

As they say.

Sometimes the wait time can be so long that we can almost forget why we made the call in the first place.

All this leaves us feeling we are running frantically from one thing to another,

So many things on our minds,

So many things on hands,

And we find ourselves not really having time for anything.

In response to this feeling that we don't have enough time,

Eckhart Tolle offers us this thought.

Time isn't precious at all,

Because it's an illusion.

What we perceive as precious is not time,

But the one point that is out of time,

The now.

He tells us that it is the now that is precious.

The more we are focused on time,

Past and future time,

The more we miss the now.

He stresses that the now is the most precious thing there is.

He says,

Realise deeply that the present moment is all you have.

Make the now the primary focus of your life.

Now,

I'm sure we've all noticed that this concentration on the present is easier said than done.

Yes,

OK,

We all make and remake the good resolution.

We set out with the best of intention.

But many times every day,

I imagine most of us lose our awareness of the present moment.

And we allow ourselves to become preoccupied elsewhere,

Worried about the past or absorbed daydreaming about the future.

This needs a little examination.

So next we're going to stop for one minute,

So that we can each ask ourselves this question.

What is my relationship with the present moment?

What percentage of my day to day life do I think is spent in a state of awareness of my existence in the present moment?

One minute pause.

One minute pause.

Welcome back.

According to a 2010 study by Harvard University,

People spend nearly 50% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they are doing.

Almost a 50% absence rate from the present.

The actual figure is 46.

9%.

The study found that 46.

9% of our time spent is out of the present moment.

Now I think if people were to survey me,

They would find that I was even worse than the average.

And the same survey found that this out of the present moment thinking makes us unhappy.

When we compare human beings to animals,

We see that most,

If not all animals,

Appear to live in the present moment.

Or at least that's what we assume they do.

We can't imagine cats and dogs worrying about the future.

Although if a dog gets to know the words,

Want to go for a walk,

Or if we produce a lead,

We see that they too,

At that particular time,

Allow themselves to drift out of the present moment.

That might be a sign that dogs have spent too much time living in the presence of humans and picking up our bad habits.

I'm sure we've all had the experience of believing that tomorrow will be better than today.

Just think back.

When we were very young,

We looked forward to being all grown up,

Being under less restriction.

We believed everything would be great when such and such happens.

Everything would be wonderful then.

So we look forward in that way,

Daydreaming about the future,

And we can find years passing as we engage in this looking forward.

And meanwhile,

We have not found the time to be grateful for all that we have in the present moment.

Eckhart Tolle tells us it's not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.

Waiting to start living,

Do we see ourselves in that way?

Or have we seen ourselves in that way in the past?

Maybe at this stage we will have another one minute pause.

Let's have a quick look back over our lives,

And consider the amount of time we might have spent ignoring the wonder of the present moment in the belief that the future would be a better place in which to be.

A woman to pause again.

A woman to pause again.

Welcome back.

When we think back on those neglected moments,

It reminds us of the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

I'm sure you've all listened to the music.

We all remember Topal.

Unhappy with the present moment,

You might remember his prayer calling out to God.

Oh Lord,

You made many,

Many poor people.

I realise of course it's no shame to be poor,

But it's no great honour either.

So what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?

The song is of course if I were a rich man.

Remember what Topal asked for?

I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen,

And remember in the house there would be one long staircase just going up,

And one even longer coming down.

And of course one more leading nowhere just for show.

It's great fun to listen to that song.

It is a reminder of how we tend to ignore the wonderful present moment.

We miss the wonderful goings on just now,

As we daydream about the future,

Or reminisce and worry about the past.

And when you come to think of it,

The moments we manage to spend in awareness can be wonderful moments.

When we stop in awareness,

We realise what a gift it is to be here,

To be alive.

Eckhart Tolle reminds us that,

At the deepest level of being,

We are one with all that is.

Now that's a very profound idea.

Here,

At the deepest level of being,

We are one with all that is.

Let's have another one minute pause,

This time to consider those words of Eckhart Tolle.

At the deepest level of being,

We are one with all that is.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

Now there are things we need to get,

That is the way of life.

And there are things we need to do.

And since some of these things naturally belong in the future,

We have to work now to make provision for them.

But this is active engagement here and now.

This is not just daydreaming and wishful thinking.

There are some suggested ways to make a difference in your life.

There are some suggested ways of helping us to focus on the now and to become more aware of our lives lived in the present moment.

An obvious way to be present in the moment is to pay attention to our surroundings.

Very often we don't take time out of our day to look around and really see what's going on.

What about sitting down,

Closing our eyes,

Taking a deep breath,

Then opening our eyes and looking afresh at everything around us?

Let's try this right now.

Let's close our eyes and take that deep breath,

Then open our eyes and really take in what we see and where we are.

Look around the room.

What do you see?

Notice where the light falls at this time of the day or night.

Anything out of place?

Or is everything in perfect order?

Do we see anything that reminds us of someone else?

A gift from someone maybe?

Can we see objects that make us feel grateful?

Can we see something that would be the first thing that we would grab if we had to leave the house suddenly?

Stopping to look around this way opens the door to the real world.

It's almost as if we had a banner saying,

Welcome to this room in the present moment.

The next suggestion is that we avoid multitasking,

That we try to focus instead on just one thing at a time.

In reality,

We can only put our attention on one thing at a time,

Even if we try to juggle multiple simultaneous tasks.

There's a bigger danger of things falling asunder if we try to multitask.

Besides,

We can be more present and more efficient if we concentrate on one task at a time,

Concentrating mindfully on one thing at a time.

The next suggestion for staying in the now is that we practise gratitude.

If we try to remain in the present moment,

We will become more aware of all the good things in our lives.

We will be more easily inclined to lose sight of these benefits if our focus is on what we need to get next.

When we're focused on the now,

We become more aware of all that we have.

If we can establish a practice of keeping a note of the things we are grateful for,

This would be something that we can fall back on in the difficult times.

We can look back on our notes in a darker time and remind ourselves that life has been good to us before and will be good to us again.

In entering notes into this gratitude journal,

We shouldn't overlook the everyday things for which we ought to be thankful.

It's alright,

More than alright,

It's very important,

To be grateful day by day for the benefits that come to us day by day.

We don't have to wait for the big surprises.

The old reliable daily benefits are more important and they add up to a lot more in the long run than the few extraordinary benefits that come along only every now and again.

In our effort to live in the now,

It's also recommended that we accept things as they are,

Not how we want them to be.

If we want to live in the present moment,

We need to let go of how we think things should be and accept things for what they are.

We have to remember that we cannot control everything that happens around us.

Sometimes life is going to fall short of our dreams.

Things will fall through the cracks sometimes.

There will be situations where life will fall short of our wishes.

Life turns out to be different from the way we would like it to be.

But if we can live mindfully in the present,

If we can learn to practice acceptance,

This will help us to let go of the things in our life over which we have no control,

Which brings us right around full circle to the practice of mindfulness.

One way to live more in the present moment is by practicing mindfulness meditation.

This type of meditation helps us become aware and increases our ability to concentrate on what we are doing in any particular moment.

Mindfulness meditation can help us become more aware of our thoughts and feelings and that can increase our ability to be grounded in the present moment.

Maybe it's time now for another one minute pause.

And during this one minute pause,

Let us pray for peace,

Understanding and the promotion of happiness in each of our own circles of influence.

God Bless.

Welcome back again.

We fall back on Eckhart Tolle for some final thoughts on the subject of being present for life in the now.

As we know it can be difficult to stay present,

Easy to drift out of the present moment,

But he tells us,

The moment you realize you are not present,

You are present.

That's a healthy way to live.

The moment you realize that you are not present,

You are present.

He says,

Whenever you are able to observe your mind,

You are no longer trapped in it.

So we are more than our thoughts.

We are taking responsibility for our thoughts and that has consequences in the world.

Living in the now opens a world of possibilities to each one of us.

I'd like to leave you today with an old Celtic blessing.

May God give you for every storm a rainbow,

For every tear a smile,

For every care a promise and a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to show you the way.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share.

For every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.

Namaste.

Thank you.

Reviews

A wonderful weaving of truth and reflection, delivered with a warm lilt. Thank you!

Wonderful guidance. Found the one minute breaks to be helpful. 🙏🏻🕉☮️💟

Thanks for these great reflections and teachings. I really enjoyed listening with my eyes closed most of the time. I also appreciate the pieces of text from Eckhart Tolle you selected to share with us.

Thank you for all your wonderful meditations on being in the now. You've helped me to realize what true happiness is for me. I'm so grateful.💞

Thank you Tony. Your words of wisdom and gentle approach is a refreshing breeze in my daily meditation practice

Thank you for reminding me of the importance of being present!

Yes, a sweet song…thank you for the gentleness in your meditation. 🧘🏽‍♀️

Thank you! I appreciate the prayer at the end. Very grateful for you!

Thank you for this inspiring meditaiton on the power, beauty, and wonder of now.

Fabulous, thank you. My day was having a dreary start and now my tasks for today feel like opportunities not burdens. 🙏💛

Lovely! I struggle a lot with past regrets, guilt. My oldest son passed in May and it's hard not to go back and wonder what I could have, should have done. Regrets of time not spent with my parents and brother. Its hard. Thank goodness I still have my meditation practice to bring me back. I think in time, once grief has lessened, that I hopefully won't dwell so much in the past. Thank you for your support. ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷🕉🍀

These are such valuable points to remember, even if they are repeated. I really appreciate the one minute pauses throughout your direction, and think that it would be a good idea to use those throughout the day, in order to stay more present to the moment. Blessings 🙏

Dear Tony - thank you for these present moment reflections this morning. Namaste 🙏🏻 Carlin

Absolutely beautiful! 🤩 Thank you Tony for these wise words🙏❤️

Simply wonderful and I especially enjoyed the reflections on Eckhart Tolle's work which I am currently reading. It's good to be reminded that when I realise that I am not present I am actually present ☺️. I always enjoy your meditations Tony, thank you 🙏🏾😊.

I love your Meditations, Tony! Thank you for your beautiful voice!

Wonderful practice! Thank you, Tony! So much peace to be found in the now!🙏🏼☺️💕

Always wonderful to hear Tony’s reflections and gentle wisdom 🙏🏼🦋

Perfect

Thank you Tony namaste 🙏