Let’s put a microscope on this concept of here and now and its significance in the practice of meditation. Here and now generally refers to the present time and place. We can only focus on the present when the mind is still. The mind is mostly directed to the future or the past; so it is the mind that is in the way of being aware of the present now. When the mind is quiet, there is no evidence of time, and is just an imaginary concept for convenience. Imaginary time and space arise when the mind is occupied by interest in the possible future or the remembered past. This is optional. Concepts such as samadhi and nirvana refer to becoming the impartial witness focusing awareness on the stillness of the present here and now. This is not easy but can be cultivated through practices of sustained focus on the breath or the mantra.
Is it really true that time and space are imaginary? What does science say about this? Physics is one field where we might get a definitive answer. Recently it was announced by a group of physicists that time and space are illusory. There are two kinds of stuff in physics: variables and constants. Time is variable by velocity. The faster you go, the slower time passes; near the speed of light, time slows way down. Space is variable by gravity. Space curves in the presence of a high gravity object. Speed of light and gravity are constants. The physicists conclude that if time and space vary, then the very standards by which they vary also vary. Essentially, constants are real and variables are illusory.
There is a similar concept in Vedanta philosophy: There are two kinds of stuff in the world, the changing (variable) and the unchanging (constant). Nature is the changing, and is, therefore, not real. Consciousness is unchanging, thus is real.
It would bring needed clarity to consider nature as changing (not unreal), and consciousness as the unchanging. The point here is to make it easier to lose interest in the changing and to refocus our attention to the unchanging. As we make our way into the stillness we turn inward to the unchanging consciousness.
Why do we even want this in the first place? When the mind is empty (shunya), then we awaken to the fullness of the emptiness. In all our life, in everything we do, all we really want is to be happy. When the mind has lost interest in the suffering, when our worldly desires have been silenced, when consciousness is self-aware in the stillness; this is when we are happy. Only the mind suffers. No mind, no suffering. Just behind the mind is the watcher of the mind. When we become the watcher of the changing, then we are free. Be happy. Be here now.
~Dennis Hill
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