The Present

Once upon a time,

I was browsing through my Instagram, and discovered that a profound spiritual teacher by the name of Eckhart Tolle was planning on speaking in New York City. Eckhart Tolle is well-known for stoicism, and I thought, why not try and heal myself right now? Therefore, I went to the ticketmaster website and paid over two hundred bucks to secure myself a seat to listen him speak.

Fast forward a couple of weeks later, I found myself in a line that stretched round the block of the Beacon Theatre on a 7:30 pm on a Saturday. Nested in between Tolle enthusiasts, I was silently how beautiful the pre-war buildings in this posh area was. I swiftly got through security and prepared myself to take lots of notes - I came armed with a pen and my tiny Optiver notebook, but as Tolle started speaking I gave up any attempt to be subtle about my note-taking.

Yes, it was worth my two hundred bucks. I am just writing down things without referring to the notebook, and these things are definitely what is worth remembering.

Most people don't know who they truly are. They know their past, their history, and their future, their plans and goals. They know their body, and their political views, personality, so on and so forth, but according to Tolle, it is not really them. If we are a room, then we have been caring and cognizant about the ceiling, the walls, the floors, and every single thing, except for the space in that room. Similarly, there is an existence within us, even after that personality part of us has been stripped away. This existence is not ephemeral, it is everlasting and is reliable. And - this is a secret - is the same across all sentient beings. We all draw from one source energy.

One of the many beautiful things Tolle said was that our brains to this consciousness is like a radio or a television to the waves: The vibrations bring in the essential information, but the machine interprets it. Us personalities are simply unique manifestations of this collective consciousness. In essence, we are one. Truly knowing this (knowing thyself, not the personality part) is what it means to be awakened. Well, why bother? A few things, but mostly - a detachment, and ultimately, freedom from suffering.

The human civilization has thrived thanks to their use of the mind as a tool. It is a wonderful tool for reason, for science, for technology. But on the flip side, they started manifesting as our masters. The typical modern human being is severely addicted to thinking. And these thinking are not productive thinking - they are addicted to worrying, gossiping, judging, and all these unproductive forms of thought. They believe all the thoughts in their head are true and are theirs, because they need to identify with something - and they identify with their thoughts. And the characteristic of an untrained (or untamed) mind is of separation - it sees itself versus the other. As a result, there is a need to always feel superior, be it by judging other people or by trying to get accomplishments or by playing the victim - and it will never be quite satisfied, happy, or accomplished.

So how do we tap into this inner consciousness? How do we become aware of our own awareness? The answer turns out to be simple. Simply notice the moment after one thought ends, but before another thought arises. There is a gap, there is a stillness, in this alertness state in the now, with fully-focused sensory awareness. Looking at or listening to or smelling something without labeling it. In this moment, there is no past, no future. There is no history, and you don't have the problems with you. Your mind doesn't convert challenges into problems anymore. There simply is.

And it felt truly wonderful to simply be there in the moment. For a moment there was no (insert author's name here), none of his life dramas, none of his worries, sadness, stresses, anxiety about the future. There is only a pleasant feeling of existing right now.

And apparently, if you slowly extend this gap, you'll become familiar with the consciousness within you. And it's there, forever. Unending. This doesn't mean that one should stop thinking altogether - no! Even after familiarizing one's self with this state, one can interact and use the personality identity and with other identities still very effectively. And there you go :) keep on doing what you must, but take time to appreciate the gap, to be present there. Because right now is the only time you'll ever have.