What does it mean to be “here and now”?
“Stay in the present.”
“Practice mindfulness.”
We hear these phrases often.
But—
what does it actually mean to be in the present moment?
It’s not just “not thinking about the past or future.”
It’s not simply a technique to feel calm.
The present moment is a catalyst for resonance
Here’s how I see it:
The present moment is the single point where resonance can arise in its purest form.
Resonance only happens now.
A breath, a glance, a silence, the weight of your body—
all these vivid textures of being are only accessible in this moment.
Thought becomes background, body becomes foreground
Some try to silence their thoughts in order to reach the present.
But the essence is simpler than that.
To be here now is to be with the body.
Not to stop thought,
but rather to let thought fade into the background
so the body can return to the foreground.
The soles of your feet.
The rhythm of your breath.
Where your gaze is resting.
The sensation of air brushing your skin.
Each of these is a doorway
that leads back to this moment.
Resonance only occurs in the now
When your eyes meet someone else’s,
when music stirs something in you,
when the sky makes you stop in silence—
these are all resonances of the now.
Not past, not future—
but this moment, this breath, this here.
So to be present
is to be in resonance with the world.
The present is a doorway beyond time
As we saw in What Is Time?,
time exists only in the mind.
And the present moment
is the only window that opens beyond time.
To be here now is to move beyond the flow of thought—
to touch being itself.
There, resonance lives.
There, the call is heard.
There, quiet truth begins.
And finally—
To be in the present
is not a technique—
it is a way of being,
as natural as breathing.
If you notice
the texture beneath your feet,
or the stillness of the sky overhead—
Then in that moment,
you’ve already returned
to the here and now.