Late Night Chat with Jeff: Staying in the Present, Sep 23, 2024, live on Baba Zoom

Meher Baba has said, “Live more and more in the present which is ever beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.”

But how to stay in the present? Most of us in early childhood lived for beautiful periods in an expansive, timeless present. Back then, one day could last a month! We lived in the present free of regrets or nostalgia about the past, and we were strangers to anxiety about the future and its compelling dreams. We were deep into the adventure and vastness and wonder of the present moment. Even if you can’t remember vividly your early childhood, I know that most of you have had this deep timeless experience in your coming to Baba and in your life with Him, and in many moments throughout your daily life.

As we got older, if we were unhappy in the present, we no longer entered deeper and deeper into the moment in search of adventure and engagement; we gradually developed the habit of living in the past when times were better or imagining a future free of our present suffering. Our educational system, with its relentless orientation toward the future, captivated our imagination more and more. The present became a means to a future end. Before long, we developed the habit of energetically projecting ourselves into the past and the future; and we even began wanting more and more to be some place other than where we were. Leaving the timeless, expansive present of early childhood, we were now trapped as permanent residents of the passing world of Time and Space. But then thankfully Baba came along from beyond time and space!

In my very early years with Baba while I was in college, I frequently agonized over what I was going to do with my life, and I was nostalgic as well as regretful of many things in my past. One day, Baba asked me inwardly, “How much are you in the present?” I focused within, pondering this deeply at some length and concluded, “Ten percent.” For me back then, the present was mostly just a blur between the past and the future!

Sadly, as adults we lose touch with the expansive, timeless experience of early childhood, except in rare moments. Many think of this period of our lives as just a fantasy that we eventually grew out of. However, Baba is inviting us back into that realm again. How can we remain in the present moment without always going energetically into the past or the future? That is the great challenge for those who are opening up to the inner dimension, the spiritual realm within. How to stay in this moment and still remain practical?

Darwin was a great help to us in this. He introduced the practice of giving things to Baba. In giving our emotions, desires and deeper feelings to Baba in the present, it is possible to stay energetically out of the past and the future. This method was of immense help, which Baba worked on with us. For example, rather than going back and re-living past events, we would focus on the nostalgia or regret we felt about the past and give this energetically to Baba in the present. In this way we would remain in this moment without going energetically into the past. The same is true for the future. We would give our anxiety or hope for the future to Baba in the present, and in this way, we would remain in this moment. We could still make plans or study in preparation for something in the future, but we would stay in the present while doing this. And, rather than going back to the past, we found that the past would come to us in the present when it was relevant to the moment at hand.

We all have experienced someone who is very worried about something in the future, like a root canal that is to happen the next week. It is clear that they are not fully present. We say they’re not quite themselves. Or someone may be sharing the break-up of their marriage, and we witness that in the preoccupation with the past, they have almost left us and the present moment behind.

In withdrawing our energy from the past and future, all that energy can be used to live more and more--like young children do--in the present. Unexpectedly, due to Baba’s grace, we found ourselves moving very, very gradually out of the passing present--which is a part of the past, present and future paradigm--and lifted into the expansive timeless present, which miraculously includes all time and space. In rare moments, we would sometimes find ourselves on the banks of the river of Time watching time flow by. We discovered in brief moments a secret doorway opening into a timeless realm where young children spontaneously play and love and explore with wonder. The timeless expansive present is not a transcendent state or an escape from life, but an entering into Baba’s eternal reality.

Baba has said, “When every moment is rich with eternal significance, there is neither the lingering clinging to the dead past nor a longing expectation for the future but an integral living in the eternal Now.”