Attending to the Here and Now

　　by Ajahn Sumedho

　　A Dhamma talk given at the Spirit Rock retreat on July 3rd, 2005

　　October 12, 2005

　　Bring your attention to this moment, here and now.Whatever you”re feeling physically or emotionally, whatever its quality, this is the way it is. And this knowing of the way it is is consciousness; it”s how we experience the now. Be aware of this.When we”re fully conscious, aware of here and now with no attachment, then we”re not trying to solve our problems, remembering the past, or planning for the future. And if we are doing these things, then we stop and recognize what we”re doing. Nonattachment means that we”re not creating anything more in our minds; we”re just aware. This is reflecting on the way it is.

　　When we”re thinking, planning, dreading, anticipating, hoping, expecting something in the future, this is all taking place in the here and now, isn”t it

　　 These are mental states we”re creating in the present. What is the future

　　 What is the past

　　 There”s only now, this present moment. We may then wonder, What is it that knows

　　 We always want to define the subject. Is that the real me

　　 Is that my true self

　　 This subjectivity and questioning and wanting to find some identity is also a creation in the now. If we trust in the silence, there”s nobody. We can”t find anybody in the sound of silence. The whole problem ceases.

　　How much substance does any memory have in the present

　　 Does it have any permanent essence

　　 Is somebody you remember really a person

　　 Think of your mother right now. Even if your mother passed away many years ago, you can still think of “mother” and perceptions, memories come up.Where is your mother right now as you”re sitting thinking about her

　　 She”s a perception in the mind. Knowing that memory and perception are created in the present is not a criticism or negation; it”s simply putting thoughts into a context of what they really are.

　　How much substance

　　does any memory have

　　in the present

　　We often live in a realm of time and self and believe it totally, lost in our own creations. But in seeing the Dhamma, we”re finding a way out of this trap of the mind. Our society totally believes in these delusions, so we can”t expect much help from society. For instance, we love history, don”t we

　　 “You know, Buddha was actually a living human being. It”s a historical fact.” That makes it real to us, because we have all the confidence in history. But what is history

　　 It”s memory. If we read different histories about the same period, they sound very different. I studied British colonial history in India. An account written by a British historian is very different than one written by an Indian historian. Is one of them lying

　　 No, they”re probably honorable scholars, both of them, but they each see and remember in different ways. Memory”s like that.

　　So when you explore memory, just observe that memories come and go; and when they”re gone consciousness is what remains. Consciousness is now. This the path, here and now, the way it is. Use what is happening now as the path rather than going along with the idea that you are somebody from the past who needs to practice to get rid of all your defilements in order to become enlightened in the future. That is just a self you create and believe in.

　　We suffer a lot, feeling guilty about memories of the past.We remember things we”ve said or done, or shouldn”t have done, and feel terrible. Or we hope everything will go well in the future and then worry about whether everything will go wrong.Well, things could go all wrong, or they could go all right. Or partially right and partially wrong. Anything can happen in the future. That”s why we worry, isn”t it

　　 We like to go to fortune tellers because we think the future may be very frightening for…

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