You are experiencing the "Now" the moment you stop thinking and doing and start BEING.

The basic definition of now is this present moment.

From a physiological perspective, I would say that now is the duration of your working memory (anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes).

From a cognitive perspective, now is whatever you are focusing on at this moment. So your now is different from everyone else's now (although it might occupy the same time period, as measured by an accurate watch). This should come as no surprise to a reality-creationist, whose reality they are continuously creating moment-by-moment.

From a spiritual perspective, the present moment is all you have, so dwelling on the past or thinking about the future takes you out of the present moment, because you have to focus on your memories of your past or your thoughts about the future, and that occupies your now.

From God's perspective, time has no meaning; it is all the same eternal now.

I eagerly anticipate Traveller's answer but will Give my own 2 cents worth for now.

From all I have read in spiritual texts the 'Now' moment cannot be grasped by the thinking, analytical mind but rather it is experiential. AS Vesuvius pointed out,dwelling on the past or pondering the future takes us out of the present moment which is the 'Now'. The past and future are merely concepts of the mind whereas the 'Now' just is. When we try to grasp it as a concept we can't because the moment is gone - in order to get it we have to 'Be' in the moment fully - liberated from the thinking mind.I think when we are in touch with the "Now' we are viewing the world from the essence of our being while our mind is in the background, instead of the other way around where our mind is in the foreground,obscuring our true essence ( the state in which most of us live).

When we are enraptured by a beautiful sunset or like an athlete - completely in the zone -then I think we experience the "Now" - I think it is the ability to do this that defines a good athlete from a mediocre one. The 'Now' moment is the only one we ever have and thus our power is right 'Now'.

(This is a copy of my answer to another question, "How important is it to live in the present moment".)

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 doing 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.

Blessings to you all, Jai

P.S. Great Question!!!

Thanks for a great question and all the amazing answers. I think we got it covered...

I'll just add that knowing about the now and understanding it intellectually is great, but consciously experiencing it helps us gain an even deeper knowing of it...

Nature helps me the most. At times when I notice I'm actually in the now, I'm normally observing nature. To me, being in the now means seeing things without the pre-conceived image of whatever it is, that's stored in my brain, along with its mental label.

If you are present and look at nature in the morning you can actually see it all vibrating. Again, we know this, intellectually and scientifically, to be true, but seeing it in real time is something else.

If you look at a plant in the morning, you notice that it grew overnight, so there was movement. Observing the same plant while being in the now enables you to actually see it growing now...

Be Happy Now 8-)

Where we are and what we are doing is NOW. Being fully present in each moment is experiencing Now. Our mind is like a prison that keeps us from experiencing Now, and thoughts of the past and future are the bars that keep us there. I am reading Eckhart Tolle's The Power Of Now. I am just starting it, but so far, it is helping to put to words and practice ideas I have discovered on my own.

When I was going to college, sometimes my mind would wander from the teacher in the Now to what I would make for dinner to what ingredients I need and what store to go to on the way home, future projections, etc... This was not good, I was there to hear what the teacher had to say, so I started counting tiles in the ceiling to keep myself in the room. What I didn't realize, was that this still was not being fully present, but it is the beginning of realizing. Also while reading, my mind would drift away, and I would find myself rereading and rereading the same section in the textbook over and over until I could get focused on what it was saying. This is not experiencing the now, it is imprisonment of the mind. When I would read a book to my son, I could read the book, the words from the pages came out of my mouth, but I had no idea what I just read because my mind was somewhere else, not engaged in the now moment.

When we exercise, we have been taught, conditioned to distract ourselves with tv, magazines, etc... things that take us out of our body and somewhere else, not present in the Now. While exercising for rehabilitation from injuries, I noticed how much more effective and less painful my workouts were if I focused on the muscles being worked or stretched. I called it a mind body connection.

I noticed that while I was eating my food, I would think how good it was and how I couldn't wait to have more, future projections. So I decided to slow down and enjoy my food and not have seconds, experience Now. I lost weight.

When someone is talking to us Now, and we are thinking about what we are going to say, future projections, then we don't hear what the other person is saying. We are not experiencing the Now moment, but dwelling in our mind behind the prison bars of future projections.

When we worry about the future, we create stress hormones in our bodies Now. When we think about past hurts, we create stress hormones in our bodies Now.

So, Now is where we are and what we are doing. Experience Now is being free from the mental prison of past and future.

         What is Now?

Now is my divine self all wrapped into one.

Now is everything, leaving out nothing.

Now is forever, on the best day of my life.

Now is pieces of the tapestry sown together to make one piece.

Now follows you every where you go, and never looks back.

Now is the genius in your brain that never missed a though out right.

Now is the precise time of the day that nothing else matters.

Now is a challenge to the self, but not far away from you.

Now takes precedence, when nothing else will do.

Now is a reminder, as to what I need to do next.

Now takes you on the highs and low of life.

Now is the time, tomorrow is too late.

Now I have to turn off the TV, to get some sleep.

Now the Alarm Clock is going off, and I just fell asleep.

Now I am tired, and cannot continue to write about Now.

Now is Now, and Now, and Now, and Now, and Now!!!

now is LIVING, before is past, later is future. same concept also applies to time: past, present, future. as i stated previoulsy, all things that are essential in life and unique come in 3, such as the trinity. that is why god must be triune for evryhting that is essential and unique comes in 3. i also used h20 as an example: water, ice, steam. shalma

Hello Stingray, the "now" for me is being conscious at every moment as we go about our daily lives ... it is acting immediately on the moment, as the saying goes "he who hesitates is lost", hesitation is indecision, doubt, skeptical ... when we are confident, have faith and are full of desire we become unbeatable, this is the principle message in Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" ... conscious thinking leads to creative thinking or to coin the words of that great french philosopher René Descartes "I think Therefore I Am" ... a green frog :)