Nothing helps being in the “present moment” like the presence of beauty. Whether creating beauty ourselves or being in the presence of beauty created by others or immersed in the beauty of nature, we are more apt to find ourselves experiencing the magical NOW. “Creativity doesn’t come from the human mind. The human mind may give it form, but the deep inspiration for it–the essence of it–always comes out of that state of alert presence: not the mind, not thought. Subsequently, perhaps, thought comes in, more so in certain activities: writing, for example. But even the writer listens and waits for it to come.”[i] Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now probably knows what he’s talking about.
As long as we continue to identify with our body, mind and emotions we are depriving ourselves of the experience of the timeless NOW. “Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable.”[ii]
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Supplemental Reading: The Present Moment, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
#78 Alert Presence
[i] Donoso, Steve. “The Power of Presence.” IONS Noetic Sciences Review. March—May 2003, p. 17.
[ii] Tolle, Eckhart. The Power of Now. Novato, California: New World Library, 1999, p. 27.
