Living in the Moment is perhaps one of the hardest behaviors to acquire on one's spiritual journey. But at some point, you realize that this moment (whoosh- there it went!!!) is all I have! I do not have the future- it isn't here yet. I do not have the past; it's done and gone and is just a memory....

All we have is an never-ending stream of NOW.

Once you grasp this, your whole perspective changes. You find out quickly what is a waste of time, for example- worry? If you worry to the exclusion of everything, then you are wasting THIS moment, and a surprising number of moments-yet-to-come.

All of a sudden, (this happened to me yesterday) your granddaughter is plopped in your lap, and she wants your attention and love and you drop everything, and start to notice how precious this moment is, how fast she is growing, how easily she laughs, how beautiful all children are....She and I spent ten minutes looking at an old brooch I had in my jewelry box. It is two kitties, black, with rhinestone eyes. Lily loved it. She made the kitties dance, and eat, and I kissed the kitties, and she kissed the kitties...in other words, we lived in the moment, and when she went to bed, i realized that we had made a precious memory together.

What if I had just given her something to do, and gone on with on what I was doing when she came to see me? The moments would have been lost forever.

Now is where all of life "is at"!!! It is all you really have to work with. Do your best at making "now" count, and you will find that the past is wonderful, and the future will take care of itself.

New Year's Blessings to you all, Jai

P.S. Great Question!!!

The present moment is the only moment we can live in and when we spend time looking at the past or to the future we are actually failing to live be cause life only ever happens 'Now'. Past and future are merely thought forms, we can only remember about the past 'Now' and when the future arrives it is always 'Now'. When we say yes to the 'Now' moment we are saying yes to life and our actions take on a new power, and even the most menial chores become infused with a sense of contentedness or fulfillment.

For me, when I can get my busy mind to slow down and live in the moment there is a sense of peace and a realization that all the things I tend to worry about really don't matter.It is much easier said than done at times but as Jaianniah pointed out when we take the time to slow down and appreciate the present moment we actually create some of the most precious moments of our lives.

One of the benefits of living in the present moment is an improved ability to concentrate. Your thoughts do not waver from subject to subject, you do not think about past mistakes nor you have worries about future. Therefore your thoughts, your will focuses entirely on your goals and you are more effective. This is the exstension of meditation. Being able to concentrate on a single thought/idea/geometrical shape is the prerequisite to enter a no-mind state. Meditation will not be effective if your life does not reflect it. If you lead a life that puts your mind in chaos, and sit to meditate even 2-3 hours a day, a real success will not derive from your practices.

Imagine the idea of sitting in prison for 10 days. When you think about the future from the beginning, how boring it will be etc., it is really not-pleasing perspective. Instead, when you live entirely in the present, you do not really care what will happen tommorow. This somehow reduces the sentence to 1 day (metaphorically speaking).

Living in the moment is a Biblical idea: "redeeming the time because the days are evil." But also, so is looking forward, planning, forseeing the future and learning from the past.

Recently I was thinking about this and came up with a concise thought that has been an encouragement to me. It involves all perspectives of past and future played out in the present. Hope it is encouraging to you as well:

"Live in the present so fully that when it becomes the past you will not miss it and when you see the future you will not need it to come sooner."

I think we need to be saturated with God's Word so that He will continually give us the wisdom day by day to know how He wants us to live. It's definitely a journey! Enjoy.