Do you not notice by now that you cannot not be in the Now? When you try to be in the Now as a spiritual practice you are doing something redundant that is already done realtime at all time in your space of experience. This may be a shocker to those who are in the mindful journey yet that is what one needs to review in his or her practice – be in the Now.
A friend shared with me that her purpose of coming into meditation is to train herself to be in the Now. I looked at her, surprised, and for a moment paused and asked her a question, “are you really sure you want to be in the Now?” She replied a brief yes. I asked her further whether is she aware that when she is experiencing upset, that emotion is her “now” experience and that is what she has always wanted to get out from instead of “be in the Now”? I also casually poked her that when her Now is bestowed with good fortune, there is a part of her that is looking out away from the Now, expecting that the experience can last a little longer? Now, each of these situations, has always been presented to her, unconditionally, yet she is not able to receive it unconditionally, except to miss out what is already there.
Even that is also not true as when she is not present to what is already here, she has no choice but to be in the “now” experience of wanting to get away or desiring something imaginative of the future. Both too are Now to her though they both seemingly fall under categories of “past” or “future”. Again, do you not notice, you can never “escape” the Now? So what’s the point of “Be in the Now”?
My wise teacher used to remind me that there is no power in the Now, subtly referring to a book title “The Power of Now”; for Now has always been and will always be the myriads of experiences that plague human existence. To him the Now can be occupied by ignorance or wisdom, ego or Holy Spirit. It is in the Wisdom or Holy Spirit that true power is found, not Now. Only through much discernment and realisation years later did I notice what he was trying to point me to – to develop wisdom through non-interference of mind states so as to recognise the existence of ego and how it tricks one into the trap of delusion.
If “Be in the Now” is only for that purpose than that phrase is well-justified. More accurately, this specific journey of realizing the ego would need a more comprehensive name, like say, Ego Exposed!, The Ending of Ego, Wisdom versus Ego, The Overcoming of Ego, etc., rather than the ambiguous Be in the Now. Otherwise, bringing your mind to what you are doing in your daily life, as the statement indicates, is unnecessary, as you are already always in the Now, else you wouldn’t have experienced it!