Eckhart Tolle offers this invitation in each book and lecture: Be here, in the present, where your life is happening. If we are anywhere else we’re missing it. Or we’re spending time in the past or the future, places that are no longer or not yet real. When we’re not present we not only miss what’s happening, we tend to distort what’s happening by using the past or future to warp what’s here, what’s real. What’s real is what is before you – this breath, this moment, this situation, this person.
In this space of Now – the present – there is nothing to fix, no problems to worry about, no wishing that you or someone else or your life were different. In this space you can focus your energy on what’s most important, which is always whatever is right before you, not what is behind or in front of you. In this space there is ease because you can do something about the present- you can take action or not, you can speak or be silent, you can express and connect. The past or future don’t offer this freedom.
To quote Tolstoy, “Remember that there is only one important time and it is Now. The present moment is the only time over which we have control. And the most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you.”