The Now Moment

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Be as little children.
The ego encourages us to project our past learning onto the future, ensuring our future will be just like our past. Thus, in satisfying our ego's need to control and predict, we all but eliminate the possibility of experiencing love and happiness in the present moment. However, a new-born child, innocent and free of any past guilt, has no need to control the future. Free of ego control, which operates on past experiences, the child relates to life by concentrating its full attention on living completely in the present moment. In the ego-less mind of the new-born, the present moment is all there is.

Separation leads to disharmony.
When you judge someone else's moment, you automatically separate yourself from them. Through division or separation comes conflict and disharmony.

Live in the moment — die in the moment.
When the future arrives, it will always be now — the eternal now moment. We always imagine we will die "tomorrow," but when we die, we die "today"— in the moment.

Building defenses.
All of us have hurtful memories from our past. In order to protect ourselves from repeating these painful experiences in the future, we build up our defenses. Such defenses usually include mind-sets based on addictive demands on how the world should and should not treat us. In using our fearful past to prepare for a predicted fearful future, we are unable to live happily in the present.
The present is the only time there is, but we constantly think fearful thoughts about the future and expect it to be like the past.

Make the mental shift back to reality.
Our mental habit of rewriting the past and rehearsing what is to come does indeed generate some form of emotional pain. A mental shift back into the present helps remove the source of our misery. It's simply a matter of choice, and the choice is entirely up to you. Think sad or think happy.

The only reality is now.
If we accept the fact that only the present moment is real, then the past cannot hurt us, and will not hurt us unless we choose to make it part of our present.

Access to inner wisdom.
You have to clear your mind of an event to have access to inner wisdom. That's where forgiving and forgetting past actions come into the picture. It's the first step in clearing your mind of addictive demands.

Learning.
Learning to respond to now is all there is to learn, and we are not responding to this moment if we are judging any aspect of it. The ego looks around for something to criticize. This always involves a comparison with the past. But a raised consciousness looks upon the world peacefully and accepts it as it is. The ego searches for shortcomings and weaknesses. Higher consciousness allows one to see how far one has come and not how far he has to go. How simple it is to raise awareness and how exhausting it is to always find fault, for every time we see a fault we think something needs to be done about it.

Focus on now.
If you are focused on where you are going rather than where you are, you may fall into some unseen pothole. We have become so goal orientated that we have forgotten how to enjoy the simple pleasures of the journey. There is an abundance of life, love, joy, pleasure and wholeness in every moment if you are but willing to look.

Negative thoughts.
A negative experience of the past, when recalled, is just a negative thought. It was an experience back then — it's just a thought now. The thought would be no less troubling to you if it came from a dream.

Forgive and forget.
Forgiving and forgetting the past is a very selfish thing to do. This type of selfishness is good for you. By hanging on and not letting go, you are the one suffering from the painful thoughts.

Hanging on.
Some people have the mistaken idea that hanging on to resentments somehow protects them from making the same mistake again. This focuses your attention on the past rather than on the present. It's difficult to move forward if you're always looking backward.

Changing the past.
We cannot physically change the happenings of the past, but we can transmute the pain of the past. If that pain is reflected in today's physical disease (as some suggest), then by changing the emotions connected to the past, you can possibly affect physicality.

Past is thought.
Up until this now moment, your entire past is nothing more than thought. Likewise your entire future as you attempt to perceive it, is also nothing more than thought. Only you can give those thoughts the power to hurt you. Think they can, or think they can't, either way you'll be right.

Abstract concepts.
Life exists only in the present. Future and past are nothing more than abstract concepts of the intellect, and yet they dominate our lives and are the root of almost every emotional disorder or discomfort ever experienced. Concerns for what is past and what is yet to happen, cause more insecurity, anxiety, fear, frustration and tension than any other condition.

Recollections and expectations.
If the past is memory recalled in the now, and the future an expectation experienced in the present now, the entire premise of there being something behind us or in front of us, completely vanishes. The present is no longer boxed in by boundaries, but expands to fill all time.

Why bring the past into the present?
If it is true that only now is real, then the past cannot hurt us, and will not, unless we make it part of our present.

Just like a dream.
The past is no more real than a dream. Once an event is over it becomes a mere memory.

The past only has as much power as you give it through your thoughts.