Being in the moment or the same, living in the here and the now, in various forms, is offered in Zen circles and elsewhere as some kind of panacea. But in truth, it ain't. The moment or the here and the now is nothing more than raw sense certainty. The “here” is a place or locus. More precisely, it is the site of my body. The “now” or this “moment” is about time. But what exactly is time? Time is nothing but the measurement of change. Putting this altogether, the moment or the here and now boils down to this: my body is undergoing change. Taking another step, this sounds very familiar with Buddhism's impermanence (anitya) which is also samsara.
So what is so wonderful about practicing awareness of the present moment? Nothing that I can see. In fact, if you are cutting firewood with a chain saw it is better to be aware of the saw and the branch—not some abstract moment. Being aware of the present moment is being aware of samsara, a practice that is a long way from the shore of nirvana.
I can't recall the Buddha teaching such a stupid practice as learning to be in the here and the now or live moment by moment. The Buddha basically taught the many that we are in deep shit and need to crawl out of this stinking samsaric cesspit that is made up of a lot of shitty moments such as war, poverty, disease, and starvation.
On this sour note, there is no need to venerate the here and the now. Living moment by moment it not the great vehicle (mahayana) or the one vehicle (ekayana). It is rebirth’s wagon that leads to more samsara and suffering. Those who teach it, I suspect, work for Mara the Evil One (you know that dude—he’s the Buddhist devil who is a personification of mortality).
Someone asked Yogananda if there is a Hell. He replied, Where do you think you are?
Posted by: solon | December 05, 2010 at 04:01 AM
Useful post. I would elaborate just a bit and say: The PERSONAL moment, OF MY here and now boils down to this: My MIND AND body AND ITS IMMEDIATE AND PERCEIVED SURROUNDINGS is undergoing change.
Posted by: Paul | December 05, 2010 at 03:44 AM
This would seem to be a natural extension of the belief that samsara and nirvana are nondual. Is that what you are saying? I can imagine it being hard to swallow for a lot of casual American Buddhists ;-)
Posted by: @100PercentProle | December 03, 2010 at 12:14 PM
What you do is the good work of compassionate man, trying to show a group of apes the intriquing virtues of higher math. Good luck!
Posted by: solon | December 03, 2010 at 04:10 AM
Good post. This is a very common mistake for most western zen practitioners. Many so-called teachers also fall into this trap.
Posted by: John Train | December 03, 2010 at 02:36 AM