The whole essence of Zen consists in walking along the razor’s edge of Now —
to be so utterly, so completely present that no problem, no suffering,
nothing that is not who you are in your essence, can survive in you.
In the Now, in the absence of time, all your problems dissolve.
Suffering needs time; it cannot survive in the Now.
The great Zen master Rinzai, in order to take his students’ attention away from time, would often raise his finger and slowly ask:
What, at this moment, is lacking?
A powerful question that does not require an answer on the level of the mind. It is designed to take your attention deeply into the Now. A similar question in the Zen tradition is this:
If not now, when?
Eckart Tolle | Power of Now | page 52
Take time out of the equation.
Be only here, now.
Take the story line out.
Suffering needs a story line.
Suffering needs a “me” that everything is happening to.
No story. No time.
Stay with the facts of this immediate moment.
I am here.
I feel pain. Or I feel bliss. Or I feel discomfort. Or I feel carefree.
No judgement, just observation.
There is no escape from the Now.
Be here. Breathe. Endure. Enjoy. Feel. Let it be.
There is nothing lacking in this moment.
Everything is contained in this space of Now.
Yet everything passes. Everything changes.
Honor this moment.
It’s sacred. It’s Life.
If not now, when?
