The Now Of Tomorrow (What Is Now? Podcast)

Welcome to the What Is Now experience.

We begin with one minute of silence,

And then explore whatever arises.

So please join us for this one minute of doing nothing.

We begin with one minute of silence.

We begin with one minute of silence.

Anything happen for you in that period of time?

Yeah,

It was again that kind of mind switching back and forth from the now moment and you know then trying to figure out okay,

What are we going to discuss next.

And then I had this kind of realization that the now moment sometimes also is,

You know,

When we have this discussion of,

You know,

What we call what is now.

And we have this discussion in a true sense that is also not kind of happening in the now,

Because what we are discussing usually is what happened in those in that one minute,

You know that we had silence in.

So ideally then we are actually talking about the past,

But not what is happening right now presently in this moment because this moment is just everything is just passing by so,

You know,

In the last second is history.

In this exact moment,

You know,

It's kind of again,

The definition of moment again,

You know becomes different here because then we consider this particular second as this moment but not the last second as this moment but maybe everything is this moment,

You know,

Even what we call last past is this moment.

And I was reading somewhere,

You know that we never experience the present moment as it is we never can in that sense if we define it in terms of like seconds or microseconds,

Because you know that the time it takes there there is a certain time it takes for example,

You're looking at an object.

So,

There will be it will take certain time to reflect that light,

You know the light being reflected from that object and reaching your eyes your retina.

It will take some sex and microseconds there.

So ideally what you're looking at is not exactly that object in that moment.

But how that object was a few microseconds ago.

So,

Ideally we are not actually experiencing the moment but as we look out we are actually looking in the past,

You know,

The way people say that when you look out in the cosmos,

You look at past,

You know,

For example,

The light of the sun reaches to us in eight minutes,

So actually you're looking at the sun,

How it was eight minutes ago.

And similarly,

You know,

You can as soon as you go further and further you can maybe actually go back to the time of Big Bang,

And you can actually see the Big Bang happening,

Because light takes a lot of time to travel.

So,

Similarly,

Even in this,

You know if we talk about small distances even just the idea of me looking,

You know this,

This bottle right now.

So this bottle is not exactly as it is.

But it is,

You know,

Reflecting that light that light is reaching to me in some microseconds.

So I'm looking at the history of this bottle,

Ideally not this bottle,

As it is in this moment.

This was what is going on in my mind.

So it's almost like we're constantly time traveling.

Yeah.

We're taking microtransportations into a past of a few seconds ago,

Or much more than that.

As you're talking I was wondering if,

At the same time,

If your experience of that past event is also a now happening,

Like the way that it's hitting your retina or is being translated in the mind,

And in your perception,

While what it's translating is something separate in time,

Like the translation and the happening of that perception is a present moment occurrence.

That's interesting.

So that means that the perception of it is in the present moment but actually,

What we are seeing is in the past,

The object,

Right.

You know,

There was a very interesting,

Like you mentioned this and something came to me the other day I was listening to Deepak Chopra.

So he was talking about,

Like quantum physics and the fundamental nature of reality and all those things.

So he said,

You know,

Something really interesting,

He said that,

Actually,

If we consider perception,

What perception is,

Then we would realize that everything is in perception actually,

Nothing is in the physical world because,

You know,

For example,

What we call excuse me,

I've cuffed today,

What we call sound is not actually sound,

Like there is,

If we ask this question,

Is there sound in this universe and is there noise in this universe?

You know,

For example,

There is this famous problem that if a rock or a tree falls from a mountain and if there is no consciousness around that to observe that,

Would noise be generated?

So,

Then,

You know,

When,

So I read this in the book,

Biosynchrism by Robert Lanza and then he talked about,

You know,

It is not,

There is actually no sound in the universe,

What is happening is that that falling of the tree is creating some ripples in the air and those ripples are,

You know,

Ripples in vibration and energy and those ripples are reaching our eardrum,

They are vibrating the eardrum and that's when sound is being generated.

Now,

Similarly for,

You know,

Other perceptions,

For example,

Color,

There is no color out there as such,

But only when,

You know,

It comes to our,

When the light reflects to our eyes,

We kind of absorb certain colors and we do not absorb certain colors and the rods and cones of the eyes are involved and then the,

You know,

Chemistry in the brain is evolved and then we perceive color,

But actually out there,

There is no color.

So,

It's only in our perception actually.

Similarly for,

You know,

The sense of touch as well,

If we did not have a brain,

We did not,

We would not feel objects,

You know,

Only because we are having that perception.

So,

Ultimately what he said was this whole reality that we think is a physical reality,

It is just our perception because we are,

We have these five senses to perceive these things.

Maybe if we had more senses,

We would perceive more of the reality,

You know,

We might perceive more aspects of the reality.

So,

This was fascinating and,

You know,

I was in deep thought that yes,

Actually,

You know,

Everything is just a perception.

It is actually,

We cannot really say that something exists out there.

It just made me think of some of those reports of experiencing pure light,

Like near death experiences or maybe some awakening experiences where everything just becomes like this one unity light experience where hypothetically in that situation maybe you're getting to a place where you're just sort of in the undifferentiated,

Closer to just the waves of stuff beneath all of like a sound or a sight or a color or whatever it is,

And maybe you have like a break into that basic substance.

You ever read the book,

The Seat of the Soul?

No.

I don't know how I feel about it yet.

Totally,

But it has some interesting stuff in it.

Who's the author?

Gary Zukav.

This is the book.

Yeah,

I think I've heard about it,

But I haven't.

The Seat of the Soul.

It's just,

It's an interesting one.

He talks about everything being light.

And then there are like lower and higher frequencies of that light,

And on the lower end of frequencies,

Those things turn,

They become things,

It turns into mass objects or maybe like a perception of sound.

And then on the higher end,

It's more of this undifferentiated substance.

He calls it love.

That just made me think of that.

Also,

Hopefully this doesn't diverge too much.

I guess it would be okay if it did.

But what do you think about,

You mentioned Deepak Chopra too,

And I'm just reading this book.

And there's something that I've noticed in my experiences of reading things like this.

So this book is The Seat of the Soul and it's this guy who's basically talking out of what appears to be some deep knowledge and understanding that sounds essentially factual.

It's like,

This is how this is.

The universe is made of light.

And it's their higher,

Lower frequencies and this is the soul and the soul is incarnate here in the school of the earth,

And then it becomes this,

So on and so forth,

Which is valuable stuff to integrate into my own understanding.

But what do you think about when you read something or come across something that is expressed in such a certain way?

If that makes sense,

What's that?

Because I noticed there's some part of me that is like,

How can you say that you know all of this stuff?

And it's all being put into words and you're sort of creating this language for something.

I feel like I get what you're saying,

But at the same time,

It feels so authoritative that there's something that pushes me away a little bit.

What do you think about all that?

No,

It's a very good point.

In fact,

To be very honest,

I was at one point of time,

Very fascinated by this stuff.

Although I did not read this book,

But I have read very similar books.

So,

At one point of time,

Even I could say with certainty,

This is the case,

Because I had some experiences myself,

Because I had some out of body experiences and I would like,

Wow,

That means whatever I have read in the books,

It's true.

But eventually I realized that we cannot define that.

When I delved into an open inquiry of things,

Especially after reading people like Ramana Maharishi,

Nisargadatta Maharaj and all these people who are more of inquirers and also Jiddu Krishnamurthy.

These people are more into that inquiry stuff where it is more an inquiry rather than a statement of that this is the thing.

Because we cannot make that statement because,

Again,

I'm saying this with certainty,

But this is my opinion.

This is my opinion that we cannot make that statement.

We're sort of doomed to having an opinion.

Yeah,

Because reality is changing every moment.

Again,

This might be sounding in uncertainty,

But in my opinion,

That is that reality is changing every moment.

And because it is changing every moment,

Then we cannot really define that this is the case.

Because if we are defining it,

What we are talking about is history.

I experienced that,

You experienced that,

But that might not be true anymore.

Maybe the light you have been talking about,

That everything is light,

Maybe that had been the case some moments ago,

But now that's not the case anymore.

If it is really true that reality changes every moment and if we believe in impermanence.

So any factual statement is actually a statement of history.

It might not hold true in this very moment.

Right.

And it's a,

It's a symbolic statement to like just light.

That's,

It's a word,

And it can't comprise the experience of whatever it is that we might be talking about,

And maybe that's the thing.

And of course this is my perspective so I am doomed to like having a predilection and a bias,

And to say,

Because I'm saying that my way is right,

Of being more tentative,

But even that is holding an opinion.

But,

Yeah,

So when it's,

When certain terms are used within such a,

I get how that can be helpful too,

Because it can help maybe somebody kind of grasp it to say okay this is this and I guess,

From my perspective,

That's the core thing is like,

Nothing is anything.

And,

And maybe that's the only thing to really understand and that's the thing that's so relieving of so much suffering,

Like to just let go of the desire to take something that's fluid and turn it into something solid,

Maybe along the lines of what this author is saying that to let go of the heavy mass of stuff,

Even though that gives us something to hold on to,

And to allow it to become something that's just constantly,

You can never grasp it.

And,

But then that means you can never grasp it.

And I so I realized that I am also pulled towards someone like a Maharshi where,

Or it makes me think of Socrates to like Socratic questioning sort of style of like let's just take these assumptions and break them down to the point where they dissolve and the reality is just revealed through this reduction process.

You can never have it.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Absolutely.

Yeah,

You know,

I would like to give you an example in my life only.

For example,

You know,

The idea of God for me has evolved,

You know,

A lot.

So,

As you know,

You know,

I've been in my earlier years I was practicing religion,

You know,

Very devout Muslim.

And I had this idea of God being this figure in the sky,

You know,

Who is kind of,

Loves me but at the same time also judges me and punishes me.

So,

Angry like kind of a moody God,

You know,

Who is there to like I'm,

I'm very kind of scared of this God because anything can happen you know,

It's like walking on eggshells,

Like,

If I might do something wrong and I might be,

You know,

Kind of doomed to hell then.

But then it evolved into,

You know,

As I started delving out of this religion,

Religious confines,

I,

My idea of God evolved into this idea that,

Okay,

You know,

God is not something there in the sky but God is which is something inside me and around me.

And,

You know,

Everywhere.

Now,

However,

You know,

This idea was very relieving for me.

So,

As you know,

This being factual or this being saying something with certainty gives a sense of relief.

That okay,

You know,

There is this God that is taking care of me,

You know,

And I'm protected and I'm so it's like,

You feel good about it.

You feel protected,

You feel a sense of connection and purpose and all those things.

Like something solid to hold on to.

Yeah,

There is this basically there is this other entity,

You know,

Which is kind of taking care of me.

But however,

I had,

You know,

Another evolution in my experience of God and that evolution was that maybe it is not something other.

You know,

Maybe we create that otherness in God,

Because we kind of have a very human like experience because,

You know,

For example,

If I tell you,

If I tell you that,

Okay,

You are my friend,

You are going to take care of me and if you tell that to me,

I will be very comforted,

You know,

I will be like,

Wow,

There is a person you know,

Who is my friend and who will take care of me and all those things.

And similarly,

We give we give this idea to the idea of God.

Okay,

You know,

God is this another entity,

Maybe even if I'm considering it as an energy,

But still it is in another entity for me that okay,

It will take care of me and it will do it,

It kind of takes that,

You know,

It relieves me of my actions,

Or I can surrender,

I can kind of surrender to this God,

I can have faith in this God.

And you know,

And I will be like,

When I sleep at night,

I will not be scared that,

You know,

Something might happen to me because I know that there is this other entity that is taking care of me.

But my idea then now evolved in this,

This is my current questioning that why am I giving this otherness aspect to God?

You know,

Maybe it is,

Maybe I am God,

You know,

Maybe you are God,

Maybe we are,

We all are in that sense,

But we are just kind of giving it an otherness because we are in,

We are habitual in doing that.

Maybe it is not other as such,

Maybe it is just something which is our own,

Again,

This is just a,

You know,

Kind of my idea,

It is not something which is factual,

But maybe it is something that is a part of me that I haven't explored yet,

What people call the unconscious mind or the spirit or you know,

All these names.

It just made me think of this,

This kind of stuff for me is like the closest,

Closest experience to now,

I think,

Is having visions pop up as you are interacting with someone or doing anything and then just kind of following that.

And then of course then it becomes a past experience,

But it feels very fresh and it is not something contrived,

It is like of just a few moments ago and it did occur in the moment.

And then it becomes a now based process of unraveling,

What is that,

Because that image just pops up in a moment and it is there and then it can become a continually now based process of trying to unfold like what does this vision mean to me,

Because I don't have all the meaning yet,

But there is just something that happens.

So,

When you were talking about this,

Like the notion of otherness versus maybe me being God,

For example,

I had the vision of an umbrella,

And there being a storm.

And initially,

It,

Like it feeling really good to be separate from the umbrella,

Because the umbrella is the thing that's absorbing the rain and the weather and the harshness and I'm covered,

Comfortable under here.

So then,

But then if I was to see the umbrella as an extension of me and like my nerves went up through the pole and into the material at the top,

Then I would be the one feeling all that,

And that might be a really powerful thing but it would also mean that there's no other layer on top,

Protecting me I'm just exposed to the elements.

Yeah.

Yeah,

So good example,

Good analogy.

Yeah.

Yeah,

Basically your hand itself becoming the umbrella,

You know,

Kind of expanding just here.

Right.

Yeah.

Did I mentioned before that quote from Eckhart Tolle or Tolle,

Another person who writes very authoritatively.

Yeah.

But I also enjoy and I'm enjoying this book too,

But I just noticed these different parts of my experience.

And this aversion that I noticed that I have when I experienced someone talking about things so authoritatively.

But he said,

I might have said this before but that God is being itself not a being,

Which is just a little way of putting it that I really like.

It's really yes it's I think it's what we're talking about.

Yeah.

Nice,

Nice.

You know,

When you were talking about this,

You know,

Again I had this notion of now that what really is the now,

You know,

We keep talking about.

Okay,

You know,

Let's be present and let's be mindful and let's be in this moment.

But the question is how do we define this moment like do we define it in terms of seconds,

Or do we define it in terms of hours,

Maybe,

You know,

Or this is one so like I'm kind of asking your thoughts about this.

So,

First of all,

What is exactly a moment,

You know,

How do we define right.

Secondly,

Am I being mindful.

Or am I being in the moment if I'm thinking about something.

Or,

You know,

Observing,

Let's say,

What you thought you said was that okay I was just a few moments ago you said that I had certain visuals in my mind.

Now to have that visuals in my mind you know someone might say okay then you are not in the moment,

Because you are thinking.

Is that but maybe that having visuals in the mind is also kind of being in the moment,

Because we are maybe judging having visuals in the mind and that's why you know we want to not have those thoughts in our mind.

Yeah.

I was just thinking maybe,

Maybe there's some distinction of intentionally doing so versus just receiving something like,

Because there's a certain daydreaming or seeing something visual where it's,

You know,

Thinking of something kind of mundane or a sensation or imagining something about later today or whatever it might be,

Where it's just like it's more of my thinking mind is at play and sort of constructing things versus,

Where did this image of an umbrella come from,

I certainly didn't intentionally go through and create this image but it just popped up in association with what you're talking about,

Which feels like it's,

It's much more of a present experience.

Now,

Maybe it would turn into thinking if,

As you're speaking.

And then I kept nodding and listening and was,

And then I kept thinking about the umbrella.

And then,

Like,

Oh,

That's interesting and then I go on and like connected to other things where it becomes more part of my,

My narrative Charles story.

I wonder if,

If when I just catch it kind of early enough and just experience it,

Or then,

As I did express it to you out loud,

It kind of stays closer to something that's happening now.

But maybe even now isn't right.

Because like you said it's still in,

It's sort of a reference.

Yeah,

Maybe there's some continuum of nowness where they were like,

Kind of further away from now or getting closer in proximity to it,

But maybe,

Maybe like,

Like God or something it's something that we can never have,

But we can kind of be in the midst of it or feel like we're closer to this stuff.

I've also thought of,

I'm not sure if I read this somewhere or had the thought of it,

Just the notion of moments like lowercase moments versus the moment.

Moments being like particles and the moment being like wave,

You know,

Like a wavelength.

And as you're speaking towards the very beginning I was thinking of that but visually,

Like little like blips of light were moments,

There's here's like a moment that happened.

And now I'm in a reference point relative to that moment from the quote unquote past,

But the capital M moment,

As,

As you were speaking earlier,

And this has come back to me several times while we're talking was more of like this moving light wave,

Like a laser,

Where the point where we're at here is actually no different from,

From that point there,

Because they're not distinct vertical points it's more just this,

This constant thing like we're in movement,

Even if we're just sitting here,

And we're riding this wave that has no distinction between where we are right now and where we were,

Quote unquote 10 minutes ago.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Fascinating,

You know,

I think you have described it perfectly where you're talking about the small kind of quanta of moments or packets of moments,

Small m,

And then capital M,

M moment.

This small m moment is kind of defined by us you know okay this one second is one quanta so that's one moment,

But then this capital M moment which is like a flow flowing river,

You know,

It's like all it encompasses all moments,

My question then arises.

Can we call something that happened.

10 years ago maybe this moment.

Because we have defined the moment,

Basically because you know as per this time and clock.

For us,

This particular second,

This particular microsecond is kind of the moment,

You know the small m moment.

But what if we expand that time,

What if we,

You know if we don't define it in terms of one second we maybe we say,

You know,

Let's take this past 10 years,

Or you know these 10 years as one moment.

Would our experience of that change,

That's my question.

You know,

Is it possible again,

Some this is something far fetched but again,

Is it possible that when we stop talking about something that happened 10 years ago as past,

Can it become as real in my experience as this particular small m moment is.

Are you getting what I'm saying.

I think so,

My,

My gut response to you when you asked the question about 10 years ago.

It.

To me it.

I do feel that it's the same moment.

I can kind of relate it to in the experience of what you could call meditation.

Hmm.

Or really anytime where you drop into something that feels like just a very basic consciousness it's sort of behind thought behind.

It's,

To me it's something outside of time.

And that basic awareness,

It just strikes me as that it has been the same.

It's always the same.

The me.

When I was 10 is the same awareness as me now I have much more story associated with it so many more layers of the mind,

The mind,

And certain biases,

Although I now try to develop a practice of continually letting go of those biases to continually return back to something like basic awareness,

But that basic awareness feels to me like it's exactly the same.

What do you think.

Yeah,

Yeah,

I think I totally relate with that.

I had this once this experience when in meditation where I entered this kind of altered state of consciousness.

And I think I was connected to that.

You know what you're saying calling the pure awareness,

Which is kind of timeless,

You know,

And what was happening for me in that moment was I could not segregate between what was future and what was past.

You know,

It was as if the past was happening now in the future,

You know was happening later and something like this mixed kind of an experience it was like as if,

You know,

I'm,

You know,

If you look at a movie deal.

Then,

You know,

Which plays in the cinema.

Then you see that the movie is not actually a continuous movie but it is a collection of pictures.

Right.

So,

This collection of pictures.

I can look at,

Rather than seeing this movie in a linear way from past to future.

I can actually in this movie deal which is a collection of pictures.

I can look at the future first and I can then look at the past it is basically collection of these moments,

You know,

Which is not continuous in that sense.

And this experience was of being this timeless being,

You know,

This deep awareness of mine which can actually also access the past and live it the same way that we live the present moment experience.

Yeah,

I had a similar experience.

I just was thinking of your cough.

Like,

Like you said,

We can't say anything that isn't in some way a reference to the past,

If it's based in words I mean I could make a sound.

That's like kind of saying something that's now.

But it's nonsensical.

So for me to like translate something into words,

It's inevitably a reference to something in the past,

But then I was thinking of your cough is like,

It's like a pure,

I've thought of this in terms of burps and farts and things like,

Although maybe those can you can sort of make happen more a cough is maybe even a better example because you're also maybe trying to not have it happen it's just it's like making its way through to the surface.

It's just thinking of that as like a form of expression of now,

Or a sneeze or,

Or tears or laughter that's genuine.

These are all maybe much more pure expressions of now.

Yeah,

The feelings,

Would you say the feelings?

Like feelings being more in the now than the thoughts.

Yeah.

Yeah,

And I think,

You know,

The,

The other part of my question is that,

You know what I was saying that what to include in,

You know this,

And you were mentioning about this visual visuals,

You know that you saw,

And something came to my mind is that maybe,

You know,

We cannot judge that okay if I'm thinking then you know it is something wrong or it is something,

Maybe you know,

Not being mindful or not being present,

Because part as such is also part of our present moment experience.

And you know,

Any visual or anything like that.

But maybe the point of being mindful,

Or being present is to kind of observe that thought with awareness and consciousness,

Rather than not being conscious about it.

Maybe that can be a more of a present experience for do you.

It reminds me of something you said one time that I've stolen and say frequently,

Which is,

And maybe you got it from somewhere else I'm not sure but you told me in one of our first meetings I think you had a sort of a visual of two hands together.

And this is like the your awareness and the thinking mind sort of are one they're kind of entangled.

And then there's this past,

And for someone who's listening I'm just holding my hands,

Like almost in a prayer position where they're right together.

And then there's this possibility of sort of dropping back where one of the hands moves back away from the other hand,

And moves into something that where I can just view and observe the stuff that's happening in the first hand the thinking mind.

So you could just call it the observing mind and the thinking mind or the witness or whatever it might be,

Where,

So maybe we you what you're saying is that we can have these experiences that are perceived as not here now.

Thinking,

Planning,

Imagining,

Remembering fantasizing.

Yeah.

And at the same time they can be a present moment experience,

If I also can develop access to this thing that can just sort of constantly,

I can constantly drop back into it and become aware of those at the same time.

You told me that one time didn't you.

Yeah,

We had that discussion.

Yeah,

Yeah.

So,

You know,

It's interesting for me you know,

To,

To understand is that how do we define this kind of art,

Maybe not define it but to have an understanding of,

We keep talking about now.

The question itself that what is now itself you know what is this word now,

In that sense and how do we kind of understand it.

What would you say to that,

What is this word now for you,

What you know what comes to your mind.

But you know what is your experience of it or what do you think it can it be defined cannot be defined in terms of time,

In terms of any other factor.

Yeah,

My first thought is that it is something that can't be properly defined in words.

But the way I,

The first thing I think of in terms of describing it is returning to the body,

Or to what I've heard referred to as the inner body,

Like this,

You know this notion of my kind of outer self that I'm very familiar with or,

You know,

Someone could hit my hand and I feel that.

But something different about feeling inside my hand or inside my chest or stomach.

Something about this area feels to me like my connection point to now.

And that's my best way of describing it,

But if I ever noticed myself,

Moving into what I would describe as not now,

Or maybe self conscious thinking,

Or whatever it might be,

My strategy of returning to presence is to come back to what feels like the inner body.

So the breath is an example of portal to that,

Where is this thing that's happening I can easily sort of pay attention to it.

But then,

For me it's more of just feeling all of my inner energy that is buzzing and is moving.

And that maybe makes up my most pure now experience.

If that makes sense.

But what about,

You know,

I can totally relate to what you said.

But the question that's arising in my mind is what about external phenomena like,

Is it that we kind of judge that in the sense that can we not be mindful when we are actually observing external phenomena.

Like that's the question,

Because I think why this question is coming to my mind is because I remember some of the people have asked me this question,

And my might have answered it differently than but,

You know,

Again,

This is coming as a question in my mind also that when we talk about to become mindful of so to become mindful of what you know so some people for example struggle with the idea of pure awareness.

And I was having this discussion I was in a meditation retreat recently and I was having this discussion with someone,

And they said that I just can't sit in pure awareness I just can't do that I need some guidance to what to focus on in every moment.

So,

You know,

For example,

If I'm just sitting in pure awareness.

Then I'm like kind of confused where to focus you know what to be aware of.

But when I'm being guided that okay now bring your awareness to your body or now you know,

Maybe become aware of your external surroundings,

Then I can kind of do it.

So,

Is it that,

You know,

We when we the question comes is again that what to become aware of to experience the now or to be mindful in that sense.

Yeah,

That's a good question.

It doesn't seem to me that just as you're saying it that perceiving something apparently separate is any different than my inner experience.

Because it is still my,

It is still in me.

Yeah,

There's looking across the room it's like some of these pictures on the wall and I have a sense that they're over there but in this now experience they're here,

They're.

Yeah,

What we were talking about basically it's in your perception actually that you're not being out there but in your perception.

I like to,

I like the experiment of just stopping and viewing my visual phenomena as like a 2d painting,

Letting go of a sense of distance,

And just feeling at all as if it was a flat surface like the painter created this perception of distance,

But it's actually just the screen in front of me with all of it.

And I'm just being aware.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

I'm just experiencing that.

It's like,

Like kind of growing a map,

Like the way you,

You know,

Take a 3d globe of the world,

And then you put it on a 2d map something like that.

Interesting.

Yeah.

That's a good exercise actually.

To,

To,

You know,

Kind of take your surroundings,

Your perception of it and kind of trying to put it on a two dimensional surface,

How would that look like.

Great.

So I think for me,

You know from today's session what I take is this contemplation which you know we have discussed to some extent but again I think this is something I would love to explore more the idea of now and maybe you know,

For the listeners who are listening to this podcast.

Maybe,

You know,

You if you want you can maybe contemplate on this what is now for you,

How what would you call now and what is does this word now mean to you.

I think this is what is,

You know,

I would love to contemplate on.

Yeah,

Yeah,

What do you think of finishing here with just a couple minutes of sitting with that right now.

And I could,

I could guide with just some basic guidance through.

I would love that.

Yeah.

Or I'll see whatever comes up to just sort of become aware right now of what now is kind of maybe giving yourself some.

I don't know what the word would be but just acknowledging that you can't probably ever actually define what it is but just seeing what happens when you try to.

So yeah,

Maybe do that for just a couple minutes here.

Sure.

Yeah,

Looking forward to it.

So,

If you want you could adjust yourself into.

It's funny to,

You know,

As if this is something different from what we were doing a moment ago.

Like we're changing into something different but maybe let's also become aware of the capital M moment that's no different from any other part of this time together or maybe any other time ever.

And could just become aware of that.

And if you want to you could close your eyes here but you could also keep them open.

You might notice whatever habitual thoughts are on your mind or wherever your mind goes.

And you could feel yourself moving back behind the screen of those thoughts and drop into something that is just aware without words,

Going back to the point before you had language.

Feeling into the awareness that has been the same since then and maybe through all of quote unquote time,

Just feeling your awareness.

Now you might just sit for a moment with the word.

Now,

I'm saying it in English,

I don't know what it might be in several other languages.

But just sit with the word now and get a sense of what you feel.

What is now.

How do you feel now.

And is this now any different from the now of 30 minutes ago.

Or from the now of dinner time yesterday.

Or from the now of whatever might be the biggest thing you're doing tomorrow.

What is it that connects all of these different things together.

And maybe one final piece here.

See whatever association you have in your mind with the word now don't try to make it happen,

But just see whatever comes up so this could be another word or it could be a visual.

If something comes to you,

Wait for it for a moment.

When you think of now.

And if your eyes were closed you could gently open them back up.

And you can do whatever you want to do in this moment.

Anything you notice there.

Yeah,

Thank you so much.

It was wonderful.

What I noticed was that I could easily go back in time and consider my past experiences as now.

But I was having a bit of challenge when it comes to the future.

Because as soon as I was kind of moving into the future.

And trying to embrace it as the now.

Or observe it as the now.

The question was that is the question that came to my mind then is the future fixed.

You know which means that if I can actually maybe,

You know,

And as some people are clairvoyant or,

You know,

They can have that premonition of the future.

Does it mean that is it fixed or is it like a field of possibilities and probabilities where anything can happen,

You know.

But as I'm moving in my vision to the future.

Maybe I'm seeing one possibility taking place but there are many other possibilities.

So this dilemma came to me in the meditation that how can I include my future if I don't know or,

You know,

If the future is uncertain basically.

Or is it really uncertain or is it fixed.

You know then all those thoughts of free will come in.

That if the future is fixed then do we really have free will or something like that.

So all those thoughts came up.

Yeah,

Interesting.

Zero speaking,

I had thought of,

Even if it was fixed.

I guess that would be fine.

It was just maybe it brought me the visual of a big storybook,

And like my book is written,

But I can't look forward.

I'm just reading it.

I could view it either as a book where I don't like it.

Or I don't want to read it.

Or I resist what's in it,

Or I wish I wish I had a different book,

Or maybe based on my approach to the book.

It could be the coolest book ever is this really interesting never ending.

It ends at some point well maybe it does or doesn't.

But story that is just every day it's just unfolding I'm like well what's going to be on the next page.

Even though maybe if it was fixed.

There's still maybe this constant sort of just revelation of whatever it is.

Yeah.

Yeah,

That's interesting.

You know someone,

I was listening to this debate between,

I think it was I'm not sure but I think it was Deepak Chopra and Richard Dawkins maybe I'm not sure.

Deepak Chopra was there but I don't know who was the other person.

I don't know why I'm mentioning a lot of Deepak Chopra today.

Maybe it was Richard Dawkins or either it was Sam Harris I'm not sure.

But this debate you know he said something very interesting.

So this debate and it was a very interesting debate.

I'll try where is you know to find it where it is.

But they were talking about this idea of free will.

And so basically the other person said that you know,

Though there is no free will you know we don't have a free will and then everything is fixed.

Because ultimately we are kind of living in a Newtonian universe and we can predict using mathematical models where the future will be going.

So he said you know Deepak said something really interesting.

He said that if it is fixed and if you don't have a free will actually to change your future or to make that conscious decision on doing something else.

If you don't have a free will then what you are saying is doesn't hold any value because what you are saying is just is not from your free will.

Right.

So it is not valid anymore because you're not saying it from your free will.

That was a very interesting point actually.

Yeah that's funny.

Great.

Thank you so much.

It was a wonderful meditation experience and I think you should you know we can do it more often rather than in the previous ones I guided a lot but I would love to also see you.

Yeah sure.

With all these meditations.

Sounds good.

Well it was nice being back with you here after a little break.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I look forward to the next time.

Same here.

Take care.

Thank you for joining us in the what is now experience.

We hope that you liked the episode.

If there were any insights or ideas arising for you as you were listening to our conversation.

Then you can share those ideas through your comments.

We would love to know.

Stay tuned for the next episode.

Namaste.