“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.” - Alan Watts
We must learn to expand our awareness of the present moment if we wish to live an enriching, soul-nourishing life. In the same way we expand our lungs when we take a full, healthy, deep breath in, we can expand our awareness of the present moment. A slow, deep inhale refreshes our senses, helping us to be more conscious of our internal state of being. So, we expand the present moment in a similar way, by breathing it in deeply, by tuning into its subtle frequencies. We can attune ourselves to the moment by focusing attention on our physical surroundings through color, light, textures or through our very own breathing. Find a way that works best for you, for we each experience and attune to presence in our own unique ways, there is no prescribed path to worship or follow. As we find our way to grow conscious of our experience with the present moment, our perceptions of the past and the future will naturally grow distant, their looming power will fade. The present moment will expand from feeling like a dimly lit alleyway being crushed in by the weight of the past and future and into a luscious meadow of vivid greens and crisp wind as a warm light washes our soul clean. Our preconceived perceptions of the past and future will not intimidatingly peer over our shoulders into our little moment of presence as they once did, for in the meadow of presence nothing but the here and now can be felt. Here, all is limitless, all is infinite, all is love.